Report Title:

Primary Election Party Identification; Constitutional Amendment

Description:

Proposes constitutional amendment to article II, section 4, of the Constitution of the State of Hawaii to require every voter in primary elections to identify the party ballot they cast.

THE SENATE

S.B. NO.

2483

TWENTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2004

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

Proposing an amendment to article II, section 4, of the Hawaii state constitution to REQUIRE primary election VOTERS TO identify the party ballots they cast.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. For partisan races in primary elections, voters choose a political party and select its best candidates, who then compete in the general election. Hawaii's primary election system allows the voters who select each party's winning candidates to remain anonymous.

The legislature believes that voters should continue to freely participate in any party's primary election, and accept more accountability for the candidates they select by publicly acknowledging the party's ballot they cast.

The purpose of this Act is to propose an amendment to article II, section 4, of the Constitution of the State of Hawaii to require every voter in a primary election to identify the party ballot they cast.

SECTION 2. Article II, section 4, of the Constitution of the State of Hawaii is amended to read as follows:

"REGISTRATION; VOTING

Section 4. The legislature shall provide for the registration of voters and for absentee voting and shall prescribe the method of voting at all elections[.], including a requirement that every voter in a primary election shall identify the party ballot they cast. Secrecy of voting shall be preserved[; provided that no person shall be required to declare a party preference or nonpartisanship as a condition of voting in any primary or special primary election. Secrecy of voting and choice of political party affiliation or nonpartisanship shall be preserved]."

SECTION 3. The question to be printed on the ballot shall be as follows:

"Shall every voter in a primary election identify the party ballot they cast?"

SECTION 4. Constitutional material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New constitutional material is underscored.

SECTION 5. This amendment shall take effect upon

compliance with article XVII, section 3, of the Constitution of the State of Hawaii.

INTRODUCED BY:

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