Us Congress Senate Bill SB4 Introduced / Bill

                    II 
118THCONGRESS 
2
DSESSION S. 4 
To amend the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to revise the criteria for determining 
which States and political subdivisions are subject to section 4 of the 
Act, and for other purposes. 
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 
FEBRUARY29, 2024 
Mr. D
URBIN(for himself, Mr. WARNOCK, Mr. BOOKER, Mr. BLUMENTHAL, 
Ms. B
UTLER, Mr. SCHUMER, Mrs. MURRAY, Mr. WYDEN, Mr. REED, Mr. 
C
ARPER, Ms. STABENOW, Ms. CANTWELL, Mr. MENENDEZ, Mr. CARDIN, 
Mr. S
ANDERS, Mr. BROWN, Mr. CASEY, Ms. KLOBUCHAR, Mr. WHITE-
HOUSE, Mr. TESTER, Mrs. SHAHEEN, Mr. WARNER, Mr. MERKLEY, Mr. 
B
ENNET, Mrs. GILLIBRAND, Mr. COONS, Mr. SCHATZ, Ms. BALDWIN, 
Mr. M
URPHY, Ms. HIRONO, Mr. HEINRICH, Mr. KING, Mr. KAINE, Ms. 
W
ARREN, Mr. MARKEY, Mr. PETERS, Mr. VANHOLLEN, Ms. 
D
UCKWORTH, Ms. HASSAN, Ms. CORTEZMASTO, Ms. SMITH, Ms. 
S
INEMA, Ms. ROSEN, Mr. KELLY, Mr. LUJA´N, Mr. HICKENLOOPER, Mr. 
P
ADILLA, Mr. OSSOFF, Mr. WELCH, and Mr. FETTERMAN) introduced 
the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee 
on the Judiciary 
A BILL 
To amend the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to revise the 
criteria for determining which States and political sub-
divisions are subject to section 4 of the Act, 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 ‘‘John R. Lewis Voting 2
Rights Advancement Act of 2024’’. 3
TITLE I—AMENDMENTS TO THE 4
VOTING RIGHTS ACT 5
SEC. 101. VOTE DILUTION, DENIAL, AND ABRIDGMENT 6
CLAIMS. 7
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 2(a) of the Voting Rights 8
Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 10301(a)) is amended— 9
(1) by inserting after ‘‘applied by any State or 10
political subdivision’’ the following: ‘‘for the purpose 11
of, or’’; and 12
(2) by striking ‘‘as provided in subsection (b)’’ 13
and inserting ‘‘as provided in subsection (b), (c), (d), 14
or (e)’’. 15
(b) V
OTEDILUTION.—Section 2 of such Act (52 16
U.S.C. 10301), as amended by subsection (a), is further 17
amended by striking subsection (b) and inserting the fol-18
lowing: 19
‘‘(b) A violation of subsection (a) for vote dilution is 20
established if, based on the totality of circumstances, it 21
is shown that the political processes leading to nomination 22
or election in the State or political subdivision are not 23
equally open to participation by members of a class of citi-24
zens protected by subsection (a) in that its members have 25
less opportunity than other members of the electorate to 26
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participate in the political process and to elect representa-1
tives of their choice. The extent to which members of a 2
protected class have been elected to office in the State or 3
political subdivision is one circumstance which may be 4
considered: Provided, That nothing in this section estab-5
lishes a right to have members of a protected class elected 6
in numbers equal to their proportion in the population. 7
The legal standard articulated in Thornburg v. Gingles, 8
478 U.S. 30 (1986), governs claims under this subsection. 9
For purposes of this subsection a class of citizens pro-10
tected by subsection (a) may include a cohesive coalition 11
of members of different racial or language minority 12
groups.’’. 13
(c) V
OTEDENIAL ORABRIDGEMENT.—Section 2 of 14
such Act (52 U.S.C. 10301), as amended by subsections 15
(a) and (b), is further amended by adding at the end the 16
following: 17
‘‘(c)(1) A violation of subsection (a) for vote denial 18
or abridgment is established if the challenged standard, 19
practice, or procedure imposes a discriminatory burden on 20
members of a class of citizens protected by subsection (a), 21
meaning that— 22
‘‘(A) members of the protected class face great-23
er difficulty in complying with the standard, prac-24
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tice, or procedure, considering the totality of the cir-1
cumstances; and 2
‘‘(B) such greater difficulty is, at least in part, 3
caused by or linked to social and historical condi-4
tions that have produced or currently produce dis-5
crimination against members of the protected class. 6
‘‘(2) The challenged standard, practice, or procedure 7
need only be a but-for cause of the discriminatory burden 8
or perpetuate a pre-existing discriminatory burden. 9
‘‘(3)(A) The totality of the circumstances for consid-10
eration relative to a violation of subsection (a) for vote 11
denial or abridgment shall include the following factors, 12
which, individually and collectively, show how a voting 13
standard, practice, or procedure can function to amplify 14
the effects of past or present racial discrimination: 15
‘‘(i) The history of official voting-related dis-16
crimination in the State or political subdivision. 17
‘‘(ii) The extent to which voting in the elections 18
of the State or political subdivision is racially polar-19
ized. 20
‘‘(iii) The extent to which the State or political 21
subdivision has used unduly burdensome photo-22
graphic voter identification requirements, documen-23
tary proof of citizenship requirements, documentary 24
proof of residence requirements, or other voting 25
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standards, practices, or procedures beyond those re-1
quired by Federal law that may impair the ability of 2
members of the protected class to participate fully in 3
the political process. 4
‘‘(iv) The extent to which members of the pro-5
tected class bear the effects of discrimination in 6
areas such as education, employment, and health, 7
which hinder the ability of those members to partici-8
pate effectively in the political process. 9
‘‘(v) The use of overt or subtle racial appeals ei-10
ther in political campaigns or surrounding the adop-11
tion or maintenance of the challenged standard, 12
practice, or procedure. 13
‘‘(vi) The extent to which members of the pro-14
tected class have been elected to public office in the 15
jurisdiction, except that the fact that the protected 16
class is too small to elect candidates of its choice 17
shall not defeat a claim of vote denial or abridgment 18
under this section. 19
‘‘(vii) Whether there is a lack of responsiveness 20
on the part of elected officials to the particularized 21
needs of members of the protected class. 22
‘‘(viii) Whether the policy underlying the State 23
or political subdivision’s use of the challenged quali-24
fication, prerequisite, standard, practice, or proce-25
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dure has a tenuous connection to that qualification, 1
prerequisite, standard, practice, or procedure. 2
‘‘(B) A particular combination or number of 3
factors under subparagraph (A) shall not be re-4
quired to establish a violation of subsection (a) for 5
vote denial or abridgment. 6
‘‘(C) The totality of the circumstances for con-7
sideration relative to a violation of subsection (a) for 8
vote denial or abridgment shall not include the fol-9
lowing factors: 10
‘‘(i) The total number or share of members of 11
a protected class on whom a challenged standard, 12
practice, or procedure does not impose a material 13
burden. 14
‘‘(ii) The degree to which the challenged stand-15
ard, practice, or procedure has a long pedigree or 16
was in widespread use at some earlier date. 17
‘‘(iii) The use of an identical or similar stand-18
ard, practice, or procedure in other States or polit-19
ical subdivisions. 20
‘‘(iv) The availability of other forms of voting 21
unimpacted by the challenged standard, practice, or 22
procedure to all members of the electorate, including 23
members of the protected class, unless the State or 24
political subdivision is simultaneously expanding 25
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those other standards, practices, or procedures to 1
eliminate any disproportionate burden imposed by 2
the challenged standard, practice, or procedure. 3
