Senate Committee on Judiciary and Labor (JDL) - chair: Hee, vice chair: Kokubun

Friday, April 20, 2007,

Testifier: Jean Aoki, Legislative Chair, LWV-Hawaii

Click here to view HB1133 HD1

The Honorable Cynthia Thielen House Conference Committee on HB 1133, HD1, SD2 State Capitol, Room 443 415 South Beretania Street Honolulu, Hawaii 96813 April 20, 2007 Dear Representative Thielen, We are writing you in regard to H.B. No. 1133, A Bill for an Act Relating to Election Day Registration. Election Day Registration, also referred to as Same Day Registration in past bills, has been considered by the Hawaii State Legislature for quite a few years without success. I won't cite all of the evidence of this practice meeting much success in other states which have allowed it for quite a few years in increasing voter turnout for you have received abundant testimony on this in the hearings you and other committees in both houses have held. The difference between the House and Senate versions seems to be that while the Senate bill requires proof of identity plus proof of residence, the House bill requires proof of residence only. The Senate bill also accepts a valid military identification card as an acceptable proof of identify. While the League of Women Voters nationally objects to picture identification documents as proof of identity before voting since we view this as an obstacle to voting for large segments of our population---the newly naturalized citizens and the very poor who have no driver's license nor passports for example---, for the purpose of instituting this very special procedure that allows registration on Election Day, the Hawaii LWV would accept the requirement of proof of identity. This would help dispel the objections to Election Day Registration because of the fear of fraud. Representative Thielen, we do need desperately to increase voter participation in our state. We feel strongly that once citizens who have never voted or have stopped voting go to the polls for some compelling reason that drives them to use this procedure, they may continute voting in the future. We are asking you to consider agreeing to the amendments made in HB 1133, S.D. 2. We would hate to see the bill die from lack of agreement between the two houses. Respectfully yours, Jean Y. Aoki, Chair LWV Legislative Committee