A bill in Hawaii’s state legislature that could potentially keep former President Donald Trump off of the 2024 presidential ballot narrowly survived a procedural vote on Tuesday.
The Hawaii State Senate Judiciary Committee approved Senate Bill 2392 by a single vote, moving the bill to the full floor, HawaiiNewsNow reported. The proposal would place the decision to potentially disqualify Trump under the chief elections officer.
Advocates for the bill claimed Trump’s involvement in the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, amounted to an insurrection that should bar him from running for — or winning — the presidency.
The bill comes as several other states have initiated efforts to prevent Trump, the current Republican front-runner, from appearing on the ballot in November.
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Despite the bill clearing the procedural hurdle, the bill’s critics have been more outspoken than its supporters.
"This is tyrannical, to say the least," said Jamie Detwiler, a resident who testified ahead of the vote, per the report. "He has not been convicted nor has he been charged with insurrection (cheers) there is no evidence of committing insurrection so please don’t waste our time on this poorly written piece of legislation."
According to HawaiiNewsNow, the bill drew over 300 complaints or negative testimonies, with only about 20 favoring it.
Sen. Karl Rhoads, a Democrat, introduced the legislation as Hawaii does not have a legal process to exempt candidates from the ballot or disqualify them from appearing.
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Senate Bill 2392, which cleared the committee by a 3-2 vote, would establish such a process.
A description of the bill says it "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."
It also "provides for a process for challenging an inclusion or exclusion of a candidate from a ballot. Includes a candidate's disqualification as grounds for an election contest complaint. Specifies that electors of presidential and vice presidential candidates shall not be individuals who are disqualified by a constitutional or statutory provision. 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."
The bill is supported by the state’s Democratic Party.
Rhoads is a member of the Judiciary Committee, the Agriculture and Environment and the Public Safety Committee and the Intergovernmental and Military Affairs Committee.