‘‘(v) A prophylactic impact on potential criminal 4
activity by individual voters, if such crimes have not 5
occurred in the State or political subdivision in sub-6
stantial numbers. 7
‘‘(vi) Mere invocation of interests in voter con-8
fidence or prevention of fraud.’’. 9
(d) I
NTENDEDVOTEDILUTION ORVOTEDENIAL OR 10
A
BRIDGMENT.—Section 2 of such Act (52 U.S.C. 10301), 11
as amended by subsections (a), (b), and (c) is further 12
amended by adding at the end the following: 13
‘‘(d)(1) A violation of subsection (a) is also estab-14
lished if a challenged qualification, prerequisite, standard, 15
practice, or procedure is intended, at least in part, to di-16
lute the voting strength of a protected class or to deny 17
or abridge the right of any citizen of the United States 18
to vote on account of race, color, or in contravention of 19
the guarantees set forth in section 4(f)(2). 20
‘‘(2) Discrimination on account of race or color, or 21
in contravention of the guarantees set forth in section 22
4(f)(2), need only be one purpose of a qualification, pre-23
requisite, standard, practice, or procedure in order to es-24
tablish a violation of subsection (a), as described in this 25
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subsection. A qualification, prerequisite, standard, prac-1
tice, or procedure intended to dilute the voting strength 2
of a protected class or to make it more difficult for mem-3
bers of a protected class to cast a ballot that will be count-4
ed constitutes a violation of subsection (a), as described 5
in this subsection, even if an additional purpose of the 6
qualification, prerequisite, standard, practice, or proce-7
dure is to benefit a particular political party or group. 8
‘‘(3) Recent context, including actions by official deci-9
sionmakers in prior years or in other contexts preceding 10
the decision responsible for the challenged qualification, 11
prerequisite, standard, practice, or procedure, and includ-12
ing actions by predecessor government actors or individual 13
members of a decisionmaking body, may be relevant to 14
making a determination about a violation of subsection 15
(a), as described under this subsection. 16
‘‘(4) A claim that a violation of subsection (a) has 17
occurred, as described under this subsection, shall require 18
proof of a discriminatory impact but shall not require 19
proof of violation of subsection (b) or (c).’’. 20
SEC. 102. RETROGRESSION. 21
Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (52 22
U.S.C. 10301 et seq.), as amended by section 101 of this 23
Act, is further amended by adding at the end the fol-24
lowing: 25
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‘‘(e) A violation of subsection (a) is established when 1
a State or political subdivision enacts or seeks to admin-2
ister any qualification or prerequisite to voting or stand-3
ard, practice, or procedure with respect to voting in any 4
election that has the purpose of or will have the effect 5
of diminishing the ability of any citizens of the United 6
States on account of race or color, or in contravention of 7
the guarantees set forth in section 4(f)(2), to participate 8
in the electoral process or elect their preferred candidates 9
of choice. This subsection applies to any action taken on 10
or after January 1, 2021, by a State or political subdivi-11
sion to enact or seek to administer any such qualification 12
or prerequisite to voting or standard, practice or proce-13
dure. 14
‘‘(f) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (e), 15
final decisions of the United States District Court of the 16
District of Columbia on applications or petitions by States 17
or political subdivisions for preclearance under section 5 18
of any changes in voting prerequisites, standards, prac-19
tices, or procedures, supersede the provisions of subsection 20
(e).’’. 21
SEC. 103. VIOLATIONS TRIGGERING AUTHORITY OF COURT 22
TO RETAIN JURISDICTION. 23
(a) T
YPES OFVIOLATIONS.—Section 3(c) of the Vot-24
ing Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 10302(c)) is amended 25
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by striking ‘‘violations of the fourteenth or fifteenth 1
amendment’’ and inserting ‘‘violations of the 14th or 15th 2
Amendment, violations of this Act, or violations of any 3
Federal law that prohibits discrimination in voting on the 4
basis of race, color, or membership in a language minority 5
group,’’. 6
(b) C
ONFORMING AMENDMENT.—Section 3(a) of 7
such Act (52 U.S.C. 10302(a)) is amended by striking 8
‘‘violations of the fourteenth or fifteenth amendment’’ and 9
inserting ‘‘violations of the 14th or 15th Amendment, vio-10
lations of this Act, or violations of any Federal law that 11
prohibits discrimination in voting on the basis of race, 12
color, or membership in a language minority group,’’. 13
SEC. 104. CRITERIA FOR COVERAGE OF STATES AND POLIT-14
ICAL SUBDIVISIONS. 15
(a) D
ETERMINATION OF STATES AND POLITICAL 16
S
UBDIVISIONSSUBJECT TOSECTION4(a).— 17
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Section 4(b) of the Voting 18
Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 10303(b)) is amend-19
ed to read as follows: 20
‘‘(b) D
ETERMINATION OF STATES ANDPOLITICAL 21
S
UBDIVISIONSSUBJECT TOREQUIREMENTS.— 22
‘‘(1) E
XISTENCE OF VOTING RIGHTS VIOLA -23
TIONS DURING PREVIOUS 25 YEARS .— 24
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‘‘(A) STATEWIDE APPLICATION .—Sub-1
section (a) applies with respect to a State and 2
all political subdivisions within the State during 3
a calendar year if— 4
‘‘(i) fifteen or more voting rights vio-5
lations occurred in the State during the 6
previous 25 calendar years; or 7
‘‘(ii) ten or more voting rights viola-8
tions occurred in the State during the pre-9
vious 25 calendar years, at least one of 10
which was committed by the State itself 11
(as opposed to a political subdivision with-12
in the State). 13
‘‘(B) A
PPLICATION TO SPECIFIC POLITICAL 14
SUBDIVISIONS.—Subsection (a) applies with re-15
spect to a political subdivision as a separate 16
unit during a calendar year if three or more 17
voting rights violations occurred in the subdivi-18
sion during the previous 25 calendar years. 19
‘‘(2) P
ERIOD OF APPLICATION.— 20
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Except as provided in 21
subparagraph (B), if, pursuant to paragraph 22
(1), subsection (a) applies with respect to a 23
State or political subdivision during a calendar 24
year, subsection (a) shall apply with respect to 25
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such State or political subdivision for the pe-1
riod— 2
‘‘(i) that begins on January 1 of the 3
year in which subsection (a) applies; and 4
‘‘(ii) that ends on the date which is 10 5
years after the date described in clause (i). 6
‘‘(B) N
O FURTHER APPLICATION AFTER 7
DECLARATORY JUDGMENT .— 8
‘‘(i) S
TATES.—If a State obtains a de-9
claratory judgment under subsection (a), 10
and the judgment remains in effect, sub-11
section (a) shall no longer apply to such 12
State and all political subdivisions in the 13
State pursuant to paragraph (1)(A) unless, 14
after the issuance of the declaratory judg-15
ment, paragraph (1)(A) applies to the 16
State solely on the basis of voting rights 17
violations occurring after the issuance of 18
the declaratory judgment. 19
‘‘(ii) P
OLITICAL SUBDIVISIONS.—If a 20
political subdivision obtains a declaratory 21
judgment under subsection (a), and the 22
judgment remains in effect, subsection (a) 23
shall no longer apply to such political sub-24
division pursuant to paragraph (1), includ-25
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ing pursuant to paragraph (1)(A) (relating 1
to the statewide application of subsection 2
(a)), unless, after the issuance of the de-3
claratory judgment, paragraph (1)(B) ap-4
plies to the political subdivision solely on 5
the basis of voting rights violations occur-6
ring after the issuance of the declaratory 7
