Senate Committee on Judiciary and Government Operations (JGO) - chair: Taniguchi, vice chair: Takamine

Wednesday, February 11, 2009, 9:00 A.M. Conference Room 016

Testifier: JoAnn Maruoka, LWV of Hawaii Legislative Team Member

Click here to view SB534

Chair Taniguchi, Vice Chair Takamine, and members, The League of Women Voters supports SB 534. The bill addresses concerns of contested elections in the event of late filing or withdrawals by candidates for contests, by revising the process to a more graduated one. The amendments and additions of this bill to Section 12-6, Hawaii Revised Statutes include earlier deadlines to file nomination papers, and provisions to cover withdrawals of nomination papers before the filing deadline that result in uncontested races, as well as allowing filing extensions to help overcome the situations of no candidates or uncontested elections. These changes appear to be reasonable and sound. Importantly, they should help to avoid future problems such as were experienced in the 2008 elections. We urge you to pass SB 534. Thank you for this opportunity to testify.