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Down to the wire: In a surprise move, Speaker Scott Saiki and President Ron Kouchi on Friday asked all conference committees with outstanding business to reconvene in Conference Room 309 at the Capitol “to ensure that conferences are conducted in an orderly manner,” as a press release explained just before 2 p.m.

It’s a rare procedure known as a “cattle call” and it meant that chairs had to scramble to settle as many bills as they could before that time. The word quickly spread throughout the Capitol, where hundreds of people were still following dozens and dozens of bills including ones that would alter for good the Hawaii Tourism Authority.

A number of sunshine bills were among those set to be taken up at 4:30 p.m. in a very crowded Conference Room 309 (capacity 102). An overflow crowd watched two large TV screens set up outside the room as legislators rushed through the list of bills before a 6 p.m. deadline.

Your Sunshine Bloggers were tracking until the bloody end. Here’s what happened:

, the bill to publicly finance state and county elections that was gutted twice this week and now would do very little to make campaigns more competitive, is dead. It did not receive a final vote, and no explanation was given.

“The fact that they wouldn’t approve it when we were asking for no money tells you all you need to know about how they truly feel,” Evan Weber of the progressive activist group Our Hawaii said afterward.

, the public records bill that allows for a capping of copying charges and a waiver in some cases, is dead. It did not receive a final vote, and no explanation was given.

And , letting candidates use campaign funds to take care of kids and other family, is dead. It did not receive a final vote, and no explanation was given.

But , which calls for a digital voter guide for Hawaii elections to help voters understand who and what they are voting for, was approved. There was some confusion as to exactly how much money the state Office of Elections would receive to pay for the guide, but we will know the final figure once the conference draft is posted.

All bills that did not pass in the 2023 session carry over to the 2024 session, but it is rare for carryover bills to regain much traction after having already gone through so much work.

What’s in a name: Want to run for office in Hawaii? You’ll have to let voters know your real name, not just a preferred name or nickname.

Negotiators this week approved , which will require the state Office of Elections and Campaign Spending Commission to “wherever the name requested to be printed on the ballot is used, except on the ballot.”

The legal name must appear on the websites of the two agencies, on voter information materials provided by the same agencies, and at the request of any registered voter.

The legislation was inspired by a candidate in a 2022 House race who used a different name than the one he was born with, thus making it difficult to discover who he really was. He lost.

‘An important measure’: Under current state law noncandidate committees — i.e., a group, party or person that endeavors to influence the outcome of elections — have to tell the Campaign Spending Commission when they receive or spend more than $1,000 total in an election cycle. would have lowered that threshold to $100, but now legislators have settled on $500 at the advice of the commission.

The bill on campaign finance law, Buckley v. Valeo (1976). The U.S. Supreme Court acknowledged the “sufficiently important government interest” in ensuring that voters are “fully informed” through campaign spending disclosure requirements.

Rep. David Tarnas, one of the lead conferees on HB 463, called the bill “an important measure” that will provide greater accountability and public awareness. Sen. Karl Rhoads, the other lead conferee, agreed. The legislation now goes to a full floor vote on Tuesday.