I
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1295
To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to allow individuals to vote
in an election for Federal office during an early voting period which
occurs prior to the date of the election, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH1, 2023
Mr. G
OLDMANof New York 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 allow
individuals to vote in an election for Federal office during
an early voting period which occurs prior to the date
of the election, 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 ‘‘Early Voting Act’’. 4
SEC. 2. EARLY VOTING. 5
(a) R
EQUIREMENTS.—Subtitle A of title III of the 6
Help America Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21081 et seq.) 7
is amended— 8
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(1) by redesignating sections 304 and 305 as 1
sections 305 and 306; and 2
(2) by inserting after section 303 the following 3
new section: 4
‘‘SEC. 304. EARLY VOTING. 5
‘‘(a) R
EQUIRINGVOTINGPRIOR TODATE OFELEC-6
TION.—Each State shall allow individuals to vote in an 7
election for Federal office during an early voting period 8
which occurs prior to the date of the election, in a manner 9
that allows the individual to receive, complete, and cast 10
their ballot in-person. 11
‘‘(b) M
INIMUMEARLYVOTINGREQUIREMENTS.— 12
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.— 13
‘‘(A) L
ENGTH OF PERIOD.—The early vot-14
ing period required under this subsection with 15
respect to an election shall consist of a period 16
of consecutive days (including weekends) which 17
begins on the 15th day before the date of the 18
election (or, at the option of the State, on a day 19
prior to the 15th day before the date of the 20
election) and ends no earlier than the second 21
day before the date of the election. 22
‘‘(B) H
OURS FOR EARLY VOTING .—Each 23
polling place which allows voting during an 24
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early voting period under subparagraph (A) 1
shall— 2
‘‘(i) allow such voting for no less than 3
10 hours on each day during the period; 4
‘‘(ii) have uniform hours each day for 5
which such voting occurs; and 6
‘‘(iii) allow such voting to be held for 7
some period of time prior to 9:00 a.m 8
(local time) and some period of time after 9
5:00 p.m. (local time). 10
‘‘(2) R
EQUIREMENTS FOR VOTE -BY-MAIL JURIS-11
DICTIONS.—In the case of a jurisdiction that sends 12
every registered voter a ballot by mail— 13
‘‘(A) paragraph (1) shall not apply; 14
‘‘(B) such jurisdiction shall allow eligible 15
individuals to vote during an early voting period 16
that ensures voters are provided the greatest 17
opportunity to cast ballots ahead of election day 18
and which includes at least one consecutive Sat-19
urday and Sunday; and 20
‘‘(C) each polling place which allows voting 21
during an early voting period under subpara-22
graph (B) shall allow such voting— 23
‘‘(i) during the election office’s reg-24
ular business hours; and 25
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‘‘(ii) for a period of not less than 8 1
hours on Saturdays and Sundays included 2
in the early voting period. 3
‘‘(3) R
EQUIREMENTS FOR SMALL JURISDIC -4
TIONS.— 5
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—In the case of a juris-6
diction described in subparagraph (B), para-7
graph (1)(B) shall not apply so long as all eligi-8
ble individuals in the jurisdiction have the op-9
portunity to vote— 10
‘‘(i) at each polling place which allows 11
voting during the early voting period de-12
scribed in paragraph (1)(A)— 13
‘‘(I) during the election office’s 14
regular business hours; and 15
‘‘(II) for a period of not less than 16
8 hours on at least one Saturday and 17
at least one Sunday included in the 18
early voting period; or 19
‘‘(ii) at one or more polling places in 20
the county in which such jurisdiction is lo-21
cated that allows voting during the early 22
voting period described in paragraph 23
(1)(A) in accordance with the requirements 24
under paragraph (1)(B). 25
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‘‘(B) JURISDICTION DESCRIBED .—A juris-1
diction is described in this subparagraph if such 2
jurisdiction— 3
‘‘(i) had less than 3,000 registered 4
voters at the time of the most recent prior 5
election for Federal office; and 6
‘‘(ii) consists of a geographic area 7
that is smaller than the jurisdiction of the 8
county in which such jurisdiction is lo-9
cated. 10
‘‘(4) R
ULE OF CONSTRUCTION .—Nothing in 11
this subsection shall be construed— 12
‘‘(A) to limit the availability of additional 13
temporary voting sites which provide voters 14
more opportunities to cast their ballots but 15
which do not meet the requirements of this sub-16
section; 17