judgment. 8
‘‘(3) D
ETERMINATION OF VOTING RIGHTS VIO -9
LATION.—For purposes of paragraph (1), a voting 10
rights violation occurred in a State or political sub-11
division if any of the following applies: 12
‘‘(A) J
UDICIAL RELIEF; VIOLATION OF 13
THE 14TH OR 15TH AMENDMENT .—Any final 14
judgment (that was not reversed on appeal) oc-15
curred, in which the plaintiff prevailed and in 16
which any court of the United States deter-17
mined that a denial or abridgement of the right 18
of any citizen of the United States to vote on 19
account of race, color, or membership in a lan-20
guage minority group occurred, or that a voting 21
qualification or prerequisite to voting or stand-22
ard, practice, or procedure with respect to vot-23
ing created an undue burden on the right to 24
vote in connection with a claim that the law un-25
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duly burdened voters of a particular race, color, 1
or language minority group, in violation of the 2
14th or 15th Amendment to the Constitution of 3
the United States, anywhere within the State or 4
subdivision. 5
‘‘(B) J
UDICIAL RELIEF; VIOLATIONS OF 6
THIS ACT.—Any final judgment (that was not 7
reversed on appeal) occurred in which the plain-8
tiff prevailed and in which any court of the 9
United States determined that a voting quali-10
fication or prerequisite to voting or standard, 11
practice, or procedure with respect to voting 12
was imposed or applied or would have been im-13
posed or applied anywhere within the State or 14
subdivision in a manner that resulted or would 15
have resulted in a denial or abridgement of the 16
right of any citizen of the United States to vote 17
on account of race, color, or membership in a 18
language minority group, in violation of sub-19
section (e) or (f) or section 2, 201, or 203. 20
‘‘(C) F
INAL JUDGMENT; DENIAL OF DE-21
CLARATORY JUDGMENT .—In a final judgment 22
(that was not been reversed on appeal), any 23
court of the United States has denied the re-24
quest of the State or subdivision for a declara-25
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tory judgment under section 3(c) or section 5, 1
and thereby prevented a voting qualification or 2
prerequisite to voting or standard, practice, or 3
procedure with respect to voting from being en-4
forced anywhere within the State or subdivision. 5
‘‘(D) O
BJECTION BY THE ATTORNEY GEN -6
ERAL.—The Attorney General has interposed 7
an objection under section 3(c) or section 5, 8
and thereby prevented a voting qualification or 9
prerequisite to voting or standard, practice, or 10
procedure with respect to voting from being en-11
forced anywhere within the State or subdivision. 12
A violation under this subparagraph has not oc-13
curred where an objection has been withdrawn 14
by the Attorney General, unless the withdrawal 15
was in response to a change in the law or prac-16
tice that served as the basis of the objection. A 17
violation under this subparagraph has not oc-18
curred where the objection is based solely on a 19
State or political subdivision’s failure to comply 20
with a procedural process that would not other-21
wise count as an independent violation of this 22
Act. 23
‘‘(E) C
ONSENT DECREE, SETTLEMENT, OR 24
OTHER AGREEMENT .— 25
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‘‘(i) AGREEMENT.—A consent decree, 1
settlement, or other agreement was adopt-2
ed or entered by a court of the United 3
States that contains an admission of liabil-4
ity by the defendants, which resulted in the 5
alteration or abandonment of a voting 6
practice anywhere in the territory of such 7
State or subdivision that was challenged on 8
the ground that the practice denied or 9
abridged the right of any citizen of the 10
United States to vote on account of race, 11
color, or membership in a language minor-12
ity group in violation of subsection (e) or 13
(f) or section 2, 201, or 203, or the 14th 14
or 15th Amendment. 15
‘‘(ii) I
NDEPENDENT VIOLATIONS .—A 16
voluntary extension or continuation of a 17
consent decree, settlement, or agreement 18
described in clause (i) shall not count as 19
an independent violation under this sub-20
paragraph. Any other extension or modi-21
fication of such a consent decree, settle-22
ment, or agreement, if the consent decree, 23
settlement, or agreement has been in place 24
for ten years or longer, shall count as an 25
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independent violation under this subpara-1
graph. If a court of the United States 2
finds that a consent decree, settlement, or 3
agreement described in clause (i) itself de-4
nied or abridged the right of any citizen of 5
the United States to vote on account of 6
race, color, or membership in a language 7
minority group, violated subsection (e) or 8
(f) or section 2, 201, or 203, or created an 9
undue burden on the right to vote in con-10
nection with a claim that the consent de-11
cree, settlement, or other agreement un-12
duly burdened voters of a particular race, 13
color, or language minority group, that 14
finding shall count as an independent vio-15
lation under this subparagraph. 16
‘‘(F) M
ULTIPLE VIOLATIONS .—Each in-17
stance in which a voting qualification or pre-18
requisite to voting or standard, practice, or pro-19
cedure with respect to voting, including each re-20
districting plan, is found to be a violation by a 21
court of the United States pursuant to subpara-22
graph (A) or (B), or prevented from being en-23
forced pursuant to subparagraph (C) or (D), or 24
altered or abandoned pursuant to subparagraph 25
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(E) shall count as an independent violation 1
under this paragraph. Within a redistricting 2
plan, each violation under this paragraph found 3
to discriminate against any group of voters 4
based on race, color, or language minority 5
group shall count as an independent violation 6
under this paragraph. 7
‘‘(4) T
IMING OF DETERMINATIONS .— 8
‘‘(A) D
ETERMINATIONS OF VOTING RIGHTS 9
VIOLATIONS.—As early as practicable during 10
each calendar year, the Attorney General shall 11
make the determinations required by this sub-12
section, including updating the list of voting 13
rights violations occurring in each State and po-14
litical subdivision for the previous calendar 15
year. 16
‘‘(B) E
FFECTIVE UPON PUBLICATION IN 17
FEDERAL REGISTER .—A determination or cer-18
tification of the Attorney General under this 19
section or under section 8 or 13 shall be effec-20
tive upon publication in the Federal Register.’’. 21
(2) C
ONFORMING AMENDMENTS .—Section 4(a) 22
of such Act (52 U.S.C. 10303(a)) is amended— 23
(A) in paragraph (1), in the first sentence 24
of the matter preceding subparagraph (A), by 25
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striking ‘‘any State with respect to which’’ and 1
all that follows through ‘‘unless’’ and inserting 2
‘‘any State to which this subsection applies dur-3
ing a calendar year pursuant to determinations 4
made under subsection (b), or in any political 5
subdivision of such State (as such subdivision 6
existed on the date such determinations were 7
made with respect to such State), though such 8
determinations were not made with respect to 9
such subdivision as a separate unit, or in any 10
political subdivision with respect to which this 11
subsection applies during a calendar year pur-12
suant to determinations made with respect to 13
such subdivision as a separate unit under sub-14
section (b), unless’’; 15
(B) in paragraph (1), in the matter pre-16
ceding subparagraph (A), by striking the second 17
sentence; 18
(C) in paragraph (1)(A), by striking ‘‘(in 19
the case of a State or subdivision seeking a de-20
claratory judgment under the second sentence 21
of this subsection)’’; 22
(D) in paragraph (1)(B), by striking ‘‘(in 23
the case of a State or subdivision seeking a de-24
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•S 4 IS
claratory judgment under the second sentence 1
