II
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 2842
To amend the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 to clarify that a
State may not use an individual’s failure to vote as the basis for initiating
the procedures provided under such Act for the removal of the individual
from the official list of registered voters in the State on the grounds
that the individual has changed residence, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
SEPTEMBER19, 2023
Ms. K
LOBUCHAR(for herself, Mr. KING, Mrs. GILLIBRAND, Mr. PADILLA, Mr.
B
LUMENTHAL, Ms. WARREN, Mr. WYDEN, Mr. KAINE, Mr. MERKLEY,
Ms. S
MITH, Mr. BOOKER, Mr. SANDERS, Mr. MURPHY, Ms. HIRONO, Mr.
M
ARKEY, Mr. CASEY, Mr. VANHOLLEN, Mr. BROWN, Mr. MENENDEZ,
and Mrs. F
EINSTEIN) introduced the following bill; which was read twice
and referred to the Committee on Rules and Administration
A BILL
To amend the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 to
clarify that a State may not use an individual’s failure
to vote as the basis for initiating the procedures provided
under such Act for the removal of the individual from
the official list of registered voters in the State on the
grounds that the individual has changed residence, 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
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Stop Automatically 2
Voiding Eligible Voters Off Their Enlisted Rolls in States 3
Act’’ or the ‘‘Save Voters Act’’. 4
SEC. 2. PURPOSE. 5
The purposes of this Act are— 6
(1) to prohibit States from removing individuals 7
from an official list of registered voters due to 8
changes in residence; and 9
(2) to protect the right to vote by allowing vot-10
ers who are automatically registered or had pre-11
viously registered to vote in a State to update their 12
address through the day of the election. 13
SEC. 3. CONDITIONS FOR REMOVAL OF VOTERS FROM LIST 14
OF REGISTERED VOTERS. 15
(a) C
ONDITIONSDESCRIBED.—The National Voter 16
Registration Act of 1993 (52 U.S.C. 20501 et seq.) is 17
amended by inserting after section 8 the following new 18
section: 19
‘‘SEC. 8A. CONDITIONS FOR REMOVAL OF VOTERS FROM 20
OFFICIAL LIST OF REGISTERED VOTERS. 21
‘‘(a) V
ERIFICATION ONBASIS OFOBJECTIVE AND 22
R
ELIABLEEVIDENCE OFINELIGIBILITY.— 23
‘‘(1) R
EQUIRING VERIFICATION .—Notwith-24
standing any other provision of this Act, a State 25
may not remove the name of any registrant from the 26
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official list of voters eligible to vote in elections for 1
Federal office in the State unless the State verifies, 2
on the basis of objective and reliable evidence, that 3
the registrant is ineligible to vote in such elections. 4
‘‘(2) F
ACTORS NOT CONSIDERED AS OBJECTIVE 5
AND RELIABLE EVIDENCE OF INELIGIBILITY .—For 6
purposes of paragraph (1), except as permitted 7
under section 8(d) after a notice described in para-8
graph (2) of such section has been sent, the fol-9
lowing factors, or any combination thereof, shall not 10
be treated as objective and reliable evidence of a reg-11
istrant’s ineligibility to vote: 12
‘‘(A) The failure of the registrant to vote 13
in any election. 14
‘‘(B) The failure of the registrant to re-15
spond to any election mail, unless the election 16
mail has been returned as undeliverable. 17
‘‘(C) The failure of the registrant to take 18
any other action with respect to voting in any 19
election or with respect to the registrant’s sta-20
tus as a registrant. 21
‘‘(3) R
EMOVAL BASED ON OFFICIAL 22
RECORDS.— 23
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Nothing in this sec-24
tion shall prohibit a State from removing a reg-25
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istrant from the official list of eligible voters in 1
elections for Federal office if, on the basis of of-2
ficial records maintained by the State, a State 3
or local election official knows, on the basis of 4
objective and reliable evidence, that the reg-5
istrant has— 6
‘‘(i) died; or 7
‘‘(ii) permanently moved out of the 8
State and is no longer eligible to vote in 9
the State. 10
‘‘(B) O
PPORTUNITY TO DEMONSTRATE 11
ELIGIBILITY.—The State shall provide a voter 12
removed from the official list of eligible voters 13
in elections for Federal office under this para-14
graph an opportunity to demonstrate that the 15
registrant is eligible to vote and be reinstated 16
on the official list of eligible voters in elections 17
