II
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 2843
To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require States to provide
for same day voter registration.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
SEPTEMBER19, 2023
Ms. K
LOBUCHAR(for herself, Mr. KING, Ms. CORTEZMASTO, Mrs. GILLI-
BRAND, Mr. PADILLA, Mrs. FEINSTEIN, Mr. BLUMENTHAL, Mr. DURBIN,
Ms. W
ARREN, Mr. WYDEN, Mr. KAINE, Mr. MERKLEY, Ms. SMITH, Mr.
C
ARPER, Mr. BOOKER, Mr. SANDERS, Mr. MURPHY, Ms. HIRONO, Mr.
B
ENNET, Mr. MARKEY, Mr. CASEY, Mr. VANHOLLEN, Mr. BROWN, and
Mr. M
ENENDEZ) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and
referred to the Committee on Rules and Administration
A BILL
To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require
States to provide for same day voter registration.
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 ‘‘Same Day Registration 4
Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. SAME DAY REGISTRATION. 6
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Title III of the Help America 7
Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21081 et seq.) is amended— 8
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•S 2843 IS
(1) by redesignating sections 304 and 305 as 1
sections 305 and 306, respectively; and 2
(2) by inserting after section 303 the following 3
new section: 4
‘‘SEC. 304. SAME DAY REGISTRATION. 5
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.— 6
‘‘(1) R
EGISTRATION.—Each State shall permit 7
any eligible individual on the day of a Federal elec-8
tion and on any day when voting, including early 9
voting, is permitted for a Federal election— 10
‘‘(A) to register to vote in such election at 11
the polling place using a form that meets the 12
requirements under section 9(b) of the National 13
Voter Registration Act of 1993 (or, if the indi-14
vidual is already registered to vote, to revise 15
any of the individual’s voter registration infor-16
mation); and 17
‘‘(B) to cast a vote in such election. 18
‘‘(2) E
XCEPTION.—The requirements under 19
paragraph (1) shall not apply to a State in which, 20
under a State law in effect continuously on and after 21
the date of the enactment of this section, there is no 22
voter registration requirement for individuals in the 23
State with respect to elections for Federal office. 24
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‘‘(b) ELIGIBLEINDIVIDUAL.—For purposes of this 1
section, the term ‘eligible individual’ means, with respect 2
to any election for Federal office, an individual who is oth-3
erwise qualified to vote in that election. 4
‘‘(c) E
NSURINGAVAILABILITY OF FORMS.—The 5
State shall ensure that each polling place has copies of 6
any forms an individual may be required to complete in 7
order to register to vote or revise the individual’s voter 8
registration information under this section. 9
‘‘(d) E
FFECTIVEDATE.— 10
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Subject to paragraph (2), 11
each State shall be required to comply with the re-12
quirements of this section for the regularly sched-13
uled general election for Federal office occurring in 14
November 2024 and for any subsequent election for 15
Federal office. 16
‘‘(2) S
PECIAL RULES FOR ELECTIONS BEFORE 17
NOVEMBER 2028.— 18
‘‘(A) E
LECTIONS PRIOR TO NOVEMBER 19
2026 GENERAL ELECTION .—A State shall be 20
deemed to be in compliance with the require-21
ments of this section for the regularly scheduled 22
general election for Federal office occurring in 23
November 2024 and subsequent elections for 24
Federal office occurring before the regularly 25
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scheduled general election for Federal office in 1
November 2026 if at least one location for each 2
15,000 registered voters in each jurisdiction in 3
the State meets such requirements, and such lo-4
cation is reasonably located to serve voting pop-5
ulations equitably across the jurisdiction. 6
‘‘(B) A
DDITIONAL ELECTIONS PRIOR TO 7
NOVEMBER 2028 GENERAL ELECTION .—If a 8
State certifies to the Commission not later than 9
November 3, 2026, that the State will not be in 10
compliance with the requirements of this section 11
for the regularly scheduled general election for 12
Federal office occurring in November 2026 be-13
cause it would be impracticable to do so and in-14
cludes in the certification the reasons for the 15
failure to meet such requirements, the State 16
shall be deemed to be in compliance with the re-17
quirements of this section for the regularly 18
scheduled general election for Federal office in 19
November 2026 and subsequent elections for 20
Federal office occurring before the regularly 21
scheduled general election for Federal office in 22
November 2028, if at least one location for each 23
15,000 registered voters in each jurisdiction in 24
the State meets such requirements, and such lo-25
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cation is reasonably located to serve voting pop-1
ulations equitably across the jurisdiction.’’. 2
(b) C
ONFORMINGAMENDMENT RELATING TOEN-3
FORCEMENT.—Section 401 of such Act (52 U.S.C. 21111) 4
is amended by striking ‘‘sections 301, 302, and 303’’ and 5
inserting ‘‘subtitle A of title III’’. 6
(c) C
LERICALAMENDMENTS.—The table of contents 7
of such Act is amended— 8
(1) by redesignating the items relating to sec-9
tions 304 and 305 as relating to sections 305 and 10
306, respectively; and 11
(2) by inserting after the item relating to sec-12
tion 303 the following new item: 13
‘‘Sec. 304. Same day registration.’’.
Æ
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