II
118THCONGRESS
2
DSESSION S. 3916
Protecting the right to vote in elections for Federal office, and for other
purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH12, 2024
Mr. O
SSOFF(for himself, Ms. KLOBUCHAR, Mr. WARNOCK, Mr. PADILLA, Mr.
K
ING, Mr. MERKLEY, and Mr. WYDEN) introduced the following bill;
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Rules and Ad-
ministration
A BILL
Protecting the right to vote in elections for Federal office,
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 ‘‘Right to Vote Act’’. 4
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SEC. 2. UNDUE BURDENS ON THE ABILITY TO VOTE IN 1
ELECTIONS FOR FEDERAL OFFICE PROHIB-2
ITED. 3
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Every citizen of legal voting age 4
shall have the fundamental right to vote in elections for 5
Federal office. 6
(b) R
ETROGRESSION.—A government may not dimin-7
ish the ability to vote in an election for Federal office un-8
less the law, rule, standard, practice, procedure, or other 9
governmental action causing the diminishment is the least 10
restrictive means of significantly furthering an important, 11
particularized government interest. 12
(c) S
UBSTANTIALIMPAIRMENT.—A government may 13
not substantially impair the ability to vote in an election 14
for Federal office unless the law, rule, standard, practice, 15
procedure, or other governmental action causing the im-16
pairment significantly furthers an important, particular-17
ized governmental interest. A substantial impairment is a 18
non-trivial impairment that makes it more difficult to vote 19
than if the law, rule, standard, practice, procedure, or 20
other governmental action had not been adopted or imple-21
mented. An impairment may be substantial even if the 22
voter or other similarly situated voters are able to vote 23
notwithstanding the impairment. 24
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SEC. 3. JUDICIAL REVIEW. 1
(a) C
IVILACTION.—An action challenging a violation 2
of the rights created by this Act may be brought in the 3
district court for the District of Columbia, or the district 4
court for the district in which the violation took place or 5
where any defendant resides or does business, at the selec-6
tion of the plaintiff, to obtain all appropriate relief, wheth-7
er declaratory or injunctive, or facial or as-applied. Proc-8
ess may be served in any district where a defendant re-9
sides, does business, or may be found. 10
(b) S
TANDARDSTOBEAPPLIED.—Courts adjudi-11
cating actions brought to enforce the rights created by this 12
Act shall apply the following standards: 13
(1) R
ETROGRESSION.— 14
(A) A plaintiff establishes a prima facie 15
case of retrogression by demonstrating by a 16
preponderance of the evidence that a rule, 17
standard, practice, procedure, or other govern-18
mental action diminishes the ability, or other-19
wise makes it more difficult, to vote. 20
(B) Once a plaintiff establishes a prima 21
facie case as described in subparagraph (A), the 22
government shall be provided an opportunity to 23
demonstrate by clear and convincing evidence 24
that the diminishment is necessary to signifi-25
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cantly further an important, particularized gov-1
ernmental interest. 2
(C) If the government meets its burden 3
under subparagraph (B), the challenged rule, 4
standard, practice, procedure, or other govern-5
mental action shall nonetheless be deemed in-6
valid if the plaintiff demonstrates by a prepon-7
derance of the evidence that the government 8
could adopt or implement a less-restrictive 9
means of furthering the particular important 10
governmental interest. 11
(2) S
UBSTANTIAL IMPAIRMENT .— 12
(A) A plaintiff establishes a prima facie 13
case of substantial impairment by dem-14
onstrating by a preponderance of the evidence 15
that a rule, standard, practice, procedure, or 16
other governmental action substantially impairs 17
the ability, or makes it substantially difficult, to 18
vote. 19
(B) Once a plaintiff establishes a prima 20
facie case as described in subparagraph (A), the 21
government shall be provided an opportunity to 22
demonstrate by clear and convincing evidence 23
that the impairment significantly furthers an 24
important, particularized governmental interest. 25
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(c) DUTYTOEXPEDITE.—It shall be the duty of the 1
court to advance on the docket and to expedite to the 2
greatest reasonable extent the disposition of the action 3
and appeal under this section. 4
(d) A
TTORNEY’SFEES.—Section 722(b) of the Re-5
vised Statutes (42 U.S.C. 1988(b)) is amended— 6
(1) by striking ‘‘or section 40302’’ and insert-7
ing ‘‘section 40302’’; and 8
(2) by striking ‘‘, the court’’ and inserting ‘‘, or 9
the Right to Vote Act, the court’’. 10
SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS. 11
In this Act— 12
(1) the term ‘‘covered entity’’ means the Dis-13
trict of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto 14
Rico, and each territory and possession of the 15
United States; 16
(2) the terms ‘‘election’’ and ‘‘Federal office’’ 17
have the meanings given such terms in section 301 18
of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (52 19
U.S.C. 30101); 20
(3) the term ‘‘government’’ includes a branch, 21
department, agency, instrumentality, and official (or 22
other person acting under color of law) of the 23
United States, of any State, of any covered entity, 24
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or of any political subdivision of any State or cov-1
ered entity; and 2
(4) the term ‘‘vote’’ means all actions necessary 3
to make a vote effective, including registration or 4
other action required by law as a prerequisite to vot-5
ing, casting a ballot, and having such ballot counted 6
and included in the appropriate totals of votes cast 7
with respect to candidates for public office for which 8
votes are received in an election. 9
SEC. 5. RULES OF CONSTRUCTION. 10
(a) B
URDENSNOTAUTHORIZED.—Nothing in this 11
Act may be construed to authorize a government to burden 12
the right to vote in elections for Federal office. 13
(b) O
THERRIGHTS ANDREMEDIES.—Nothing in 14
this Act shall be construed as indicating an intent on the 15
part of Congress to alter any rights existing under a State 16
constitution or the Constitution of the United States, or 17
to limit any remedies for any other violations of Federal, 18
State, or local law. 19
(c) O
THERPROVISION.—Nothing in this Act shall be 20
construed as conflicting with section 1703 (‘‘Rights of 21
Citizens’’) of S.1 of the 118th Congress. 22
SEC. 6. SEVERABILITY. 23
If any provision of this Act or the application of such 24
provision to any citizen or circumstance is held to be un-25
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constitutional, the remainder of this Act and the applica-1
tion of the provisions of such to any citizen or cir-2
cumstance shall not be affected thereby. 3
SEC. 7. EFFECTIVE DATES. 4
(a) A
CTIONSBROUGHT FORRETROGRESSION.—Sub-5
section (b) of section 2 shall apply to any law, rule, stand-6
ard, practice, procedure, or other governmental action that 7
was not in effect during the November 2022 general elec-8
tion for Federal office but that will be in effect with re-9
spect to elections for Federal office occurring on or after 10
September 1, 2024, even if such law, rule, standard, prac-11
tice, procedure, or other governmental action is already 12
in effect as of the date of enactment of this Act. 13
(b) A
CTIONSBROUGHT FOR SUBSTANTIALIMPAIR-14
MENT.—Subsection (c) of section 2 shall apply to any law, 15
rule, standard, practice, procedure, or other governmental 16
action in effect with respect to elections for Federal office 17
occurring on or after September 1, 2024. 18
Æ
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