Automatic Voter Registration Act

I 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 2301 To amend the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 to require each State to ensure that each individual who provides identifying information to the State motor vehicle authority is automatically registered to vote in elections for Federal office held in the State unless the individual does not meet the eligibility requirements for registering to vote in such elections or declines to be registered to vote in such elections, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES APRIL 1, 2021 Mr. CICILLINE (for himself, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. TAKANO, Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN, Mrs. NAPOLITANO, Mr. MCGOVERN, Mr. COOPER, Mr. PAYNE, Mrs. BEATTY, Ms. SPEIER, Ms. MCCOLLUM, Mr. THOMPSON of California, Mr. EVANS, Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois, Ms. DELBENE, Mr. SARBANES, Ms. CASTOR of Florida, Mr. MEEKS, Mr. BLUMENAUER, Mrs. TRAHAN, Mr. BRENDAN F. BOYLE of Pennsylvania, Ms. LEE of California, Ms. CLARKE of New York, Mr. RASKIN, Mr. KIM of New Jer- sey, Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, Mr. ESPAILLAT, Ms. SEWELL, Mr. SMITH of Washington, Mr. PRICE of North Carolina, Ms. TLAIB, Miss RICE of New York, Mr. SCHIFF, Mr. LEVIN of Michigan, Ms. ROYBAL- ALLARD, Mr. STANTON, Mr. MOULTON, Mr. GARAMENDI, Mr. WELCH, Mr. PALLONE, Mr. LANGEVIN, Mr. RUSH, Mr. HUFFMAN, Ms. MENG, Mr. TRONE, Mr. GARCI´A of Illinois, Ms. ESCOBAR, Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York, Mr. NEGUSE, Ms. NORTON, Ms. DEGETTE, Mrs. LAWRENCE, Ms. SCANLON, Ms. PRESSLEY, Mr. TONKO, Ms. BROWNLEY, Mr. SWALWELL, Ms. GARCIA of Texas, Mr. PANETTA, Mrs. DEMINGS, Ms. TITUS, Mr. LOWENTHAL, Mrs. HAYES, Mr. CARBAJAL, Mr. JOHN- SON of Georgia, Mr. SUOZZI, Mr. KRISHNAMOORTHI, Mr. KHANNA, Mr. HASTINGS, Mr. DEFAZIO, Ms. LOIS FRANKEL of Florida, Ms. JAYAPAL, Mr. PETERS, Mr. GOMEZ, Mr. RYAN, Mr. CARTWRIGHT, Mr. KILMER, Mr. POCAN, Mr. CASTEN, Ms. ESHOO, Mr. SIRES, Mr. CROW, Mr. SAN NICOLAS, Mr. NADLER, Mr. COURTNEY, Mr. MICHAEL F. DOYLE of Pennsylvania, Mr. CONNOLLY, Mr. SCHNEIDER, Mr. SCOTT of Virginia, Mr. SOTO, Mr. YARMUTH, Ms. BONAMICI, Mr. KIND, Ms. MOORE of Wis- consin, Ms. JACKSON LEE, Ms. MATSUI, Mr. MALINOWSKI, Ms. HOULAHAN, Mr. TORRES of New York, Ms. KAPTUR, Ms. OCASIO-COR- TEZ, Mr. HIGGINS of New York, Ms. WILSON of Florida, Mr. COHEN, Mr. HIMES, Mr. BOWMAN, Mr. DEUTCH, Mr. AUCHINCLOSS, and Mr. VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:42 May 26, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6652 E:\BILLS\H2301.IH H2301 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 2301 IH DESAULNIER) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on House Administration A BILL To amend the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 to require each State to ensure that each individual who provides identifying information to the State motor vehi- cle authority is automatically registered to vote in elec- tions for Federal office held in the State unless the individual does not meet the eligibility requirements for registering to vote in such elections or declines to be registered to vote in such elections, and for other pur- poses. 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 ‘‘Automatic Voter Reg- 4 istration Act’’. 5 SEC. 2. AUTOMATIC VOTER REGISTRATION THROUGH 6 STATE MOTOR VEHICLE AUTHORITIES. 7 (a) AUTOMATIC VOTER REGISTRATION.—Section 5 8 of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (52 U.S.C. 9 20504) is amended to read as follows: 10 ‘‘SEC. 5. AUTOMATIC VOTER REGISTRATION THROUGH 11 MOTOR VEHICLE AUTHORITY. 12 ‘‘(a) TRANSMISSION OF INFORMATION TO ELECTION 13 OFFICIALS.— 14 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:42 May 26, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2301.IH H2301 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 2301 IH ‘‘(1) TRANSMISSION.—Each State’s motor vehi- 1 cle authority, upon receiving the identifying informa- 2 tion described in paragraph (2) with respect to any 3 individual who requests services from the authority, 4 shall transmit the identifying information to the ap- 5 propriate State election official. 6 ‘‘(2) IDENTIFYING INFORMATION DESCRIBED.— 7 The identifying information described in this para- 8 graph with respect to any individual is as follows: 9 ‘‘(A) The individual’s legal name. 10 ‘‘(B) The individual’s age. 11 ‘‘(C) The individual’s residence. 12 ‘‘(D) The individual’s citizenship status. 13 ‘‘(E) The individual’s electronic signature. 14 ‘‘(3) RESTRICTION ON USE OF INFORMATION 15 ON CITIZENSHIP STATUS.—A State may not use any 16 identifying information regarding an individual’s 17 citizenship status which is transmitted under this 18 subsection for any purpose other than determining 19 whether the individual is eligible to vote in elections 20 for Federal office. 21 ‘‘(b) NOTIFICATION TO INDIVIDUALS.