COM 1056.008 2006-2008 - Laserfiche WebLink

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M1VVol. "•Y CASEY JARMAN County Clerk ?joi~HP~ OFFICE OF THE COUNTY CLERK Elections Division County of Hawaii Hawaii County Building 25 Aupuni Street Hilo, Hawaii 96720 TESTIMONY FROM THE COUNTY OF HAWAII ELECTIONS DIVISION RELATING TO BILL 257, DRAFT 2 Our experience over the years with petitions of various kinds, e.g. nomination papers, initiative petitions is not so much with the requirements of law, as it has to do with meeting those requirements by the petitioners. As it relates to initiative petitions, we believe the requirements of law to be clear. As you are aware, the law requires four "bits" of information from the signers of the petition, i.e. 1) printed name, 2) signature, 3) residence address, and 4) date of signing petition. When the signer provides the required information the person is validated a registered voter. If they do not provide the required information, they are not validated as a registered voter. It should be noted that validation of a signer is not based on a single "bit" of the required information, but is determined by the totality of information provided and not merely the information from a single indicator. In other words, the information each indicator provides assists in corroborating the signer's identity as well as the signer's voter registration status. The Elections Division's staff has an established process that it follows when receiving and validating an initiative petition. The petition validation process, while tedious and time- consuming is a straightforward and non-problematic administrative task when all information is provided as required. On the other hand, it can be disappointing to the circulators of the initiative petition when invalid signers are found on the petition. Invalidations arise when petitioners file petitions in which signers have provided wrong information and/or insufficient information. This usually results in an insufficient number of signers to qualify the petition. The insufficient number of signers requires the circulators of the petition to solicit additional signers on the petition usually in a very time limited period. It is our opinion if the County Council feels that the existing law needs to be amended requiring signers to include the last four digits of their social security number and date of birth would provide additional indicators to identify registered voters. Thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony on Bill 257, Draft 2 Hawai'i County is an equal opportunity provider and employer.