House Committee on Economic Revitalization, Business, & Military Affairs (EBM) - chair: McKelvey, vice chair: Choy

Tuesday, January 26, 2010, 8:30 P.M. Conference Room 312

Testifier: Jean Aoki, LWV of Hawaii

Click here to view HB2185

Chair McKelvey, Vice Chair Choy, members of Committee on EBM, The League of Women Voters of Hawaii strongly supports HB2185, which would lengthen the time between the primary and the general elections. For several years, The League of Women Voters of Hawaii has been advocating moving the Primary Election date to sometime in August because the 45 days now provided between elections is too short a time even under normal circumstances, but if there are any errors that need undoing or if there are recounts necessary because of challenges to the vote count for any district, etc., what should be a period of calm and deliberate preparation for the General Election to eliminate any errors, could become a hectic period which would invite errors. The requirements of the amended Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act make the August date for the primary election necessary. This should have been in force years ago. However, for the 2010 elections, will the Elections Office be ready for an accelerated schedule considering all of the problems they are facing. There was talk of maybe needing a waiver from this act just for this year's election. We would support whatever the Elections Office finds absolutely necessary as long as every attempt is made to send the ballots overseas as soon as is possible and every attempt is made to accommodate the counting of those ballots. Thank you for this opportunity to testify in support of HB 2185.