of this subsection)’’; 2
(E) in paragraph (3), by striking ‘‘(in the 3
case of a State or subdivision seeking a declara-4
tory judgment under the second sentence of this 5
subsection)’’; 6
(F) in paragraph (5), by striking ‘‘(in the 7
case of a State or subdivision which sought a 8
declaratory judgment under the second sentence 9
of this subsection)’’; 10
(G) by striking paragraphs (7) and (8); 11
and 12
(H) by redesignating paragraph (9) as 13
paragraph (7). 14
(b) C
LARIFICATION OFTREATMENT OFMEMBERS OF 15
L
ANGUAGEMINORITYGROUPS.—Section 4(a)(1) of such 16
Act (52 U.S.C. 10303(a)(1)), as amended by subsection 17
(a), is further amended, in the first sentence, by striking 18
‘‘race or color,’’ and inserting ‘‘race or color, or in con-19
travention of the guarantees of subsection (f)(2),’’. 20
(c) F
ACILITATINGBAILOUT.—Section 4(a) of the 21
Voting Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 10303(a)), as 22
amended by subsection (a), is further amended— 23
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•S 4 IS
(1) by striking paragraph (1)(C) and redesig-1
nating subparagraphs (D) through (F) as subpara-2
graphs (C) through (E), respectively; 3
(2) by inserting at the beginning of paragraph 4
(7), as redesignated by subsection (a)(2)(H), the fol-5
lowing: ‘‘Any plaintiff seeking a declaratory judg-6
ment under this subsection on the grounds that the 7
plaintiff meets the requirements of paragraph (1) 8
may request that the Attorney General consent to 9
entry of judgment.’’; and 10
(3) by adding at the end the following: 11
‘‘(8) If a political subdivision is subject to the applica-12
tion of this subsection, due to the applicability of sub-13
section (b)(1)(A), the political subdivision may seek a de-14
claratory judgment under this section if the subdivision 15
demonstrates that the subdivision meets the criteria estab-16
lished by the subparagraphs of paragraph (1), for the 10 17
years preceding the date on which subsection (a) applied 18
to the political subdivision under subsection (b)(1)(A). 19
‘‘(9) If a political subdivision was not subject to the 20
application of this subsection by reason of a declaratory 21
judgment entered prior to the date of enactment of the 22
John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2024, 23
and is not, subsequent to that date of enactment, subject 24
to the application of this subsection under subsection 25
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•S 4 IS
(b)(1)(B), then that political subdivision shall not be sub-1
ject to the requirements of this subsection.’’. 2
SEC. 105. DETERMINATION OF STATES AND POLITICAL SUB-3
DIVISIONS SUBJECT TO PRECLEARANCE FOR 4
COVERED PRACTICES. 5
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 10301 et 6
seq.) is further amended by inserting after section 4 the 7
following: 8
‘‘SEC. 4A. DETERMINATION OF STATES AND POLITICAL 9
SUBDIVISIONS SUBJECT TO PRECLEARANCE 10
FOR COVERED PRACTICES. 11
‘‘(a) P
RACTICE-BASEDPRECLEARANCE.— 12
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Each State and each polit-13
ical subdivision shall— 14
‘‘(A) identify any newly enacted or adopted 15
law, regulation, or policy that includes a voting 16
qualification or prerequisite to voting, or a 17
standard, practice, or procedure with respect to 18
voting, that is a covered practice described in 19
subsection (b); and 20
‘‘(B) ensure that no such covered practice 21
is implemented unless or until the State or po-22
litical subdivision, as the case may be, complies 23
with subsection (c). 24
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•S 4 IS
‘‘(2) DETERMINATIONS OF CHARACTERISTICS 1
OF VOTING-AGE POPULATION.— 2
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—As early as prac-3
ticable during each calendar year, the Attorney 4
General, in consultation with the Director of 5
the Bureau of the Census and the heads of 6
other relevant offices of the government, shall 7
make the determinations required by this sec-8
tion regarding voting-age populations and the 9
characteristics of such populations, and shall 10
publish a list of the States and political subdivi-11
sions to which a voting-age population char-12
acteristic described in subsection (b) applies. 13
‘‘(B) P
UBLICATION IN THE FEDERAL REG -14
ISTER.—A determination (including a certifi-15
cation) of the Attorney General under this 16
paragraph shall be effective upon publication in 17
the Federal Register. 18
‘‘(b) C
OVEREDPRACTICES.—To assure that the right 19
of citizens of the United States to vote is not denied or 20
abridged on account of race, color, or membership in a 21
language minority group as a result of the implementation 22
of certain qualifications or prerequisites to voting, or 23
standards, practices, or procedures with respect to voting, 24
newly adopted in a State or political subdivision, the fol-25
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•S 4 IS
lowing shall be covered practices subject to the require-1
ments described in subsection (a): 2
‘‘(1) C
HANGES TO METHOD OF ELECTION .— 3
Any change to the method of election— 4
‘‘(A) to add seats elected at-large in a 5
State or political subdivision where— 6
‘‘(i) two or more racial groups or lan-7
guage minority groups each represent 20 8
percent or more of the voting-age popu-9
lation in the State or political subdivision, 10
respectively; or 11
‘‘(ii) a single language minority group 12
represents 20 percent or more of the vot-13
ing-age population on Indian lands located 14
in whole or in part in the State or political 15
subdivision; or 16
‘‘(B) to convert one or more seats elected 17
from a single-member district to one or more 18
at-large seats or seats from a multi-member 19
district in a State or political subdivision 20
where— 21
‘‘(i) two or more racial groups or lan-22
guage minority groups each represent 20 23
percent or more of the voting-age popu-24
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•S 4 IS
lation in the State or political subdivision, 1
respectively; or 2
‘‘(ii) a single language minority group 3
represents 20 percent or more of the vot-4
ing-age population on Indian lands located 5
in whole or in part in the State or political 6
subdivision. 7
‘‘(2) C
HANGES TO POLITICAL SUBDIVISION 8
BOUNDARIES.—Any change or series of changes 9
within a year to the boundaries of a political subdivi-10
sion that reduces by 3 or more percentage points the 11
percentage of the political subdivision’s voting-age 12
population that is comprised of members of a single 13
racial group or language minority group in the polit-14
ical subdivision where— 15
‘‘(A) two or more racial groups or lan-16
guage minority groups each represent 20 per-17
cent or more of the political subdivision’s vot-18
ing-age population; or 19
‘‘(B) a single language minority group rep-20
resents 20 percent or more of the voting-age 21
population on Indian lands located in whole or 22
in part in the political subdivision. 23
‘‘(3) C
HANGES THROUGH REDISTRICTING .— 24
Any change to the boundaries of districts for Fed-25
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•S 4 IS
eral, State, or local elections in a State or political 1
subdivision where any racial group or language mi-2
nority group that is not the largest racial group or 3
language minority group in the jurisdiction and that 4
represents 15 percent or more of the State or polit-5
ical subdivision’s voting-age population experiences a 6
population increase of at least 20 percent of its vot-7
ing-age population, over the preceding decade (as 8
calculated by the Bureau of the Census under the 9
most recent decennial census), in the jurisdiction. 10
‘‘(4) C
HANGES IN DOCUMENTATION OR QUALI -11
FICATIONS TO VOTE.—Any change to requirements 12
for documentation or proof of identity to vote or reg-13
ister to vote in elections for Federal, State, or local 14
offices that will exceed or be more stringent than 15
such requirements under State law on the day before 16
