STAND. COM. REP. NO. 598

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 440

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred S.B. No. 440 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO VACANCIES,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to amend the procedures for nominating and electing a United States senator to complete an unexpired term when a vacancy occurs to comply with the Uniform Military and Overseas Voters Act.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Office of Elections.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of the Attorney General.

 

     Your Committee finds that existing law provides that when a vacancy occurs in the Office of United States Senator, the vacancy is required to be filled for the unexpired term at the following state general election, provided that the vacancy occurs no later than the sixtieth day prior to the primary election.  However, if a vacancy occurs on or after the sixtieth day prior to a primary election, the printing of ballots containing the names of the candidates cannot be completed for a statewide contest prior to the forty-five day deadline for overseas and military voters in accordance with state and federal law.  This measure amends the date of the vacancy to no later than the fifteenth working day prior to the closing date for the filing of nomination papers for the primary election, which is 4:30 p.m. on the first Tuesday of June, to comply with the deadline for mailing the overseas and military ballots.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Adopting the language suggested by the Department of the Attorney General to change the language from the fifteenth working day to the twenty-first day prior to the closing date for the filing of nomination papers for the primary election; and

 

     (2)  Inserting an effective date of January 7, 2059, to encourage further discussion.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 440, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 440, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

 

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

 

 

 

________________________________

GILBERT S.C. KEITH-AGARAN, Chair