Report Title:

Electronic voting; Paper ballot requirement

Description:

Requires the generation of a paper ballot for the use of electronic voting systems. Authorizes reliance on electronic voting system vote tallies under certain conditions. Makes it election fraud to tamper with an electronic voting system to cause an inaccurate tally.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

966

TWENTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2005

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

relating to electronic voting.

 

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

SECTION 1. Section 16-42, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

"§16-42 Electronic voting requirements. (a) When used at primary or special primary elections, the automatic tabulating equipment of the electronic voting system shall count only votes for the candidates of one party, or nonpartisans. In all elections, the equipment shall reject all votes for an office when the number of votes therefor exceeds the number [which] that the voter is entitled to cast. No electronic voting system shall be used in any election unless it generates a paper ballot that may be inspected and corrected by the voter before the vote is cast, and every such paper ballot is retained as the definitive record of the vote cast.

(b) The chief election officer may rely on electronic tallies created directly by electronic voting systems in lieu of counting the paper ballots by hand or with a mechanical tabulation system; provided that:

(1) The electronic voting system shall be subject to public inspection, audit, and experimental testing before the election;

(2) No alterations of any sort, including upgrades, patches, or fixes, shall be applied to the electronic voting system after the public inspection, audit, and experimental testing, until at least sixty days after the election;

(3) After the election and before certification of the vote, the chief election officer shall conduct an audit of a random sample of not less than ten per cent of the precincts employing the electronic voting system to verify that the electronic tallies created by the system in such precincts equal hand tallies of the paper ballots generated by the system in such precincts; and

(4) Should discrepancies appear in the audits under paragraph (3), the chief election officer shall conduct an expanded audit to determine the extent of the discrepancy in the electronic voting system.

(c) The chief election officer shall adopt rules pursuant to chapter 91 to implement this section."

SECTION 2. Section 19-3, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

"§19-3 Election frauds. The following persons shall be deemed guilty of an election fraud:

(1) Every person who, directly or indirectly, personally or through another, gives, procures, or lends, or agrees or offers to give, procure, or lend, or who endeavors to procure, any money or office or place of employment or valuable consideration to or for any elector, or to or for any person for an elector, or to or for any person in order to induce any elector to vote or refrain from voting, or to vote or refrain from voting for any particular person or party, or who does any such act on account of any person having voted or refrained from voting for any particular person at any election;

(2) Every person who advances or pays, or causes to be paid, any money to, or to the use of, any other person, with the intent that the money, or any part thereof, shall be expended in bribery at any election, or for any purpose connected with or incidental to any election; or who knowingly pays or causes to be paid any money to any person in the discharge or repayment of any money wholly or partly expended in bribery at any election, or for any purpose connected with or incidental to any election;

(3) Every elector who, before, during or after any election, directly or indirectly, personally or through another, receives, agrees, or contracts for any money, gift, loan, or valuable consideration, office, place, or employment for oneself or any other person for voting or agreeing to vote, or for refraining to vote or agreeing to refrain from voting, or for voting or refraining to vote for any particular person or party;

(4) Every person who, directly or indirectly, personally or through another, makes use of, or threatens to make use of, any force, violence, or restraint; or inflicts or threatens to inflict any injury, damage, or loss in any manner, or in any way practices intimidation upon or against any person in order to induce or compel the person to vote or refrain from voting, or to vote or refrain from voting for any particular person or party, at any election, or on account of the person having voted or refrained from voting, or voted or refrained from voting for any particular person or party; or who by abduction, distress, or any device or contrivance impedes, prevents, or otherwise interferes with the free exercise of the elective franchise;

(5) Every person who, at any election, votes or attempts to vote in the name of any other person, living or dead, or in some fictitious name, or who, having once voted, votes or attempts to vote again, or knowingly gives or attempts to give more than one ballot for the same office at one time of voting;

(6) Every person who, before or during an election, knowingly publishes a false statement of the withdrawal of any candidate at the election;

(7) Every person who induces or procures any person to withdraw from being a candidate at an election in consideration of any payment or gift or valuable consideration; or of any threat; and every candidate who withdraws from being a candidate in pursuance of such inducement or procurement;

(8) Every public officer by law required to do or perform any act or thing with reference to any of the provisions in any law concerning elections who wilfully fails, neglects, or refuses to do or perform the same, or who is guilty of any wilful violation of any of the provisions thereof; [and]

(9) Any person wilfully tampering or attempting to tamper with, disarrange, deface, or impair in any manner whatsoever, or destroy any voting machine while the same is in use at any election, or who, after the machine is locked in order to preserve the registration or record of any election made by the same, tampers or attempts to tamper with any voting machine[.]; and

(10) Any person who, directly or indirectly, personally or through another, wilfully designs, alters, accesses, or programs any electronic voting system to cause the system to inaccurately record, tally, or report votes cast through it."

SECTION 3. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:

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