the date of enactment of the John R. Lewis Voting 17
Rights Advancement Act of 2024. 18
‘‘(5) C
HANGES TO MULTILINGUAL VOTING MA -19
TERIALS.—Any change that reduces multilingual 20
voting materials or alters the manner in which such 21
materials are provided or distributed, where no simi-22
lar reduction or alteration occurs in materials pro-23
vided in English for such election. 24
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•S 4 IS
‘‘(6) CHANGES THAT REDUCE , CONSOLIDATE, 1
OR RELOCATE VOTING LOCATIONS , OR REDUCE VOT-2
ING OPPORTUNITIES .—Any change that reduces, 3
consolidates, or relocates voting locations in elections 4
for Federal, State, or local office, including early, 5
absentee, and election-day voting locations, or re-6
duces days or hours of in-person voting on any Sun-7
day during a period occurring prior to the date of 8
an election for Federal, State, or local office during 9
which voters may cast ballots in such election, or 10
prohibits the provision of food or non-alcoholic drink 11
to persons waiting to vote in an election for Federal, 12
State, or local office, except where the provision 13
would violate prohibitions on expenditures to influ-14
ence voting, if the location change, reduction in days 15
or hours, or prohibition applies— 16
‘‘(A) in one or more census tracts in which 17
two or more language minority groups or racial 18
groups each represent 20 percent or more of 19
the voting-age population; or 20
‘‘(B) on Indian lands in which at least 20 21
percent of the voting-age population belongs to 22
a single language minority group. 23
‘‘(7) N
EW LIST MAINTENANCE PROCESS .—Any 24
change to the maintenance process for voter reg-25
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•S 4 IS
istration lists that adds a new basis for removal 1
from the list of active voters registered to vote in 2
elections for Federal, State, or local office, or that 3
incorporates new sources of information in deter-4
mining a voter’s eligibility to vote in elections for 5
Federal, State, or local office, if such a change 6
would have a statistically significant disparate im-7
pact, concerning the removal from voter rolls, on 8
members of racial groups or language minority 9
groups that constitute greater than 5 percent of the 10
voting-age population— 11
‘‘(A) in the case of a political subdivision 12
imposing such change if— 13
‘‘(i) two or more racial groups or lan-14
guage minority groups each represent 20 15
percent or more of the voting-age popu-16
lation of the political subdivision; or 17
‘‘(ii) a single language minority group 18
represents 20 percent or more of the vot-19
ing-age population on Indian lands located 20
in whole or in part in the political subdivi-21
sion; or 22
‘‘(B) in the case of a State imposing such 23
change, if two or more racial groups or lan-24
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•S 4 IS
guage minority groups each represent 20 per-1
cent or more of the voting-age population of— 2
‘‘(i) the State; or 3
‘‘(ii) a political subdivision in the 4
State, except that the requirements under 5
subsections (a) and (c) shall apply only 6
with respect to each such political subdivi-7
sion individually. 8
‘‘(c) P
RECLEARANCE.— 9
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.— 10
‘‘(A) A
CTION.—Whenever a State or polit-11
ical subdivision with respect to which the re-12
quirements set forth in subsection (a) are in ef-13
fect shall enact, adopt, or seek to implement 14
any covered practice described under subsection 15
(b), such State or subdivision may institute an 16
action in the United States District Court for 17
the District of Columbia for a declaratory judg-18
ment that such covered practice neither has the 19
purpose nor will have the effect of denying or 20
abridging the right to vote on account of race, 21
color, or membership in a language minority 22
group, and unless and until the court enters 23
such judgment such covered practice shall not 24
be implemented. 25
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•S 4 IS
‘‘(B) SUBMISSION TO ATTORNEY GEN -1
ERAL.— 2
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—Notwithstanding 3
subparagraph (A), such covered practice 4
may be implemented without such pro-5
ceeding if the covered practice has been 6
submitted by the chief legal officer or other 7
appropriate official of such State or sub-8
division to the Attorney General and the 9
Attorney General has not interposed an ob-10
jection within 60 days after such submis-11
sion, or upon good cause shown, to facili-12
tate an expedited approval within 60 days 13
after such submission, the Attorney Gen-14
eral has affirmatively indicated that such 15
objection will not be made. For purposes of 16
determining whether expedited consider-17
ation of approval is required under this 18
subparagraph or section 5(a), an exigency 19
such as a natural disaster, that requires a 20
change in a voting qualification or pre-21
requisite to voting or standard, practice, or 22
procedure with respect to voting during the 23
period of 30 days before a Federal election, 24
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•S 4 IS
shall be considered to be good cause re-1
quiring that expedited consideration. 2
‘‘(ii) E
FFECT OF INDICATION .—Nei-3
ther an affirmative indication by the Attor-4
ney General that no objection will be made, 5
nor the Attorney General’s failure to ob-6
ject, nor a declaratory judgment entered 7
under this subsection shall bar a subse-8
quent action to enjoin implementation of 9
such covered practice. In the event the At-10
torney General affirmatively indicates that 11
no objection will be made within the 60- 12
day period following receipt of a submis-13
sion, the Attorney General may reserve the 14
right to reexamine the submission if addi-15
tional information comes to the Attorney 16
General’s attention during the remainder 17
of the 60-day period which would otherwise 18
require objection in accordance with this 19
subsection. 20
‘‘(C) C
OURT.—Any action under this sub-21
section shall be heard and determined by a 22
court of three judges in accordance with the 23
provisions of section 2284 of title 28, United 24
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•S 4 IS
States Code, and any appeal shall lie to the Su-1
preme Court. 2
‘‘(2) D
ENYING OR ABRIDGING THE RIGHT TO 3
VOTE.—Any covered practice described in subsection 4
(b) that has the purpose of or will have the effect 5
of diminishing the ability of any citizens of the 6
United States on account of race, color, or member-7
ship in a language minority group, to elect their pre-8
ferred candidates of choice denies or abridges the 9
right to vote within the meaning of paragraph (1). 10
‘‘(3) P
URPOSE DEFINED.—The term ‘purpose’ 11
in paragraphs (1) and (2) shall include any discrimi-12
natory purpose. 13
‘‘(4) P
URPOSE OF PARAGRAPH (2) .—The pur-14
pose of paragraph (2) is to protect the ability of 15
such citizens to elect their preferred candidates of 16
choice. 17
‘‘(d) E
NFORCEMENT.—The Attorney General or any 18
aggrieved citizen may file an action in a district court of 19
the United States to compel any State or political subdivi-20
sion to satisfy the obligations set forth in this section. 21
Such an action shall be heard and determined by a court 22
of three judges under section 2284 of title 28, United 23
States Code. In any such action, the court shall provide 24
as a remedy that implementation of any voting qualifica-25
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•S 4 IS
tion or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or 1
procedure with respect to voting, that is the subject of the 2
action under this subsection be enjoined unless the court 3
determines that— 4
‘‘(1) the voting qualification or prerequisite to 5
voting, or standard, practice, or procedure with re-6
spect to voting, is not a covered practice described 7
in subsection (b); or 8
