STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3164

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 452

       H.D. 1

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred H.B. No. 452, H.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ELECTION FRAUDS,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to deem any person who knowingly publishes, distributes, or otherwise communicates false information about the time, date, place, or means of voting with the purpose of impeding, preventing, or otherwise interfering with the free exercise of the elective franchise, guilty of an election fraud.

 

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

 

     Although there have been no reported incidences of a person knowingly communicating false information regarding the time, date, place, or means of voting to interfere with voting, your Committee finds that this measure proactively discourages such actions that would undermine the democratic process.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Making conforming amendments to the definition of "advertisements" under section 11-302, Hawaii Revised Statutes, and section 11-391, Hawaii Revised Statutes, to clarify that advertisements shall not contain false information about the time, date, place, or means of voting; and

 

     (2)  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 H.B. No. 452, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 452, H.D. 1, 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,

 

 

 

____________________________

CLAYTON HEE, Chair