Lawmakers are aiming to increase voter turnout through a bill that would allow residents to register to vote on Election Day.
"I would like to make it as easy as possible for people to vote, and that’s why I wanted to move it forward," said Rep. Karl Rhoads (D, Chinatown-Iwilei-Kalihi), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, which approved the bill Tuesday.
At present, prospective voters must submit registration papers 30 days before Election Day in order to cast ballots.
House Bill 321 would leave in place the 30-day cutoff for administrative purposes but allow walk-in voters to register on Election Day at polling places if they present valid identification and other documents.
Opening registration to walk-ins would likely increase turnout, which is dismally low, the League of Women Voters of Hawaii testified at a hearing Thursday.
"Our voter turnout was — and there was a lot of publicity about this — the lowest in the country at 44.5 percent in the 2012 general election," Janet Mason, vice president of the league, told the committee. "But I wanted to mention that among people who were registered to vote, the turnout was much higher; it was about 62 percent."
Mason said that allowing Election Day registration could increase overall turnout by nearly 6 percent and turnout among 18- to 25-year-olds by about 9 percent, according to a study conducted by Demos, a national research and policy organization.
Mason said eight states allow Election Day registration, and two others will soon allow it.
All four county clerk offices submitted written testimony stating concerns about the bill and how the change would affect their workload.
The Maui County Clerk’s office estimated it would be required to recruit, train and pay roughly 40 more volunteers to implement the measure, yet the bill includes no appropriation of state or county money. The county also suggested that each voting site should be electronically linked to a real-time statewide registration system to help prevent fraud.
Scott Nago, state chief election officer, said the bill includes the same safeguards that are in effect under current law, such as the right of registered voters to challenge another voter’s registration.
Nago told committee members he is aware of the counties’ concerns but that his office supports the measure because of the effect it could have on participation.
"Our job is to get people to vote, so we’re not going to oppose this," he said. "I know it’s going to be more of a workload for them, but I don’t think that’s something they can’t handle."
Rhoads agreed. "It’s one of those situations where, yeah, it’s cheaper not to make it easy for people. But it is a core function of democracy to vote, and I think we need to do everything we can to be sure everybody participates," he said.
The bill now heads to a vote before the full House. If approved, it will be sent to the Senate for consideration.