—Upon receiv- 22 ing the identifying information with respect to an indi- 23 vidual under subsection (a), the appropriate State election 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:42 May 26, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2301.IH H2301 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 2301 IH official shall issue a notification to the individual con- 1 taining— 2 ‘‘(1) a statement that, unless the individual no- 3 tifies the election official prior to the expiration of 4 the 21-calendar day period which begins on the date 5 the official issued the notification that the individual 6 declines to be registered to vote in elections for Fed- 7 eral office held in the State, the individual shall be 8 considered to have completed and submitted a voter 9 registration application for purposes of this Act; and 10 ‘‘(2) a description of the process by which the 11 individual may decline to be registered to vote in 12 elections for Federal office in the State. 13 ‘‘(c) AUTOMATIC REGISTRATION OF ELIGIBLE INDI- 14 VIDUALS.—Upon the expiration of the 21-calendar day pe- 15 riod which begins on the date the appropriate State elec- 16 tion official issues a notification to an individual under 17 subsection (b)(1), the official shall ensure that the indi- 18 vidual is registered to vote in elections for Federal office 19 held in the State unless— 20 ‘‘(1) the official determines that the individual 21 does not meet the eligibility requirements for reg- 22 istering to vote in such elections; 23 ‘‘(2) prior to the expiration of such 21-calendar 24 day period, the individual notifies the official that 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:42 May 26, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2301.IH H2301 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 2301 IH the individual declines to be registered to vote in 1 such elections; or 2 ‘‘(3) the individual is already registered to vote 3 in such elections. 4 ‘‘(d) APPLICATION TO TERRITORIES.—This section 5 shall apply with respect to the Commonwealth of Puerto 6 Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the United States Virgin 7 Islands, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana 8 Islands in the same manner as this section applies to a 9 State.’’. 10 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT RELATING TO TIM- 11 ING OF REGISTRATION PRIOR TO ELECTIONS.—Section 12 8(a)(1)(A) of such Act (52 U.S.C. 20507(a)(1)(A)) is 13 amended to read as follows: 14 ‘‘(A) in the case of registration through a 15 motor vehicle authority under section 5, if the 16 identifying information with respect to the indi- 17 vidual is transmitted by the authority to the ap- 18 propriate State election official under section 19 5(a)(1) not later than the lesser of 30 days, or 20 the period provided by State law, before the 21 date of the election;’’. 22 (c) OTHER CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—Section 23 4(a)(1) of such Act (52 U.S.C. 20503(a)(1)) is amended 24 to read as follows: 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:42 May 26, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2301.IH H2301 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 2301 IH ‘‘(1) through the State motor vehicle authority 1 pursuant to section 5;’’. 2 SEC. 3. EFFECTIVE DATE. 3 (a) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 4 this Act shall take effect upon the expiration of the 180- 5 day period which begins on the date of the enactment of 6 this Act. 7 (b) TIMING OF AUTOMATIC REGISTRATION OF INDI- 8 VIDUALS PROVIDING IDENTIFYING INFORMATION TO 9 MOTOR VEHICLE AUTHORITY PRIOR TO EFFECTIVE 10 DATE.— 11 (1) RETROACTIVE AUTOMATIC REGISTRATION 12 REQUIREMENTS.—For purposes of section 5 of the 13 National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (52 U.S.C. 14 20504), as amended by section 2(a), if an individual 15 provided identifying information (as described in sec- 16 tion 5(a)(2) of such Act) to a State motor vehicle 17 authority at any time during the period described in 18 paragraph (2), the authority shall transmit such in- 19 formation to the appropriate State election official 20 pursuant to section 5(a)(1) of such Act not later 21 than such effective date, unless the motor vehicle au- 22 thority determines that the information is no longer 23 valid with respect to the individual. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:42 May 26, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2301.IH H2301 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 7 •HR 2301 IH (2) PERIOD DESCRIBED.—The period described 1 in this paragraph is the period which begins on the 2 date which is 2 years prior to the date of the enact- 3 ment of this Act and which ends on the effective 4 date described in subsection (a). 5 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:42 May 26, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H2301.IH H2301 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS