STAND. COM. REP. NO.  602

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2015

RE:   H.B. No. 15

      H.D. 1

Honorable Joseph M. Souki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred H.B. No. 15 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ELECTIONS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to create a state-wide standard timeframe for the distribution of absentee voting ballots.

The Office of the City Clerk of the City and County of Honolulu, The League of Women Voters of Hawaii, and a concerned individual testified in support of this measure.  The Office of the County Clerk of the County of Maui provided comments.

     Your Committee has amended this measure to allow more time to process the absentee ballots for mailing by specifying that the absentee ballot may be mailed no earlier than thirty, rather than twenty-one, days before the election.

     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 H.B. No. 15, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 15, H.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