A Bill for an Act Making An Appropriation For Increasing Stipends For Volunteer Precinct Officials

Senate Committee on Ways and Means (WAM) - chair: Taniguchi, vice chair: Tsutsui

Monday, April 3, 2006, 10:00 a.m. Conference Room 211

Testifier: Jean Aoki, Legislative Chair, LWV of Hawaii

Click here to view HB2540, HD 2

The League of Women Voters fully supports H.B. 2540, H.D.2. We believe that a raise in stipends is long overdue considering the erosion of the value of a dollar due to inflation and the long hours they work on both election days and in training. The Elections office cannot guarantee a safe and successful elections process unless it can attract competent precinct officials. Precinct workers are led by 350 or so precinct chairs who are wholly responsible for the conducting of the election for the precinct's voters, and for the safe delivery of all election documents to the central counting center. The Elections Office does not have the staff to actively oversee the work being done in the precinct polling places. These chairs also need to train workers to take their places at some point. The recruitment of new workers have not kept pace with those who are no longer available, and the Elections Office faces Election Day with many polling places with insufficient workers due to no-shows on top of being short-staffed to begin with. We believe that a raise in the stipends is one way to encourage more voters to volunteer to work at the polling sites. Fair and well-run elections are fundamental to our democratic form of government. We cannot afford to neglect nurturing this important process. We urge the passage of H.B.2540, H.D.2 with a healthy raise in stipends. Thank you for this opportunity to support this important bill.