‘‘(B) to limit a polling place from being 18
open for additional hours outside of the uniform 19
hours set for the polling location on any day of 20
the early voting period; or 21
‘‘(C) to limit a State or jurisdiction from 22
offering early voting on the Monday before elec-23
tion day. 24
‘‘(c) L
OCATION OFPOLLINGPLACES.— 25
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‘‘(1) PROXIMITY TO PUBLIC TRANSPOR -1
TATION.—To the greatest extent practicable, each 2
State and jurisdiction shall ensure that each polling 3
place which allows voting during an early voting pe-4
riod under subsection (b) is located within walking 5
distance of a stop on a public transportation route. 6
‘‘(2) A
VAILABILITY IN RURAL AREAS .—In the 7
case of a jurisdiction that includes a rural area, the 8
State or jurisdiction shall— 9
‘‘(A) ensure that polling places which allow 10
voting during an early voting period under sub-11
section (b) will be located in such rural areas; 12
and 13
‘‘(B) ensure that such polling places are lo-14
cated in communities which will provide the 15
greatest opportunity for residents of rural areas 16
to vote during the early voting period. 17
‘‘(3) C
OLLEGE CAMPUSES.—In the case of a ju-18
risdiction that includes an institution of higher edu-19
cation, the State or jurisdiction shall— 20
‘‘(A) ensure that an appropriate number 21
(not less than one) of polling places which allow 22
voting during the early voting period under sub-23
section (b) will be located on each branch cam-24
pus of the institution of higher education; and 25
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‘‘(B) ensure that such polling places pro-1
vide the greatest opportunity for residents of 2
the jurisdiction to vote. 3
‘‘(d) S
TANDARDS.—Not later than June 30, 2024, 4
the Commission shall issue voluntary standards for the ad-5
ministration of voting during voting periods which occur 6
prior to the date of a Federal election. Subject to sub-7
section (c), such voluntary standards shall include the 8
nondiscriminatory geographic placement of polling places 9
at which such voting occurs. 10
‘‘(e) B
ALLOTPROCESSING ANDSCANNINGREQUIRE-11
MENTS.— 12
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Each State or jurisdiction 13
shall begin processing and scanning ballots cast dur-14
ing in-person early voting for tabulation not later 15
than the date that is 14 days prior to the date of 16
the election involved, except that a State or jurisdic-17
tion may begin processing and scanning ballots cast 18
during in-person early voting for tabulation after 19
such date if the date on which the State or jurisdic-20
tion begins such processing and scanning ensures, to 21
the greatest extent practical, that ballots cast before 22
the date of the election are processed and scanned 23
before the date of the election. 24
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‘‘(2) LIMITATION.—Nothing in this subsection 1
shall be construed— 2
‘‘(A) to permit a State or jurisdiction to 3
tabulate ballots in an election before the closing 4
of the polls on the date of the election unless 5
such tabulation is a necessary component of 6
preprocessing in the State or jurisdiction and is 7
performed in accordance with existing State 8
law; or 9
‘‘(B) to permit an official to make public 10
any results of tabulation and processing before 11
the closing of the polls on the date of the elec-12
tion. 13
‘‘(f) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—This section shall apply 14
with respect to the regularly scheduled general election for 15
Federal office held in November 2024 and each succeeding 16
election for Federal office.’’. 17
(b) C
ONFORMING AMENDMENT RELATING TO 18
I
SSUANCE OFVOLUNTARYGUIDANCE BYELECTIONAS-19
SISTANCECOMMISSION.—Section 311(b) of such Act (52 20
U.S.C. 21101(b)) is amended— 21
(1) by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end of paragraph 22
(2); 23
(2) by striking the period at the end of para-24
graph (3) and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 25
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(3) by adding at the end the following new 1
paragraph: 2
‘‘(4) in the case of the recommendations with 3
respect to section 304, June 30, 2024.’’. 4
(c) C
ONFORMINGAMENDMENT RELATING TOEN-5
FORCEMENT.—Section 401 of such Act (52 U.S.C. 21111) 6
is amended by striking ‘‘and 303’’ and inserting ‘‘303, and 7
304’’. 8
(d) C
LERICALAMENDMENT.—The table of contents 9
of such Act is amended— 10
(1) by redesignating the items relating to sec-11
tions 304 and 305 as relating to sections 305 and 12
306; and 13
(2) by inserting after the item relating to sec-14
tion 303 the following new item: 15
‘‘Sec. 304. Early voting.’’.
Æ
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