Hawai'i may move up its primary election — the nation's latest — to August so that it would comply with a new federal law meant to give deployed troops enough time to vote.

Hawai'i lawmakers advanced a measure on Tuesday that would push biennial primary elections about a month earlier than their usual date in late September.

This year's primary election is scheduled for Sept. 18, leaving little time for general election ballots to be mailed to and returned from overseas military troops. The federal law requires that general ballots must be sent at least 45 days before an election.

Hawai'i's Sept. 18 primary election is exactly 45 days before the Nov. 2 general election, which means elections officials can't comply with the law because it takes a few days after the primary to print general election ballots and send them.

Hawai'i will seek an exemption from the Federal Voting Assistance Program that would allow the state to keep this year's primary on Sept. 18, said interim Chief Elections Officer Scott Nago. The federal government hasn't started the exemption process yet, he said.

At least a dozen states with primary elections in September and August also are considering moving their primaries to an earlier date.

"Voters in the military don't have any time. They're being left out of the process," said state Rep. Angus McKelvey, chairman of the House Committee on Economic Revitalization, Business and Military Affairs.

The committee passed the measure unanimously Tuesday, and it advances for additional consideration by two more House committees over the next few weeks, said McKelvey, D-10th (West Maui).

"The 45 days now provided between elections is too short a time even under normal circumstances," Jean Aoki a board member of the League of Women Voters of Hawaii, said in written testimony for the group.

Only a few Hawai'i citizens have cast ballots from overseas in recent elections, possibly because they weren't returned to the Islands in time to be counted.

In the 2008 general election, 827 overseas ballots were cast out of a total of more than 456,000. In 2006, only 237 overseas ballots were cast.

Other states with September primaries include Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin. States with mid-August elections such as Colorado and Washington also are planning to request exemptions from the federal law.