On February 11, the Hawaii House passed HB 2397 unanimously. It moves the primary from mid-September to the second Saturday in August. However, the bill was amended, so that it does not go into effect until 2011. This is good news for the Green Party, which is petitioning to get on the ballot in 2010. If the bill had passed and had gone into effect immediately, the deadline for the petition would have moved from April 1, 2010, to late February 2010.

The bill now goes to the Senate.