Voting Access Act

I 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 1343 To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require States to meet standards for the location and operation of polling places used in elec- tions for Federal office, including a standard requiring States to ensure that no individual waits for longer than 30 minutes to cast a vote at a polling place, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES FEBRUARY 25, 2021 Mr. GRIJALVA introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on House Administration A BILL To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require States to meet standards for the location and operation of polling places used in elections for Federal office, including a standard requiring States to ensure that no individual waits for longer than 30 minutes to cast a vote at a polling place, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Voting Access Act’’. 4 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:56 Mar 22, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1343.IH H1343 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 1343 IH SEC. 2. REQUIRING STATES TO MEET STANDARDS FOR LO- 1 CATION AND OPERATION OF POLLING 2 PLACES USED IN ELECTIONS FOR FEDERAL 3 OFFICE. 4 (a) ESTABLISHMENT OF STANDARDS.— 5 (1) IN GENERAL.—Title III of the Help Amer- 6 ica Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21081 et seq.) is 7 amended by inserting after section 303 the following 8 new section: 9 ‘‘SEC. 303A. COMPLIANCE WITH STANDARDS FOR LOCATION 10 AND OPERATION OF POLLING PLACES. 11 ‘‘(a) COMPLIANCE.—Each State shall comply with 12 the standards established by the Commission under this 13 section for the location and operation of polling places 14 used in elections for Federal office. 15 ‘‘(b) ESTABLISHMENT OF STANDARDS.— 16 ‘‘(1) STANDARDS DESCRIBED.—In consultation 17 with the chief State election officials of the States, 18 the Commission shall establish national standards 19 for the location and operation of polling places used 20 in elections for Federal office (other than sites used 21 as polling places on dates other than the date of the 22 election), including the following: 23 ‘‘(A) A requirement that no individual 24 shall be required to wait for longer than 30 25 minutes in order to cast a vote at a polling 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:56 Mar 22, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1343.IH H1343 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 1343 IH place except in the event of an emergency or 1 natural disaster. 2 ‘‘(B) Standards for determining the num- 3 ber of polling places within a jurisdiction on the 4 basis of the voting age population of the juris- 5 diction, taking into consideration factors which 6 include the linguistic preferences of voters in 7 the jurisdiction, the availability of same-day 8 voter registration in the jurisdiction, and other 9 relevant factors. 10 ‘‘(C) Standards for the nondiscriminatory 11 placement and location of polling places within 12 a jurisdiction, including standards to ensure 13 that polling places are accessible to voters with 14 disabilities and voters using public transpor- 15 tation. 16 ‘‘(D) Standards for ensuring that each 17 polling place has sufficient resources, including 18 voting systems, ballots, and election officials, to 19 meet the requirement described in subpara- 20 graph (A). 21 ‘‘(E) Standards for ensuring that voters 22 are given timely, accurate, and current informa- 23 tion in clear and concise language regarding 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:56 Mar 22, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1343.IH H1343 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 1343 IH ballot information and the location of polling 1 places. 2 ‘‘(F) Best practices for preventing viola- 3 tions of laws prohibiting the intimidation or 4 harassment of voters at polling places. 5 ‘‘(G) Standards for ensuring and improv- 6 ing the security of voting systems and polling 7 places. 8 ‘‘(2) PROCESS FOR ESTABLISHMENT OF STAND- 9 ARDS.—The establishment of the standards under 10 this section shall be carried out by the Commission 11 in a manner that provides for each of the following: 12 ‘‘(A) Publication of notice of the proposed 13 standards in the Federal Register. 14 ‘‘(B) An opportunity for public comment 15 on the proposed standards. 16 ‘‘(C) Publication of the final standards in 17 the Federal Register. 18 ‘‘(c) DEADLINE; EFFECTIVE DATE.—The Commis- 19 sion shall establish the standards under this section not 20 later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this 21 section, and each State shall comply with the standards 22 with respect to all elections for Federal office held on or 23 after the expiration of the 180-day period which begins 24 on the date the Commission establishes the standards.’’. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:56 Mar 22, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1343.IH H1343 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 1343 IH (2) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of con- 1 tents of such Act is amended by inserting after the 2 item relating to section 303 the following new item: 3 ‘‘Sec. 303A. Compliance with standards for location and operation of polling places.’’. (b) ENFORCEMENT.—Section 401 of such Act (52 4 U.S.C. 21111) is amended by striking ‘‘and 303’’ and in- 5 serting ‘‘303, and 303A’’. 6 (c) FUNDING.—Section 257(a) of such Act (52 7 U.S.C. 21007(a)) is amended by adding at the end the 8 following new paragraph: 9 ‘‘(5) For the first fiscal year during which 10 States are subject to the requirements of section 11 303A (relating to standards established by the Com- 12 mission for the location and operation of polling 13 places), such sums as are necessary for requirements 14 of payments to enable the States to meet the re- 15 quirements of such section.’’. 16 SEC. 3. STUDIES AND REPORTS ON MISIDENTIFICATION OF 17 INDIVIDUAL POLITICAL PARTY REGISTRA- 18 TION AND PURGING OF VOTER REGISTRA- 19 TION LISTS. 20 (a) STUDIES.— 21 (1) MISIDENTIFICATION OF POLITICAL PARTY 22 REGISTRATION.—The Election Assistance Commis- 23 sion shall conduct a study of instances of the 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:56 Mar 22, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1343.IH H1343 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 1343 IH misidentification by election officials of the political 1 party registration of individuals attempting to vote 2 in primary elections for Federal office, including an 3 analysis of the frequency of such misidentification 4 among various jurisdictions. 5 (2) PURGING OF VOTER ROLLS.—The Election 6 Assistance Commission shall conduct a study of in- 7 stances in which States carry out purges of the offi- 8 cial voter registration list or implement similar ‘‘use 9 it or lose it’’ policies which automatically remove in- 10 dividuals who fail to vote from the official voter reg- 11 istration list. 12 (b) REPORT.—Not later than 180 days after the date 13 of the enactment of this Act, the Commission shall submit 14 to Congress a report on the studies conducted under sub- 15 section (a), and shall include in the report such rec- 16 ommendations as the Commission considers appropriate— 17 (1) to prevent and respond to the misidentifica- 18 tion of an individual’s political party registration, in- 19 cluding recommendations to permit individuals to 20 correct their political party registration at the poll- 21 ing place on the date of voting; and 22 (2) to respond to purges of official voter reg- 23 istration lists, including recommendations for noti- 24 fying a registrant when a State initiates a process 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:56 Mar 22, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1343.IH H1343 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 7 •HR 1343 IH to remove the registrant from the list and providing 1 instructions on how the registrant may renew the 2 registrant’s registration. 3 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:56 Mar 22, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H1343.IH H1343 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS