HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.C.R. NO.

127

TWENTY-FIFTH LEGISLATURE, 2009

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 

 

 

 

 


HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

 

 

requesting the Chief Election Officer to carry out various tasks to ensure that voting ballots are secured and counted accurately.

 

 

 


     WHEREAS, voting is a fundamental right of any democracy; and

 

     WHEREAS, accurate and secure tabulation of votes during an election is critical to ensuring that citizens continue to have faith in their government; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS) contain provisions to help ensure the accuracy and security of the vote count process; and

 

     WHEREAS, paragraph 16-42(b)(3), HRS, requires a post-election, pre-certification audit of a random sample of not less than ten percent of the precincts using electronic voting systems if the Chief Election Officer (Election Officer) seeks to rely on electronic tabulation of votes; and

 

     WHEREAS, paragraph 16-42(b)(1), HRS, establishes that an electronic voting system shall be subject to inspection, audit, and experimental testing, by qualified observers, before and after the election if the Election Officer seeks to rely on the electronic tabulation of votes; and

 

     WHEREAS, in the 2008 elections, the Election Officer relied on the electronic tabulation of votes but did not conduct the required audits; and

 

     WHEREAS, all electronic voting machines have the ability to print out the results at the close of the polls; and


     WHEREAS, recent and current procurement proposals for election voting equipment and services permit the transmission of voting data from county election counting centers to the state election count center through local area networks and the Internet; and

 

     WHEREAS, mail-in absentee ballots are not subject to the statutorily required manual recount audits, making it more difficult to determine if the ballots have been tampered with; and

 

     WHEREAS, additional measures need to be taken to ensure that mail-in ballots and the transmission of voting data are handled in a secure manner; now, therefore,

 

     BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-fifth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2009, the Senate concurring, that the Election Officer is requested to comply with the requirements of subsection 16-42(b), HRS; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Election Officer is urged to require that hard copy print-outs of the results of each electronic voting machine be made, and that this information is available for inspection before data is transmitted from one machine to another during the process of tabulation; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Election Officer is urged to require that transmission of data over local area networks, telephone lines, or the Internet be done by secure lines, and that all electronic transmissions of election data be substantiated and verified by hard copy tracing; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Election Officer manually audit all precincts to include, at random, a number of absentee mail-in ballots; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Legislative Reference Bureau is requested to submit a report to the Legislature no later than 20 days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2010, on the progress made by the Election Officer toward achieving the requested actions contained in this measure; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Chief Election Officer and the Director of the Legislative Reference Bureau.

 

 

 

 

OFFERED BY:

_____________________________

 

 

Report Title: 

Chief Election Officer; Accurate and Secure Voting