A bill proposed by Hawaii’s state legislature that could prevent former President Donald Trump’s name from appearing on the 2024 presidential ballot passed the state senate’s Judiciary Committee Tuesday.
According to Hawaii News Now, the state senate’s Judiciary Committee voted 3-2 to send the proposed legislation to the full state senate. If approved, the bill would provide a way for the state to disqualify Trump from the Hawaii ballot over allegations that the former president caused an insurrection over the 2020 presidential election.
While multiple other states have attempted to block the former president from appearing on the ballot over his alleged actions in the Capitol Hill protest on January 6, 2021, Hawaii’s law does not currently include a legal process to disqualify candidates from appearing on the ballot, according to Hawaii News Now.
Senate Bill 2392, introduced by Democratic State Senator Karl Rhoads, would allow Hawaii’s chief elections officer to disqualify candidates from the ballot. The bill “specifies that election ballots issued by the chief election officer or county clerk shall exclude any candidate who is disqualified by a constitutional or statutory provision.”
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Hawaii’s proposed legislation also establishes a process for “challenging an inclusion or exclusion of a candidate from a ballot.”
“Electors of presidential and vice presidential candidates shall not be individuals who are disqualified by a constitutional or statutory provision,” the bill states. “Prohibits electors from voting for any presidential or vice presidential nominee who has been disqualified pursuant to Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.”
Hawaii News Now reported that the legislation received only 20 favorable testimonies and 300 official complaints against it. One of the complaints was brought by Hawaii Federation of Republican Women President Jamie Detwiler, who described the legislation as “tyrannical, to say the least.”
“He has not been convicted nor has he been charged with insurrection,” Detwiler stated. “There is no evidence of committing insurrection so please don’t waste our time on this poorly written piece of legislation.”
