Report Title:
Elections; Campaigns; Election Ballots
Description:
Clarifies that an elected public official becomes a candidate for another office upon resigning and after filing nomination papers; limits candidate's use of personal funds to $25,000; limits family loans to a candidate to $25,000; requires electronic filing of reports and provides one-time incentive of $1,000 to file electronically; requires separate ballots for each party; requires mail-in ballots for special elections; requires ballot recount; prohibits holding office upon conviction rather than sentencing.
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THE SENATE |
S.B. NO. |
3086 |
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TWENTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2002 |
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STATE OF HAWAII |
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A BILL FOR AN ACT
RELATING TO ELECTIONS.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:
SECTION 1. Chapter 11, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding two new sections to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:
"§11- Special elections. All special elections shall be conducted solely by mail.
§11- Elected public officer's candidacy for another office. For the purpose of section 7 of article II, of the Hawaii Constitution, requiring an elected public officer to resign from public office to be eligible as a candidate for another public office, an elected public officer shall be deemed to be eligible as a candidate for another public office upon the filing of nomination papers under section 12-6; provided that the elected public officer shall resign upon the filing the nomination paper."
SECTION 2. Chapter 12, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new section to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:
"§12- Recount of votes cast for close contests. (a) Notwithstanding any law to the contrary, if, within three days after any election it appears to the chief election officer that the plurality of an elected candidate for an office over the vote for a defeated candidate receiving the next highest number of votes was less than a vote equivalent to one-half of one per cent of the total number of votes cast for the office, excluding spoiled, over or under counts, and blank ballots, the chief election officer shall order a manual recount of votes for that contest, to be conducted within fifteen working days. Before the recount is made, the chief election officer shall give notice in writing to the two leading candidates in that contest of the time and place where that recount is to be made. The two leading candidates in that contest may send two representatives each to be present at that recount. At the completion of the recount, the chief election officer shall announce the officer’s findings within twenty-four hours. The chief election officer may adopt rules under chapter 91 to implement this section in a fair, uniform, and impartial manner.
For purposes of this section, "total number of votes cast" means, in the case of multiple openings for the same office, the total number of electors checked as having voted in the State, district, or political subdivision, as the case may be.
(b) Nothing in this section shall preclude the right to judicial proceedings under this chapter."
SECTION 3. Section 11-195, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsection (f) to read as follows:
"(f) For purposes of this subpart, whenever a report is required to be filed with the commission, "filed" means received in the office of the commission or county clerk, whichever is applicable, by the date and time specified for the filing of the report; except that a candidate or the committee of a candidate who is seeking election to the office of:
(1) Governor;
(2) Lieutenant governor;
(3) Mayor;
(4) Prosecuting attorney; or
(5) County council;
shall file by electronic means in the manner prescribed by the commission. Candidates for the offices named in this subsection with contributions or expenditures of less than $5,000 need not file by electronic means. Any candidate for a state legislative office shall be entitled to a one-time incentive payment of $1,000 from the Hawaii election campaign fund to file electronically for that particular office."
SECTION 4. Section 11-204, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended as follows:
"1. By amending subsections (a) to (c) to read:
"(a) (1) No person or any other entity shall make contributions to:
(A) A candidate seeking nomination or election to a two-year office or to the candidate's committee in an aggregate amount greater than [$2,000] $ during an election period;
(B) A candidate seeking nomination or election to a four-year statewide office or to the candidate's committee in an aggregate amount greater than [$6,000] $ during an election period; and
(C) A candidate seeking nomination or election to a four-year nonstatewide office or to the candidate's committee in an aggregate amount greater than [$4,000] $ during an election period.
These limits shall not apply to a loan made to a candidate by a financial institution in the ordinary course of business.
(2) For purposes of this section, the length of term of an office shall be the usual length of term of the office as unaffected by reapportionment, a special election to fill a vacancy, or any other factor causing the term of the office the candidate is seeking to be less than the usual length of term of that office.
(b) No person or any other entity shall make contributions to a noncandidate committee, in an aggregate amount greater than [$1,000] $ in an election; except that in the case of a corporation or company using funds from its own treasury, there shall be no limit on contributions or expenditures to the corporation or company noncandidate committee.
