HI HR122

Requests the Office of Elections to convene a working group to study eliminating primary elections and implementing ranked-choice voting for general and special elections in Hawaii.

Working group members would include the Chief Election Officer (chair), Attorney General, one House member, one Senate member, political party representatives, and public members with election administration expertise.

Hawaii's 2024 primary election had only 32.3% voter turnout (271,345 of 839,618 registered voters) compared to 60.7% in the general election, and primary elections cost taxpayers more than $5,000,000 to administer.

Working group tasks include conducting fiscal analysis comparing current election costs to ranked-choice voting implementation, assessing legal and constitutional considerations, and evaluating voter education requirements.

Report with findings and proposed legislation due 20 days before the 2027 Regular Session; working group sunsets June 30, 2027.