Hawaii Legislature passes bills for automatic voter registration, native homestead rights

The Aloha State's legislative session ends Friday, with a landmark corporate spending bill still hanging in the balance.

by Jeremy Yurow Court House News, May 6, 2026

HONOLULU (CN) — In the final push before session ends this week, two key bills cleared the Hawaii Legislature on Wednesday, but a first-of-its-kind election spending bill remains up in the air.

Of the two measures now sent to Hawaii Governor Josh Green’s desk, one would automatically register eligible residents to vote when they apply for a driver’s license or state ID; the other would expand the pool of relatives who can inherit Native Hawaiian homestead leases.

Of the nearly 3,000 bills introduced this session, about 270 cleared conference committees and reached final votes this week, with most scheduled for a final vote Wednesday.

A third major measure to curb corporate spending in elections still awaits a final vote even as the legislative session is set to adjourn Friday.

Automatic voter registration

The Legislature passed Senate Bill 2239 with a 24-1 vote in the Senate and 40-11 in the House, shifting Hawaii’s voter registration system from opt-in to opt-out.

Under the measure, residents who apply for a driver’s license or state ID will be automatically registered to vote unless they decline during the application process. The bill also automatically updates a registered voter’s address when they update their license or ID.

Hawaii already conducts elections almost entirely by mail and offers same-day voter registration. But the state has long struggled with low turnout. The 2024 primary saw the lowest participation in 65 years, with only 32.1% of registered voters casting a ballot.

Supporters said the bill addresses a structural problem, not a lack of civic interest.

“Hawaii’s voter turnout numbers tell a clear story,” said Anne Frederick, executive director of the Hawaii Alliance for Progressive Action, in written testimony. “In the 2024 primary, turnout dropped to around 32%. That is not a reflection of how much people care. It is a reflection of how many barriers still exist between eligible residents and the ballot box. Registration is one of the biggest ones.”

Not all lawmakers were convinced the state was ready. State Representative Garner Shimizu, an Āliamanu Republican, said he supported the goal of registering more voters but raised concerns about whether election infrastructure could handle the expected influx.

“My concern is the overall system being cleaned in our voter rolls and making sure that our chief elections officer is preparing and ready for the anticipated increased influx of these new voters,” Shimizu said Wednesday. “We will be adding to and creating a bigger problem and further damaging public trust in our voting system.”

The City and County of Honolulu’s Department of Customer Services, which runs the Oahu DMV, flagged operational concerns in written testimony, including required changes to IT systems, forms and staff training, and requested a phased implementation timeline and state funding guidance.

Green has not yet indicated whether he will sign the measure. If signed into law, the measure will take effect January 1, 2027.

Native Hawaiian homestead succession

Lawmakers also passed House Bill 2309 unanimously, 25-0 in the Senate and 51-0 in the House, expanding the list of relatives eligible to succeed a Hawaiian homelands lease to include nieces and nephews, adding them to a list that currently includes spouses, children, grandchildren and siblings. Successors must meet the one-quarter Native Hawaiian blood quantum threshold.

Enacted in 1920 as a form of restitution for Native Hawaiians displaced from their ancestral lands, the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act set aside roughly 200,000 acres across the islands for a homesteading program.

Leases are issued at a nominal rent of $1 per year. Because federal law tightly regulates the program, succession rules carry outsized weight, determining whether a family’s connection to the land endures across generations or is severed when a lessee dies without a legally eligible heir.

“This measure simply allows for an expanded opportunity to maintain beneficiary leases within beneficiary families,” Kali Watson, chair of the Hawaiian Homes Commission, wrote in testimony submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs also submitted testimony in support, saying the bill reflects the practical realities of Native Hawaiian family life.

“OHA supports this measure because it expands eligible successorship and reflects the lived reality of Hawaiian ʻohana structures, where extended family members often serve as caregivers and household anchors,” the agency wrote.

The bill was introduced as part of the governor’s package, signaling Green’s support for the measure.

Because the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act is a federal statute, the amendment is subject to review by the U.S. Department of the Interior and a separate congressional review process before taking full effect.

Citizens United bill in flux

Senate Bill 2471, which would prohibit corporations and other artificial entities created under Hawaii law from spending money to influence elections or ballot measures, was separated from its conference committee report Wednesday after senators adopted a last-minute floor amendment.

The amendment, offered by state Senator Jarrett Keohokalole, a Kāne‘ohe Democrat, made clarifying changes to the bill’s severability provisions and removed the state attorney general’s discretionary authority to terminate the measure, deferring instead to the courts.

Supporters say it operates on the legal theory that because states grant corporations their powers, Hawaii can simply decline to grant the power to spend in elections, placing the question outside the reach of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which held that restricting corporate political spending violated the First Amendment.

“SB 2471 reinforces a simple democratic principle: elections belong to the people, not corporations,” Democrat state Senator Karl Rhoads, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a written statement.

“By clarifying that corporate powers are limited to lawful business and organizational purposes and do not include spending to influence elections, this measure protects the integrity of our democratic process and helps ensure that Hawaii voters, not corporate dollars, shape our future,” he added.

The Senate gave 48-hour notice for a final reading, meaning a vote could happen Friday, the final day of the legislative session. If passed and signed into law, it would be the first measure of its kind in the nation.