(c) A candidate's immediate family, including the candidate, in making contributions to the candidate's campaign, shall be exempt from the above limitation, but shall be limited in the aggregate to [$50,000] $25,000 in any election period. The aggregate amount of [$50,000] $25,000 shall include any loans made for campaign purposes to the candidate from the candidate's immediate family."
2. By amending subsections (f) and (g) to read as follows:
"(f) All payments made by a person or political party whose contributions or expenditure activity is financed, maintained, or controlled by any [corporation, labor organization,] association, political party, or any other person or committee, including any parent, subsidiary, branch, division, department, [or local unit of the corporation, labor organization,] association, political party, political committees established and maintained by a national political party, or any other person, or by any group of those persons shall be considered to be made by a single person or political party.
(g) [A contribution made by two or more corporations shall be treated as one person when such corporations:
(1) Share the majority of members of their boards of directors;
(2) Share two or more corporate officers;
(3) Are owned or controlled by the same majority shareholder or shareholders; or
(4) Are in a parent-subsidiary relationship.] No contribution shall be allowed by any corporation or any labor organization."
3. By amending subsection (k) to read:
"(k) No person or any other entity other than political committees established and maintained by a national political party shall make contributions to a political party in an aggregate amount greater than [$25,000] $ in any two-year election period. No political committee established and maintained by a national political party, shall make contributions to a political party in an aggregate amount greater than [$50,000] $ in any two-year election period."
SECTION 5. Section 11-215, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsection (a) to read as follows:
"(a) All advertisements shall contain the name and address of the candidate, committee, [party,] or person paying for the advertisement. If an advertisement is not authorized by a candidate or a candidate's committee, the advertisement shall contain the name and address of the person paying for the advertisement. No advertising shall be made by a party for any one candidate for any one specific race."
SECTION 6. Section 11-217, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:
"§11-217 Hawaii election campaign fund; creation. The Hawaii election campaign fund is created as a trust fund within the state treasury. The fund shall consist of all moneys collected from persons who have designated a portion of their income tax liability to the fund as provided in section 235-102.5, any general fund revenues appropriated, as well as all other moneys collected pursuant to this subpart. Payment to each candidate from the fund shall be by the comptroller in the manner prescribed in section 11-222. Moneys from this fund [may]:
(1) May also be used for the operating expenses of the commission, including staff salaries and fringe benefits[.]; and
(2) Shall be used for purposes of incentive payments under section 11-195(f)."
SECTION 7. Section 12-21, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:
"§12-21 Official party ballots. The primary or special primary ballot shall be clearly designated as such. The names of the candidates of each party qualifying under section 11-61 or 11-62 and of nonpartisan candidates [may] shall be printed on separate ballots[, or on a single ballot]. The name of each party and the nonpartisan designation shall be distinctly printed and sufficiently separate from each other. The names of all candidates shall be printed on the ballot as provided in section 11-115. When the names of all candidates of the same party for the same office exceed the maximum number of voting positions on a single side of a ballot card, the excess names may be arranged and listed on both sides of the ballot card and additional ballot cards if necessary. [When separate ballots for each party are not used, the order in which parties appear on the ballot, including nonpartisan, shall be determined by lot.]
The chief election officer or the county clerk, in the case of county elections, shall approve printed samples or proofs of the respective party ballots as to uniformity of size, weight, shape, and thickness prior to final printing of the official ballots."
SECTION 8. Section 831-2, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsections (b) to read as follows:
"(b) [A] Notwithstanding subsection (a), a public office held at the time of [sentence] conviction is forfeited as of the date of the [sentence] conviction if the [sentence] conviction is in this State, or, if the [sentence] conviction is in another state or in a federal court, as of the date a certification of the [sentence] conviction from the [sentencing] court is filed in the office of the lieutenant governor who shall receive and file it as a public document. An appeal or other proceeding taken to set aside or otherwise nullify the conviction or sentence does not affect the application of this section, but if the conviction is reversed the defendant shall be restored to any public office forfeited under this chapter from the time of the reversal and shall be entitled to the emoluments thereof from the time of the forfeiture."
SECTION 9. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.
SECTION 10. This Act shall take effect on November 6, 2002.
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INTRODUCED BY: |
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