STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2623

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 2444

       S.D. 2

 

 

 

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2016

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 2444, S.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 improve the accuracy and integrity of Hawaii's voter registration rolls.

 

     More specifically, this measure requires:

 

     (1)  The Office of Elections to join the Electronic Registration Information Center;

 

     (2)  The State and the counties to use the Electronic Registration Information Center to verify voter rolls; and

 

     (3)  The Department of Transportation and the counties to electronically share databases containing driver's license and civil identification card information with election officials and the statewide voter registration system. 

 

     Your Committee received written comments in support of this measure from the Office of Elections and Common Cause Hawaii.

 

     Your Committee received written comments in opposition to this measure from the Office of the County Clerk, County of Kauai.

 

     Your Committee finds that the Electronic Registration Information Center uses the voter registration rolls of member states and other databases to compare voting lists to enhance

voter registration accuracy.  Members of the Electronic Registration Information Center receive reports that identify voters who have moved out of their state, passed away, and those who may be eligible to vote but are not yet registered.  Your Committee further finds that Hawaii's voter registration rolls may be inaccurate due to the large population of persons who reside in Hawaii on a part-time basis.  Accordingly, your Committee finds that modernizing Hawaii's system of verifying voter registration data may ensure the integrity of Hawaii's voter registration rolls.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by providing for the codification, in Chapter 11, Hawaii Revised Statutes, of the requirement that the Department of Transportation and the counties electronically provide their databases that include driver's license and civil identification card information to election officials and the statewide voter registration system.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2444, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2444, S.D. 2.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

 

 

 

________________________________

JILL N. TOKUDA, Chair