‘‘(2) the State or political subdivision has com-9
plied with subsection (c) with respect to the covered 10
practice at issue. 11
‘‘(e) C
OUNTING OFRACIALGROUPS ANDLANGUAGE 12
M
INORITYGROUPS.—For purposes of this section, the cal-13
culation of the population of a racial group or a language 14
minority group shall be carried out using the methodology 15
in the guidance of the Department of Justice entitled 16
‘Guidance Concerning Redistricting Under Section 5 of 17
the Voting Rights Act; Notice’ (76 Fed. Reg. 7470 (Feb-18
ruary 9, 2011)). 19
‘‘(f) S
PECIALRULE.—For purposes of determina-20
tions under this section, any data provided by the Bureau 21
of the Census, whether based on estimation from a sample 22
or actual enumeration, shall not be subject to challenge 23
or review in any court. 24
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•S 4 IS
‘‘(g) MULTILINGUALVOTINGMATERIALS.—In this 1
section, the term ‘multilingual voting materials’ means 2
registration or voting notices, forms, instructions, assist-3
ance, or other materials or information relating to the 4
electoral process, including ballots, provided in the lan-5
guage or languages of one or more language minority 6
groups.’’. 7
SEC. 106. PROMOTING TRANSPARENCY TO ENFORCE THE 8
VOTING RIGHTS ACT. 9
(a) T
RANSPARENCY.—The Voting Rights Act of 1965 10
(52 U.S.C. 10301 et seq.) is amended by inserting after 11
section 5 the following: 12
‘‘SEC. 6. TRANSPARENCY REGARDING CHANGES TO PRO-13
TECT VOTING RIGHTS. 14
‘‘(a) N
OTICE OFENACTEDCHANGES.— 15
‘‘(1) N
OTICE OF CHANGES.—If a State or polit-16
ical subdivision makes any change in any qualifica-17
tion or prerequisite to voting or standard, practice, 18
or procedure with respect to voting in any election 19
for Federal office that will result in the qualification 20
or prerequisite, standard, practice, or procedure 21
being different from that which was in effect as of 22
180 days before the date of the election for Federal 23
office, the State or political subdivision shall provide 24
reasonable public notice in such State or political 25
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•S 4 IS
subdivision and on the website of the State or polit-1
ical subdivision, of a concise description of the 2
change, including the difference between the 3
changed qualification or prerequisite, standard, prac-4
tice, or procedure and the qualification, prerequisite, 5
standard, practice, or procedure which was pre-6
viously in effect. The public notice described in this 7
paragraph, in such State or political subdivision and 8
on the website of a State or political subdivision, 9
shall be in a format that is reasonably convenient 10
and accessible to persons with disabilities who are el-11
igible to vote, including persons who have low vision 12
or are blind. 13
‘‘(2) D
EADLINE FOR NOTICE.—A State or polit-14
ical subdivision shall provide the public notice re-15
quired under paragraph (1) not later than 48 hours 16
after making the change involved. 17
‘‘(b) T
RANSPARENCY REGARDINGPOLLINGPLACE 18
R
ESOURCES.— 19
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—In order to identify any 20
changes that may impact the right to vote of any 21
person, prior to the 30th day before the date of an 22
election for Federal office, each State or political 23
subdivision with responsibility for allocating reg-24
istered voters, voting machines, and official poll 25
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•S 4 IS
workers to particular precincts and polling places 1
shall provide reasonable public notice in such State 2
or political subdivision and on the website of a State 3
or political subdivision, of the information described 4
in paragraph (2) for precincts and polling places 5
within such State or political subdivision. The public 6
notice described in this paragraph, in such State or 7
political subdivision and on the website of a State or 8
political subdivision, shall be in a format that is rea-9
sonably convenient and accessible to persons with 10
disabilities who are eligible to vote, including persons 11
who have low vision or are blind. 12
‘‘(2) I
NFORMATION DESCRIBED .—The informa-13
tion described in this paragraph with respect to a 14
precinct or polling place is each of the following: 15
‘‘(A) The name or number. 16
‘‘(B) In the case of a polling place, the lo-17
cation, including the street address, and wheth-18
er such polling place is accessible to persons 19
with disabilities. 20
‘‘(C) The voting-age population of the area 21
served by the precinct or polling place, broken 22
down by demographic group if such breakdown 23
is reasonably available to such State or political 24
subdivision. 25
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•S 4 IS
‘‘(D) The number of registered voters as-1
signed to the precinct or polling place, broken 2
down by demographic group if such breakdown 3
is reasonably available to such State or political 4
subdivision. 5
‘‘(E) The number of voting machines as-6
signed, including the number of voting ma-7
chines accessible to persons with disabilities 8
who are eligible to vote, including persons who 9
have low vision or are blind. 10
‘‘(F) The number of official paid poll 11
workers assigned. 12
‘‘(G) The number of official volunteer poll 13
workers assigned. 14
‘‘(H) In the case of a polling place, the 15
dates and hours of operation. 16
‘‘(3) U
PDATES IN INFORMATION REPORTED .— 17
If a State or political subdivision makes any change 18
in any of the information described in paragraph 19
(2), the State or political subdivision shall provide 20
reasonable public notice in such State or political 21
subdivision and on the website of a State or political 22
subdivision, of the change in the information not 23
later than 48 hours after the change occurs or, if 24
the change occurs fewer than 48 hours before the 25
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•S 4 IS
date of the election for Federal office, as soon as 1
practicable after the change occurs. The public no-2
tice described in this paragraph and published on 3
the website of a State or political subdivision shall 4
be in a format that is reasonably convenient and ac-5
cessible to persons with disabilities who are eligible 6
to vote, including persons who have low vision or are 7
blind. 8
‘‘(c) T
RANSPARENCY OFCHANGESRELATING TODE-9
MOGRAPHICS ANDELECTORALDISTRICTS.— 10
‘‘(1) R
EQUIRING PUBLIC NOTICE OF 11
CHANGES.—Not later than 10 days after making 12
any change in the constituency that will participate 13
in an election for Federal, State, or local office or 14
the boundaries of a voting unit or electoral district 15
in an election for Federal, State, or local office (in-16
cluding through redistricting, reapportionment, 17
changing from at-large elections to district-based 18
elections, or changing from district-based elections 19
to at-large elections), a State or political subdivision 20
shall provide reasonable public notice in such State 21
or political subdivision and on the website of a State 22
or political subdivision, of the demographic and elec-23
toral data described in paragraph (3) for each of the 24
geographic areas described in paragraph (2). 25
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•S 4 IS
‘‘(2) GEOGRAPHIC AREAS DESCRIBED .—The ge-1
ographic areas described in this paragraph are as 2
follows: 3
‘‘(A) The State as a whole, if the change 4
applies statewide, or the political subdivision as 5
a whole, if the change applies across the entire 6
political subdivision. 7
‘‘(B) If the change includes a plan to re-8
place or eliminate voting units or electoral dis-9
tricts, each voting unit or electoral district that 10
will be replaced or eliminated. 11
‘‘(C) If the change includes a plan to es-12
tablish new voting units or electoral districts, 13
each such new voting unit or electoral district. 14
‘‘(3) D
EMOGRAPHIC AND ELECTORAL DATA .— 15
The demographic and electoral data described in this 16
