What's Next for the ATVHI Election Integrity Bills?
We Need Your Help to Get These Bills a Committee Hearing
Last September the ATVHI Legislative Action Group presented the Hawai’i Republican Caucus with their Election Integrity bill package. Of the seven bills, five were sponsored as stand alone bills and one was incorporated into another bill.
This is huge-especially since the House members this year were only allowed to submit ten bills each.
Mahalo nui to Representatives Matsumoto, Garcia, Alcos, Pierick, and Ward for their commitment to election integrity and for listening to the people.
There is still a lot of work to be done, and ATVHI needs your help.
Here is the first hurdle-the bills will die in the legislature unless they are given committee hearings. Once they get hearings we will need to submit testimony, that will be another way you can help. We will need as many people as possible to submit testimony.
So how does this work, and how can you help?
Committee Chairs decide which bills to cherry pick for a hearing. If bills are not given hearings before the first lateral filing deadline, they are considered “dead”, and all that hard work of bill writing and sponsoring was for nothing. Same thing if they make it through one committee but fail to be heard in the second, and sometimes third, committee.
All the ATVHI EI bills have been assigned to two committees; the House Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs (JHA) and the House Committee on Finance (FIN).
The bills need to be heard in the JHA committee first and THEN heard in FIN to survive the legislative session; only bills that make it through all their assigned committees have a chance to become law.
Bills that have considerable public interest are more likely to be assigned a hearing. This is where you can help.
As a Hawai’i constituent , please see it as your kuleana to contact the JHA Committee Chair, David Tarnas, 808-586-8510 or email reptarnas@capitol.hawaii.gov and respectfully request that he give these bills a hearing.
Here is the script you can use, or feel free to use your own words.
Type “Bill Hearings Requests for HB1750, 1751, 1752, 1753, and 1754” in the subject line. Be sure to fill in the blank for your House District and add your name at the end:
Aloha Chair Tarnas,
I am a resident of House District ____.
Thank you for your continued advocacy for your constituents and for the people of Hawai’i.
I write to ask that you support hearing the following bills in the Judiciary Committee:
HB1750-Prohibit Ranked Choice Voting in Our Elections
HB1751-Requires Election Information to be Publicly Available
HB1752-Require Official Observers to be Present for Ballot Signature Verification
HB1753-Relating to Mandatory Recount of Votes
HB1754-Relating to Election Ballots for Audits
These important measures would increase the security and transparency of our elections, and guarantee plurality voting and “one person, one vote” by abolishing Ranked Choice Voting, which has been shown to adversely impact minority voters (HB1750).
Again, I strongly support House bills 1750, 1751, 1752, 1753, and 1754, and would appreciate it if the bills are heard in committee and considered for the next step in the bill process.
Thank you for considering my request. I look forward to your response.
Respectfully,
_____________________________
If you live in Chair Tarnas’ District 8 on the Big Island, we especially need your help, as requests from his own constituents may carry more weight. Please include “HD8 Constituent” in the email subject line if you are one of his constituents.
If you need to find your House District enter your address here: https://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/fyl/
If you have not done so please make an Capitol account to follow bills and submit testimony.
Please encourage as many people as possible to contact Chair Tarnas, as well as their own representatives, Republican or Democrat, to get these bills heard.
Election integrity is not and should not be a partisan issue.
We can shift the tide if we work together and get active and involved.
Mahalo,
Audit the Vote Hawai’i
Thanks for all your help!