for Federal office in the State. 18
‘‘(b) N
OTICEAFTERREMOVAL.— 19
‘‘(1) N
OTICE TO INDIVIDUAL REMOVED .— 20
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 48 21
hours after a State removes the name of a reg-22
istrant from the official list of eligible voters, 23
the State shall send notice of the removal to the 24
former registrant, and shall include in the no-25
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tice the grounds for the removal and informa-1
tion on how the former registrant may contest 2
the removal or be reinstated, including a tele-3
phone number for the appropriate election offi-4
cial. 5
‘‘(B) E
XCEPTIONS.—Subparagraph (A) 6
does not apply in the case of a registrant— 7
‘‘(i) who sends written confirmation to 8
the State that the registrant is no longer 9
eligible to vote in the registrar’s jurisdic-10
tion in which the registrant was registered; 11
or 12
‘‘(ii) who is removed from the official 13
list of eligible voters by reason of the death 14
of the registrant. 15
‘‘(2) P
UBLIC NOTICE.—Not later than 48 hours 16
after conducting any general program to remove the 17
names of ineligible voters from the official list of eli-18
gible voters (as described in section 8(a)(4)), the 19
State shall disseminate a public notice through such 20
methods as may be reasonable to reach the general 21
public (including by publishing the notice in a news-22
paper of wide circulation and posting the notice on 23
the websites of the appropriate election officials) 24
that list maintenance is taking place and that reg-25
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istrants should check their registration status to en-1
sure no errors or mistakes have been made. The 2
State shall ensure that the public notice dissemi-3
nated under this paragraph is in a format that is 4
reasonably convenient and accessible to voters with 5
disabilities, including voters who have low vision or 6
are blind.’’. 7
(b) C
ONDITIONS FORTRANSMISSION OFNOTICES OF 8
R
EMOVAL.—Section 8(d) of such Act (52 U.S.C. 9
20507(d)) is amended by adding at the end the following 10
new paragraph: 11
‘‘(4) A State may not transmit a notice to a 12
registrant under this subsection unless the State ob-13
tains objective and reliable evidence (in accordance 14
with the standards for such evidence which are de-15
scribed in section 8A(a)(2)) that the registrant has 16
changed residence to a place outside the registrar’s 17
jurisdiction in which the registrant is registered.’’. 18
(c) C
ONFORMINGAMENDMENTS.— 19
(1) N
ATIONAL VOTER REGISTRATION ACT OF 20
1993.—Section 8(a) of such Act (52 U.S.C. 21
20507(a)) is amended— 22
(A) in paragraph (3), by striking ‘‘pro-23
vide’’ and inserting ‘‘subject to section 8A, pro-24
vide’’; and 25
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(B) in paragraph (4), by striking ‘‘con-1
duct’’ and inserting ‘‘subject to section 8A, con-2
duct’’. 3
(2) H
ELP AMERICA VOTE ACT OF 2002 .—Section 4
303(a)(4)(A) of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 5
(52 U.S.C. 21083(a)(4)(A)) is amended by striking 6
‘‘registrants’’ the second place it appears and insert-7
ing ‘‘and subject to section 8A of such Act, reg-8
istrants’’. 9
(d) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—The amendments made by 10
this section shall take effect on the date of the enactment 11
of this Act. 12
SEC. 4. STATE REGISTRATION PORTABILITY. 13
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 8(e) of the National Voter 14
Registration Act of 1993 (52 U.S.C. 20507(e)) is amend-15
ed to read as follows: 16
‘‘(e) P
ROCEDURE FORVOTINGFOLLOWINGFAILURE 17
T
ORETURNCARD.—Notwithstanding failure to notify the 18
registrar of the change of address prior to the date of an 19
election, a registrant who has moved from an address in 20
the State to an address in the same State shall, upon oral 21
or written affirmation by the registrant of the change of 22
address before an election official, be permitted to vote 23
(at the option of the voter)— 24
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‘‘(1) at the polling place of the registrant’s cur-1
rent address; or 2
‘‘(2) at a central location within the same reg-3
istrar’s jurisdiction.’’. 4
(b) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—The amendment made by 5
this section shall take effect on the date of the enactment 6
of this Act. 7
Æ
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