Us Congress 2023-2024 Regular Session

Us Congress Senate Bill SB3916 Compare Versions

Only one version of the bill is available at this time.

Old	New	Differences
1	1	II
2	2	118THCONGRESS
3	3	2
4	4	DSESSION S. 3916
5	5	Protecting the right to vote in elections for Federal office, and for other
6	6	purposes.
7	7	IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
8	8	MARCH12, 2024
9	9	Mr. O
10	10	SSOFF(for himself, Ms. KLOBUCHAR, Mr. WARNOCK, Mr. PADILLA, Mr.
11	11	K
12	12	ING, Mr. MERKLEY, and Mr. WYDEN) introduced the following bill;
13	13	which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Rules and Ad-
14	14	ministration
15	15	A BILL
16	16	Protecting the right to vote in elections for Federal office,
17	17	and for other purposes.
18	18	Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
19	19	tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
20	20	SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
21	21	This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Right to Vote Act’’. 4
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24	24	•S 3916 IS
25	25	SEC. 2. UNDUE BURDENS ON THE ABILITY TO VOTE IN 1
26	26	ELECTIONS FOR FEDERAL OFFICE PROHIB-2
27	27	ITED. 3
28	28	(a) I
29	29	NGENERAL.—Every citizen of legal voting age 4
30	30	shall have the fundamental right to vote in elections for 5
31	31	Federal office. 6
32	32	(b) R
33	33	ETROGRESSION.—A government may not dimin-7
34	34	ish the ability to vote in an election for Federal office un-8
35	35	less the law, rule, standard, practice, procedure, or other 9
36	36	governmental action causing the diminishment is the least 10
37	37	restrictive means of significantly furthering an important, 11
38	38	particularized government interest. 12
39	39	(c) S
40	40	UBSTANTIALIMPAIRMENT.—A government may 13
41	41	not substantially impair the ability to vote in an election 14
42	42	for Federal office unless the law, rule, standard, practice, 15
43	43	procedure, or other governmental action causing the im-16
44	44	pairment significantly furthers an important, particular-17
45	45	ized governmental interest. A substantial impairment is a 18
46	46	non-trivial impairment that makes it more difficult to vote 19
47	47	than if the law, rule, standard, practice, procedure, or 20
48	48	other governmental action had not been adopted or imple-21
49	49	mented. An impairment may be substantial even if the 22
50	50	voter or other similarly situated voters are able to vote 23
51	51	notwithstanding the impairment. 24
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54	54	•S 3916 IS
55	55	SEC. 3. JUDICIAL REVIEW. 1
56	56	(a) C
57	57	IVILACTION.—An action challenging a violation 2
58	58	of the rights created by this Act may be brought in the 3
59	59	district court for the District of Columbia, or the district 4
60	60	court for the district in which the violation took place or 5
61	61	where any defendant resides or does business, at the selec-6
62	62	tion of the plaintiff, to obtain all appropriate relief, wheth-7
63	63	er declaratory or injunctive, or facial or as-applied. Proc-8
64	64	ess may be served in any district where a defendant re-9
65	65	sides, does business, or may be found. 10
66	66	(b) S
67	67	TANDARDSTOBEAPPLIED.—Courts adjudi-11
68	68	cating actions brought to enforce the rights created by this 12
69	69	Act shall apply the following standards: 13
70	70	(1) R
71	71	ETROGRESSION.— 14
72	72	(A) A plaintiff establishes a prima facie 15
73	73	case of retrogression by demonstrating by a 16
74	74	preponderance of the evidence that a rule, 17
75	75	standard, practice, procedure, or other govern-18
76	76	mental action diminishes the ability, or other-19
77	77	wise makes it more difficult, to vote. 20
78	78	(B) Once a plaintiff establishes a prima 21
79	79	facie case as described in subparagraph (A), the 22
80	80	government shall be provided an opportunity to 23
81	81	demonstrate by clear and convincing evidence 24
82	82	that the diminishment is necessary to signifi-25
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85	85	•S 3916 IS
86	86	cantly further an important, particularized gov-1
87	87	ernmental interest. 2
88	88	(C) If the government meets its burden 3
89	89	under subparagraph (B), the challenged rule, 4
90	90	standard, practice, procedure, or other govern-5
91	91	mental action shall nonetheless be deemed in-6
92	92	valid if the plaintiff demonstrates by a prepon-7
93	93	derance of the evidence that the government 8
94	94	could adopt or implement a less-restrictive 9
95	95	means of furthering the particular important 10
96	96	governmental interest. 11
97	97	(2) S
98	98	UBSTANTIAL IMPAIRMENT .— 12
99	99	(A) A plaintiff establishes a prima facie 13
100	100	case of substantial impairment by dem-14
101	101	onstrating by a preponderance of the evidence 15
