Bill Text: HI HCR175 | 2014 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: Office of Elections; Funding to Reestablish Polling Places

Spectrum: Bipartisan Bill

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2014-03-12 - Referred to FIN, referral sheet 33 [HCR175 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2014-HCR175-Introduced.html

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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.C.R. NO.	175
TWENTY-SEVENTH LEGISLATURE, 2014
STATE OF HAWAII

HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

 

REQUESTING THE Office of elections to seek funding to REestablish POLLING PLACES THAT CLOSED IN 2010 AND 2012.

 

 

 

     WHEREAS, voter participation is the foundation of an effective democracy; and

 

     WHEREAS, Hawaii's voter turnout percentage has significantly declined since statehood in 1959, when voter turnout stood at ninety-four percent of registered voters; and

 

     WHEREAS, Hawaii currently ranks fifty-first of the fifty states and the District of Columbia in the percentage of registered voters who turn out to vote; and

 

     WHEREAS, voter turnout in Hawaii stood at forty-three percent in the 2010 primary election and fifty-six percent in the 2010 general election; and

 

     WHEREAS, voter turnout in Hawaii stood at forty-two percent in the 2012 primary election and sixty-two percent in the 2012 general election; and

 

     WHEREAS, the current measurement of voter turnout is an overestimation because it does not account for potential voters; and

 

     WHEREAS, Act 100, Session Laws of Hawaii 2012, closed polling locations with fewer than five hundred voters; and

 

     WHEREAS, the reduction of polling places decreases access to ballots for voters; and

 

     WHEREAS, ninety-seven polling places closed in 2010 due to budget shortages, and more polling places closed in 2012; and

 

     WHEREAS, the reduction of polling places targets and disproportionally affects voters living in rural areas and neighbor island districts; and

     WHEREAS, diminishing voter participation rates signifies that fewer people are involved in the selection of elected officials, which threatens to undermine the intent of a representative form of government; now, therefore,

 

     BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-seventh Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2014, the Senate concurring, that the Office of Elections is requested to seek funding to reestablish polling places previously removed or provide reasonable alternative polling locations to districts in which such removal has occurred, and the Governor is requested to give his full support to this cause; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Office of Elections is further requested to disseminate information about the reestablishment or formation of polling places to registered voters affected; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Office of Elections is further requested to examine differences in district voter registration and casting to evaluate the effectiveness of the increase and dissemination of additional polling places on encouraging voter participation, and submit a report of its efforts and findings no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2015; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Governor, the Senate President, the House Speaker, the Chief Elections Officer, and the County Clerks for the City and County of Honolulu, Maui County, Hawaii County, and Kauai County.

 

 

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

Report Title:

Office of Elections; Funding to Reestablish Polling Places