Senate progresses bills on campaign finance, sexual harassment and rental discrimination

The Senate Committee on Judiciary passed nine bills with amendments for a second hearing. The bills cover a wide range of topics from campaign finance, sexual harassment confidentiality, and discrimination against Section 8 voucher holders.

SB212 & SB665 (electoral finance)
SB212 increases the amount of fines for violations of the campaign’s organizational report requirements. SB665 will make knowingly providing false information concerning the name or address of a person paying for a campaign advertisement a class C felony.

SB741 (electoral college)
A “faithless elector” is when someone in the electoral college does not vote for the U.S. President and Vice President the elector pledged to vote. SB741 makes faithless voting illegal, and will find an alternate to vote in the place of the original elector if they fail to vote for the proper candidate.

SB416 (witness reimbursement)
This bill promises to reimburse witnesses of a crime for airfare and lodging. The purpose of SB416 is to provide expert witnesses for prosecutors and public defenders.

SB832 (sexual misconduct confidentiality)
University of Hawaiʻi currently provides confidential advocates at each campus to support victims of sexual harassment, sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence and stalking.

However, if the perpetrator of the sexual harassment or violence is a UH employee, the advocate must report it to the university – therefore giving up confidentiality….