102	102	that a rule, standard, practice, procedure, or 16
103	103	other governmental action substantially impairs 17
104	104	the ability, or makes it substantially difficult, to 18
105	105	vote. 19
106	106	(B) Once a plaintiff establishes a prima 20
107	107	facie case as described in subparagraph (A), the 21
108	108	government shall be provided an opportunity to 22
109	109	demonstrate by clear and convincing evidence 23
110	110	that the impairment significantly furthers an 24
111	111	important, particularized governmental interest. 25
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114	114	•S 3916 IS
115	115	(c) DUTYTOEXPEDITE.—It shall be the duty of the 1
116	116	court to advance on the docket and to expedite to the 2
117	117	greatest reasonable extent the disposition of the action 3
118	118	and appeal under this section. 4
119	119	(d) A
120	120	TTORNEY’SFEES.—Section 722(b) of the Re-5
121	121	vised Statutes (42 U.S.C. 1988(b)) is amended— 6
122	122	(1) by striking ‘‘or section 40302’’ and insert-7
123	123	ing ‘‘section 40302’’; and 8
124	124	(2) by striking ‘‘, the court’’ and inserting ‘‘, or 9
125	125	the Right to Vote Act, the court’’. 10
126	126	SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS. 11
127	127	In this Act— 12
128	128	(1) the term ‘‘covered entity’’ means the Dis-13
129	129	trict of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto 14
130	130	Rico, and each territory and possession of the 15
131	131	United States; 16
132	132	(2) the terms ‘‘election’’ and ‘‘Federal office’’ 17
133	133	have the meanings given such terms in section 301 18
134	134	of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (52 19
135	135	U.S.C. 30101); 20
136	136	(3) the term ‘‘government’’ includes a branch, 21
137	137	department, agency, instrumentality, and official (or 22
138	138	other person acting under color of law) of the 23
139	139	United States, of any State, of any covered entity, 24
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142	142	•S 3916 IS
143	143	or of any political subdivision of any State or cov-1
144	144	ered entity; and 2
145	145	(4) the term ‘‘vote’’ means all actions necessary 3
146	146	to make a vote effective, including registration or 4
147	147	other action required by law as a prerequisite to vot-5
148	148	ing, casting a ballot, and having such ballot counted 6
149	149	and included in the appropriate totals of votes cast 7
150	150	with respect to candidates for public office for which 8
151	151	votes are received in an election. 9
152	152	SEC. 5. RULES OF CONSTRUCTION. 10
153	153	(a) B
154	154	URDENSNOTAUTHORIZED.—Nothing in this 11
155	155	Act may be construed to authorize a government to burden 12
156	156	the right to vote in elections for Federal office. 13
157	157	(b) O
158	158	THERRIGHTS ANDREMEDIES.—Nothing in 14
159	159	this Act shall be construed as indicating an intent on the 15
160	160	part of Congress to alter any rights existing under a State 16
161	161	constitution or the Constitution of the United States, or 17
162	162	to limit any remedies for any other violations of Federal, 18
163	163	State, or local law. 19
164	164	(c) O
165	165	THERPROVISION.—Nothing in this Act shall be 20
166	166	construed as conflicting with section 1703 (‘‘Rights of 21
167	167	Citizens’’) of S.1 of the 118th Congress. 22
168	168	SEC. 6. SEVERABILITY. 23
169	169	If any provision of this Act or the application of such 24
170	170	provision to any citizen or circumstance is held to be un-25
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173	173	•S 3916 IS
174	174	constitutional, the remainder of this Act and the applica-1
175	175	tion of the provisions of such to any citizen or cir-2
176	176	cumstance shall not be affected thereby. 3
177	177	SEC. 7. EFFECTIVE DATES. 4
178	178	(a) A
179	179	CTIONSBROUGHT FORRETROGRESSION.—Sub-5
180	180	section (b) of section 2 shall apply to any law, rule, stand-6
181	181	ard, practice, procedure, or other governmental action that 7
182	182	was not in effect during the November 2022 general elec-8
183	183	tion for Federal office but that will be in effect with re-9
184	184	spect to elections for Federal office occurring on or after 10
185	185	September 1, 2024, even if such law, rule, standard, prac-11
186	186	tice, procedure, or other governmental action is already 12
187	187	in effect as of the date of enactment of this Act. 13
188	188	(b) A
189	189	CTIONSBROUGHT FOR SUBSTANTIALIMPAIR-14
190	190	MENT.—Subsection (c) of section 2 shall apply to any law, 15
191	191	rule, standard, practice, procedure, or other governmental 16
192	192	action in effect with respect to elections for Federal office 17
193	193	occurring on or after September 1, 2024. 18
194	194	Æ
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