STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3304

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: H.B. No. 124

H.D. 1

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2022

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred H.B. No. 124, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ELECTIONS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1) Require the Chief Election Officer to develop and distribute a voter information guide for all candidates running for state office, including candidates running for any trustee position of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs; and

(2) Appropriate funds.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from Common Cause Hawaii, League of Women Voters of Hawaii, and Community Alliance on Prisons. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Budget and Finance and Office of Elections.

Your Committee finds that all states make an effort to inform the electorate about upcoming elections, where and when the elections will be held, and how to cast a vote. Your Committee further finds that some states publish official voter guides. Your Committee believes that an informed electorate is an important component of a healthy democracy, and that the distribution of informational guides prepared by the Office of Elections, an apolitical entity, will help the electorate in making informed voting decisions.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Specifying that the Chief Election Officer shall develop and distribute a voter information guide for all candidates running for federal or state office;

(2) Specifying that the voter information guide shall include a short statement of less than one hundred fifty words for each candidate running for office, to be prepared by the candidate and based on a template or criteria created by the Office of Elections;

(3) Specifying that the Office of Elections shall provide a translation of the voter information guide in Olelo Hawaii;

(4) Removing the appropriation;

(5) Making it effective upon its approval, making it applicable to the 2024 election, and sunsetting it on November 6, 2024; and

(6) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 124, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 124, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary,

________________________________

KARL RHOADS, Chair