STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3020

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 2609

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirtieth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2020

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred S.B. No. 2609 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ELECTIONS,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to include the agent of a candidate among the persons prohibited from providing assistance to a voter at voter service centers and in the use of absentee ballots.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from one individual.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Office of Elections and Common Cause Hawaii.

 

     Your Committee finds that the integrity of state elections is essential to the protection of democracy.  This measure provides an extra safeguard to that integrity by prohibiting the agent of a candidate from providing voting assistance at voter service centers and in the use of absentee ballots.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Defining the agent of a candidate as a person who receives compensation from the candidate, candidate's committee, or is an official officer of the candidate's committee;

 

     (2)  Inserting an effective date of January 1, 2021, to allow the Office of Elections to prepare materials; 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 that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2609, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2609, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary,

 

 

 

________________________________

KARL RHOADS, Chair