Bill Text: HI HR102 | 2016 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: US Territories and Commonwealths; Right to Vote for President and Vice President

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2016-03-29 - Report adopted; referred to the committee(s) on FIN with Representative(s) Ward voting aye with reservations; Representative(s) McDermott voting no (1) and Representative(s) Har, Ing, Kong, Luke, Saiki, Thielen, Tokioka excused (7). [HR102 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2016-HR102-Introduced.html

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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.R. NO.	102
TWENTY-EIGHTH LEGISLATURE, 2016
STATE OF HAWAII

HOUSE RESOLUTION

 

 

urging the united states congress to take any necessary action, including proposing an amendment to Article ii, section 1 of the united stateS constitution, to extend the right to vote in elections for the President and Vice President of the United States to American citizens in territories and commonwealths of the United States.

 

 

 

     WHEREAS, although great efforts have been made across the United States to encourage citizens to participate in the voting process, there remains a large population of United States citizens who are unable to legally vote for the offices of the President and Vice President of the United States; and

 

WHEREAS, the United States government exercises full plenary power over the Territory of American Samoa, Territory of Guam, Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands, Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the Territory of the United States Virgin Islands; and

 

     WHEREAS, Hawaii shares close ties with the Territory of American Samoa, Territory of Guam, and Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands due to the Pacific Island culture and heritage; and

 

     WHEREAS, more than four million people residing in United States territories and commonwealths, while governed by almost all the laws applicable to citizens of a state and significantly affected by the actions of the federal government, are denied the right to vote for the President and Vice President of the United States; and

 

     WHEREAS, residents of United States territories and commonwealths make significant contributions to the United States, including the provisions of large tracts of land for military bases and a consistently high recruitment rate of residents for the Armed Forces of the United States; and

WHEREAS, on October 29, 2014, The Washington Post, reported that Guam, with a small population of about 200,000 residents, is home to one of the highest concentration of military veterans in the United States and its territories, with about 8,000 veterans representing one in eight Guamanian adults who have served in the United States Armed Forces; and

 

WHEREAS, The Washington Post also reported that at the height of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, four of the United States Army's top recruiters were from Guam; and

 

WHEREAS, the September 16, 2014, edition of the Samoa News reported that as of September 9, 2014, the local United States Army Recruiting Station was ranked number 1 in production out of the 885 Army recruiting stations and centers under the United States Army Recruiting Command, which includes the 50 states, Korea, Japan, Europe, and territories and commonwealths of the United States; and

 

WHEREAS, in deciding that all the provisions of the United States Constitution do not apply to the Territory of Puerto Rico, the Supreme Court in Downes v. Bidwell, 182 U.S. 244 (1901), one of the so-called "insular cases," held "If those possessions are inhabited by alien races, differing from us in religion, customs, laws, methods of taxation, and modes of thought, the administration of government and justice, according to Anglo-Saxon principles, may for a time be impossible; and the question at once arises whether large concessions ought not be made for a time, that ultimately our own theories may be carried out, and the blessing of a free government under the Constitution extended to them."; and

 

     WHEREAS, where a person resides should not be the basis for denying a person, otherwise qualified, the right to vote for the President and Vice President of the United States; and

 

     WHEREAS, political participation is a fundamental principle of an enduring democracy; and

     WHEREAS, the language setting forth the electoral system to select the President and Vice President in Article II, Section 1 of the United States Constitution has been judicially interpreted to deny citizens of United States territories and commonwealths the right to vote in elections for the President and Vice President; now, therefore,

 

     BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-eighth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2016, that the United States Congress is urged to take any necessary action, including proposing an amendment to Article II, Section 1 of the United States Constitution to extend the right to vote in elections for the President and Vice President of the United States to American citizens in territories and commonwealths of the United States; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the President of the United States, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, President Pro Tempore of the United States Senate, members of Hawaii's Congressional Delegation, Governor of the Territory of American Samoa, Governor of the Territory of Guam, Governor of the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands, Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the Governor of the United States Virgin Islands.

 

 

 

OFFERED BY:

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Report Title:

US Territories and Commonwealths; Right to Vote for President and Vice President