paragraph with respect to a geographic area de-17
scribed in paragraph (2) are each of the following: 18
‘‘(A) The voting-age population, broken 19
down by demographic group. 20
‘‘(B) The number of registered voters, bro-21
ken down by demographic group if such break-22
down is reasonably available to the State or po-23
litical subdivision involved. 24
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•S 4 IS
‘‘(C)(i) If the change applies to a State, 1
the actual number of votes, or (if it is not rea-2
sonably practicable for the State to ascertain 3
the actual number of votes) the estimated num-4
ber of votes received by each candidate in each 5
statewide election held during the 5-year period 6
which ends on the date the change involved is 7
made; and 8
‘‘(ii) if the change applies to only one polit-9
ical subdivision, the actual number of votes, or 10
(if it is not reasonably practicable for the polit-11
ical subdivision to ascertain the actual number 12
of votes) the estimated number of votes in each 13
subdivision-wide election held during the 5-year 14
period which ends on the date the change in-15
volved is made. 16
‘‘(4) V
OLUNTARY COMPLIANCE BY SMALLER JU -17
RISDICTIONS.—Compliance with this subsection shall 18
be voluntary for a political subdivision of a State un-19
less the subdivision is one of the following: 20
‘‘(A) A county or parish. 21
‘‘(B) A municipality with a population 22
greater than 10,000, as determined by the Bu-23
reau of the Census under the most recent de-24
cennial census. 25
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•S 4 IS
‘‘(C) A school district with a population 1
greater than 10,000, as determined by the Bu-2
reau of the Census under the most recent de-3
cennial census. For purposes of this subpara-4
graph, the term ‘school district’ means the geo-5
graphic area under the jurisdiction of a local 6
educational agency (as defined in section 8101 7
of the Elementary and Secondary Education 8
Act of 1965). 9
‘‘(d) R
ULESREGARDINGFORMAT OF INFORMA-10
TION.—The Attorney General may issue rules specifying 11
a reasonably convenient and accessible format that States 12
and political subdivisions shall use to provide public notice 13
of information under this section. 14
‘‘(e) N
ODENIAL OFRIGHTTOVOTE.—The right to 15
vote of any person shall not be denied or abridged because 16
the person failed to comply with any change made by a 17
State or political subdivision to a voting qualification, pre-18
requisite, standard, practice, or procedure if the State or 19
political subdivision involved did not meet the applicable 20
requirements of this section with respect to the change. 21
‘‘(f) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section— 22
‘‘(1) the term ‘demographic group’ means each 23
group which section 2 protects from the denial or 24
abridgement of the right to vote on account of race 25
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•S 4 IS
or color, or in contravention of the guarantees set 1
forth in section 4(f)(2); 2
‘‘(2) the term ‘election for Federal office’ means 3
any general, special, primary, or runoff election held 4
solely or in part for the purpose of electing any can-5
didate for the office of President, Vice President, 6
Presidential elector, Senator, Member of the House 7
of Representatives, or Delegate or Resident Commis-8
sioner to the Congress; and 9
‘‘(3) the term ‘persons with disabilities’, means 10
individuals with a disability, as defined in section 3 11
of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.’’. 12
(b) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—The amendment made by 13
subsection (a)(1) shall apply with respect to changes which 14
are made on or after the expiration of the 60-day period 15
which begins on the date of the enactment of this Act. 16
SEC. 107. AUTHORITY TO ASSIGN OBSERVERS. 17
(a) C
LARIFICATION OF AUTHORITY INPOLITICAL 18
S
UBDIVISIONSSUBJECT TO PRECLEARANCE.—Section 19
8(a)(2)(B) of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 20
10305(a)(2)(B)) is amended to read as follows: 21
‘‘(B) in the Attorney General’s judgment, 22
the assignment of observers is otherwise nec-23
essary to enforce the guarantees of the 14th or 24
15th Amendment or any provision of this Act 25
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•S 4 IS
or any other Federal law protecting the right of 1
citizens of the United States to vote; or’’. 2
(b) A
SSIGNMENT OFOBSERVERSTOENFORCEBI-3
LINGUALELECTIONREQUIREMENTS.—Section 8(a) of 4
such Act (52 U.S.C. 10305(a)) is amended— 5
(1) by striking ‘‘or’’ at the end of paragraph 6
(1); 7
(2) by inserting after paragraph (2) the fol-8
lowing: 9
‘‘(3) the Attorney General certifies with respect 10
to a political subdivision that— 11
‘‘(A) the Attorney General has received 12
written meritorious complaints from residents, 13
elected officials, or civic participation organiza-14
tions that efforts to violate section 203 are like-15
ly to occur; or 16
‘‘(B) in the Attorney General’s judgment, 17
the assignment of observers is necessary to en-18
force the guarantees of section 203;’’; and 19
(3) by moving the margin for the continuation 20
text following paragraph (3), as added by paragraph 21
(2) of this subsection, 2 ems to the left. 22
(c) T
RANSFERRAL OFAUTHORITYOVEROBSERVERS 23
TO THEATTORNEYGENERAL.— 24
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•S 4 IS
(1) ENFORCEMENT PROCEEDINGS .—Section 1
3(a) of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 2
10302(a)) is amended by striking ‘‘United States 3
Civil Service Commission in accordance with section 4
6’’ and inserting ‘‘Attorney General in accordance 5
with section 8’’. 6
(2) O
BSERVERS; APPOINTMENT AND COM -7
PENSATION.—Section 8 of the Voting Rights Act of 8
1965 (52 U.S.C. 10305) is amended— 9
(A) in subsection (a), in the flush matter 10
at the end, by striking ‘‘Director of the Office 11
of Personnel Management shall assign as many 12
observers for such subdivision as the Director’’ 13
and inserting ‘‘Attorney General shall assign as 14
many observers for such subdivision as the At-15
torney General’’; 16
(B) in subsection (c), by striking ‘‘Director 17
of the Office of Personnel Management’’ and 18
inserting ‘‘Attorney General’’; and 19
(C) in subsection (c), by adding at the end 20
the following: ‘‘The Director of the Office of 21
Personnel Management may, with the consent 22
of the Attorney General, assist in the selection, 23
recruitment, hiring, training, or deployment of 24
these or other individuals authorized by the At-25
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•S 4 IS
torney General for the purpose of observing 1
whether persons who are entitled to vote are 2
being permitted to vote and whether those votes 3
are being properly tabulated.’’. 4
(3) T
ERMINATION OF CERTAIN APPOINTMENTS 5
OF OBSERVERS.—Section 13(a)(1) of the Voting 6
Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 10309(a)(1)) is 7
amended by striking ‘‘notifies the Director of the Of-8
fice of Personnel Management,’’ and inserting ‘‘de-9
termines,’’. 10
SEC. 108. CLARIFICATION OF AUTHORITY TO SEEK RELIEF. 11
(a) P
OLLTAX.—Section 10(b) of the Voting Rights 12
Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 10306(b)) is amended by striking 13
‘‘the Attorney General is authorized and directed to insti-14
tute forthwith in the name of the United States such ac-15
tions,’’ and inserting ‘‘an aggrieved person or (in the name 16
of the United States) the Attorney General may institute 17
such actions’’. 18
(b) C
AUSE OFACTION.—Section 12(d) of the Voting 19
Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 10308(d)) is amended to 20
read as follows: 21
‘‘(d)(1) Whenever there are reasonable grounds to be-22
lieve that any person has engaged in, or is about to engage 23
in, any act or practice that would (1) deny any citizen 24
the right to register, to cast a ballot, or to have that ballot 25
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•S 4 IS
