American Right to Vote Act

I 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. 8081 To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to prohibit States from imposing any additional conditions or requirements on the eligibility of individuals to cast votes in elections for Federal office by absentee ballot by mail, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES AUGUST 21, 2020 Mr. RUSH introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on House Administration, and in addition to the Committee on Oversight and Reform, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the juris- diction of the committee concerned A BILL To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to prohibit States from imposing any additional conditions or re- quirements on the eligibility of individuals to cast votes in elections for Federal office by absentee ballot by mail, 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 ‘‘American Right to 4 Vote Act’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:10 Sep 04, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8081.IH H8081 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 8081 IH SEC. 2. UNIFORM AVAILABILITY OF ABSENTEE VOTING TO 1 ALL VOTERS. 2 (a) IN GENERAL.—Title III of the Help America 3 Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21081 et seq.) is amended 4 by inserting after section 303 the following new section: 5 ‘‘SEC. 303A. UNIFORM AVAILABILITY OF ABSENTEE VOTING 6 TO ALL VOTERS. 7 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—If an individual in a State is eli- 8 gible to cast a vote in an election for Federal office, the 9 State may not impose any additional conditions or require- 10 ments on the eligibility of the individual to cast the vote 11 in such election by absentee ballot by mail, except that 12 the State may impose a deadline for requesting the absen- 13 tee ballot and related voting materials from the appro- 14 priate State or local election official and for returning the 15 ballot to the appropriate State or local election official. 16 ‘‘(b) PERMITTING VOTERS TO DESIGNATE OTHER 17 PERSON TO RETURN BALLOT.—The State— 18 ‘‘(1) shall permit a voter to designate any per- 19 son to return a voted and sealed absentee ballot to 20 the post office, a ballot drop-off location, tribally 21 designated building, or election office so long as the 22 person designated to return the ballot does not re- 23 ceive any form of compensation based on the number 24 of ballots that the person has returned and no indi- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:10 Sep 04, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8081.IH H8081 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 8081 IH vidual, group, or organization provides compensation 1 on this basis; and 2 ‘‘(2) may not put any limit on how many voted 3 and sealed absentee ballots any designated person 4 can return to the post office, a ballot drop off loca- 5 tion, tribally designated building, or election office. 6 ‘‘(c) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sec- 7 tion shall be construed to affect the authority of States 8 to conduct elections for Federal office through the use of 9 polling places at which individuals cast ballots. 10 ‘‘(d) NO EFFECT ON BALLOTS SUBMITTED BY AB- 11 SENT MILITARY AND OVERSEAS VOTERS.—Nothing in 12 this section may be construed to affect the treatment of 13 any ballot submitted by an individual who is entitled to 14 vote by absentee ballot under the Uniformed and Overseas 15 Citizens Absentee Voting Act (52 U.S.C. 20301 et seq.). 16 ‘‘(e) EFFECTIVE DATE.—This section shall apply 17 with respect to the regularly scheduled general election for 18 Federal office held in November 2020 and each succeeding 19 election for Federal office.’’. 20 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT RELATING TO EN- 21 FORCEMENT.—Section 401 of such Act (52 U.S.C. 21111) 22 is amended by striking ‘‘and 303’’ and inserting ‘‘303, and 23 303A’’. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:10 Sep 04, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8081.IH H8081 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 8081 IH (c) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of contents 1 of such Act is amended by inserting after the item relating 2 to section 303 the following new item: 3 ‘‘Sec. 303A. Uniform availability of absentee voting to all voters.’’. SEC. 3. ELECTION MAIL. 4 (a) TREATMENT OF BALLOTS AS FIRST-CLASS 5 MAIL.—Any ballot in an election for public office sent in 6 the United States mails shall be categorized, handled, and 7 delivered as first-class mail by the United States Postal 8 Service. 9 (b) POLICY ON POSTMARKS.—It shall be the policy 10 of the United States Postal Service to postmark, which 11 shall include any imprinted indicia from the Postal Service 12 that indicates the date of receipt, all election mail proc- 13 essed by the Postal Service. 14 (c) SAME-DAY PROCESSING.—The United States 15 Postal Service shall ensure, to the maximum extent prac- 16 tical, that election mail is processed and cleared from any 17 postal facility or post office on the same day it is received 18 at such a facility or post office. 19 SEC. 4. APPLICATION OF HELP AMERICA VOTE ACT OF 2002 20 TO COMMONWEALTH OF THE NORTHERN 21 MARIANA ISLANDS. 22 (a) APPLICATION TO COMMONWEALTH OF THE 23 NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS.—Section 901 of the Help 24 America Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21141) is amended 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:10 Sep 04, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8081.IH H8081 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 8081 IH by striking ‘‘and the United States Virgin Islands’’ and 1 inserting ‘‘the United States Virgin Islands, and the Com- 2 monwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands’’. 3 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.—Such Act is fur- 4 ther amended as follows: 5 (1) The second sentence of section 213(a)(2) 6 (52 U.S.C. 20943(a)(2)) is amended by striking 7 ‘‘and American Samoa’’ and inserting ‘‘American 8 Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern 9 Mariana Islands’’. 10 (2) Section 252(c)(2) (52 U.S.C. 21002(c)(2)) 11 is amended by striking ‘‘or the United States Virgin 12 Islands’’ and inserting ‘‘the United States Virgin Is- 13 lands, or the Commonwealth of the Northern Mar- 14 iana Islands’’. 15 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:10 Sep 04, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H8081.IH H8081 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS