STAND. COM. REP. NO. 408

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 441

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 441 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATED TO ABSENTEE VOTING,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to allow the county clerk to electronically transmit absentee ballots if mailed absentee ballots are not received by the voter within five days of an election.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the State Office of Elections and the Maui Office of the County Clerk.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from the League of Women Voters.

 

     Your Committee finds that under existing law, voters covered by the State's Uniform Military and Overseas Voters Act are permitted to receive blank delivery by facsimile, electronic mail, or internet delivery if offered by the voter's jurisdiction.  However, for voters that are not covered by this law, there are no other available options if there is insufficient time to receive a new ballot by mail or if it is impracticable to pick up the ballot from the county clerk's office.  Prior to the enactment of this existing law, all voters were authorized to be forwarded a ballot by facsimile transmission if they did not receive a ballot in the mail within five days of an election.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 441 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Labor.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs,

 

 

 

____________________________

WILL ESPERO, Chair