STAND. COM. REP. NO. 538

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 442

       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. 442 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PERMANENT ABSENTEE BALLOTS,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

 

     (1)  Establish the forwarding address for receiving absentee ballots permanently as the mailing address in a voter's registration record; and

 

     (2)  Require voters seeking to have permanent absentee ballots forwarded to another address to reapply for an absentee ballot.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Office of Elections; Office of the City Clerk, City and County of Honolulu; Office of the County Clerk, County of Maui; Office of the County Clerk, County of Kauai; Office of the County Clerk, County of Hawaii; and League of Women Voters of Hawaii.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from one individual.

 

     Your Committee finds that a permanent absentee voter is required to maintain current information in two separate records:  a voter registration record and a permanent absentee record.  Permanent absentee ballots are mailed to the mailing address on the permanent absentee record.  However, some permanent absentee voters update their voter registration record, but not their permanent absentee record.  As a result, the absentee ballots are returned to the respective county clerk's office as undeliverable by the United States Postal Service.  This measure will increase efficiency by automatically updating the permanent absentee record when the voter registration record is updated.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Adopting the language suggested by the Office of the City Clerk that inserts a conforming amendment to the requirements for the voter registration affidavit to clarify that the mailing address required to be included in the residence information be within the county of the applicant;

 

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

 

     (3)  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 and Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 442, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 442, 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