counted properly and included in the appropriate totals 1
of votes cast in violation of the 14th, 15th, 19th, 24th, 2
or 26th Amendments to the Constitution of the United 3
States, (2) violate subsection (a) or (b) of section 11, or 4
(3) violate any other provision of this Act or any other 5
Federal voting rights law that prohibits discrimination on 6
the basis of race, color, or membership in a language mi-7
nority group, an aggrieved person or (in the name of the 8
United States) the Attorney General may institute an ac-9
tion for preventive relief, including an application for a 10
temporary or permanent injunction, restraining order, or 11
other appropriate order. Nothing in this subsection shall 12
be construed to create a cause of action for civil enforce-13
ment of criminal provisions of this or any other Act.’’. 14
(c) J
UDICIALRELIEF.—Section 204 of the Voting 15
Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 10504) is amended by 16
striking the first sentence and inserting the following: 17
‘‘Whenever there are reasonable grounds to believe that 18
a State or political subdivision has engaged or is about 19
to engage in any act or practice prohibited by a provision 20
of this title, an aggrieved person or (in the name of the 21
United States) the Attorney General may institute an ac-22
tion in a district court of the United States, for a restrain-23
ing order, a preliminary or permanent injunction, or such 24
other order as may be appropriate.’’. 25
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•S 4 IS
(d) ENFORCEMENT OF TWENTY-SIXTHAMEND-1
MENT.—Section 301(a)(1) of the Voting Rights Act of 2
1965 (52 U.S.C. 10701(a)(1)) is amended to read as fol-3
lows: 4
‘‘(a)(1) An aggrieved person or (in the name of the 5
United States) the Attorney General may institute an ac-6
tion in a district court of the United States, for a restrain-7
ing order, a preliminary or permanent injunction, or such 8
other order as may be appropriate to implement the 26th 9
Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.’’. 10
SEC. 109. PREVENTIVE RELIEF. 11
Section 12(d) of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (52 12
U.S.C. 10308(d)), as amended by section 108, is further 13
amended by adding at the end the following: 14
‘‘(2)(A) In considering any motion for preliminary re-15
lief in any action for preventive relief described in this sub-16
section, the court shall grant the relief if the court deter-17
mines that the complainant has raised a serious question 18
as to whether the challenged voting qualification or pre-19
requisite to voting or standard, practice, or procedure vio-20
lates any of the provisions listed in section 111(a)(1) of 21
the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 22
2024 and, on balance, the hardship imposed on the de-23
fendant by the grant of the relief will be less than the 24
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•S 4 IS
hardship which would be imposed on the plaintiff if the 1
relief were not granted. 2
‘‘(B) In making its determination under this para-3
graph with respect to a change in any voting qualification, 4
prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure 5
with respect to voting, the court shall consider all relevant 6
factors and give due weight to the following factors, if they 7
are present: 8
‘‘(i) Whether the qualification, prerequisite, 9
standard, practice, or procedure in effect prior to the 10
change was adopted as a remedy for a Federal court 11
judgment, consent decree, or admission regarding— 12
‘‘(I) discrimination on the basis of race or 13
color in violation of the 14th or 15th Amend-14
ment to the Constitution of the United States; 15
‘‘(II) a violation of the 19th, 24th, or 26th 16
Amendments to the Constitution of the United 17
States; 18
‘‘(III) a violation of this Act; or 19
‘‘(IV) voting discrimination on the basis of 20
race, color, or membership in a language minor-21
ity group in violation of any other Federal or 22
State law. 23
‘‘(ii) Whether the qualification, prerequisite, 24
standard, practice, or procedure in effect prior to the 25
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•S 4 IS
change served as a ground for the dismissal or set-1
tlement of a claim alleging— 2
‘‘(I) discrimination on the basis of race or 3
color in violation of the 14th or 15th Amend-4
ment to the Constitution of the United States; 5
‘‘(II) a violation of the 19th, 24th, or 26th 6
Amendment to the Constitution of the United 7
States; 8
‘‘(III) a violation of this Act; or 9
‘‘(IV) voting discrimination on the basis of 10
race, color, or membership in a language minor-11
ity group in violation of any other Federal or 12
State law. 13
‘‘(iii) Whether the change was adopted fewer 14
than 180 days before the date of the election with 15
respect to which the change is to take or takes ef-16
fect. 17
‘‘(iv) Whether the defendant has failed to pro-18
vide timely or complete notice of the adoption of the 19
change as required by applicable Federal or State 20
law. 21
‘‘(3) A jurisdiction’s inability to enforce its voting or 22
election laws, regulations, policies, or redistricting plans, 23
standing alone, shall not be deemed to constitute irrep-24
arable harm to the public interest or to the interests of 25
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a defendant in an action arising under the Constitution 1
or any Federal law that prohibits discrimination on the 2
basis of race, color, or membership in a language minority 3
group in the voting process, for the purposes of deter-4
mining whether a stay of a court’s order or an interlocu-5
tory appeal under section 1253 of title 28, United States 6
Code, is warranted.’’. 7
SEC. 110. BILINGUAL ELECTION REQUIREMENTS. 8
Section 203(b)(1) of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 9
(52 U.S.C. 10503(b)(1)) is amended by striking ‘‘2032’’ 10
and inserting ‘‘2037’’. 11
SEC. 111. RELIEF FOR VIOLATIONS OF VOTING RIGHTS 12
LAWS. 13
(a) I
NGENERAL.— 14
(1) R
ELIEF FOR VIOLATIONS OF VOTING 15
RIGHTS LAWS.—In this section, the term ‘‘prohibited 16
act or practice’’ means— 17
(A) any act or practice— 18
(i) that creates an undue burden on 19
the fundamental right to vote in violation 20
of the 14th Amendment to the Constitu-21
tion of the United States or violates the 22
Equal Protection Clause of the 14th 23
Amendment to the Constitution of the 24
United States; or 25
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•S 4 IS
(ii) that is prohibited by the 15th, 1
19th, 24th, or 26th Amendment to the 2
Constitution of the United States, section 3
2004 of the Revised Statutes (52 U.S.C. 4
10101), the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (52 5
U.S.C. 10301 et seq.), the National Voter 6
Registration Act of 1993 (52 U.S.C. 7
20501 et seq.), the Uniformed and Over-8
seas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (52 9
U.S.C. 20301 et seq.), the Help America 10
Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 20901 et 11
seq.), the Voting Accessibility for the El-12
derly and Handicapped Act (52 U.S.C. 13
20101 et seq.), or section 2003 of the Re-14
vised Statutes (52 U.S.C. 10102); and 15
(B) any act or practice in violation of any 16
Federal law that prohibits discrimination with 17
respect to voting, including the Americans with 18
Disabilities Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 12101 et 19
seq.). 20
(2) R
ULE OF CONSTRUCTION .—Nothing in this 21
section shall be construed to diminish the authority 22
or scope of authority of any person to bring an ac-23
tion under any Federal law. 24
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(3) ATTORNEY’S FEES.—Section 722(b) of the 1
Revised Statutes (42 U.S.C. 1988(b)) is amended by 2
inserting ‘‘a provision described in section 111(a)(1) 3
of the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement 4
Act of 2024,’’ after ‘‘title VI of the Civil Rights Act 5
of 1964,’’. 6
(b) G
ROUNDS FOREQUITABLERELIEF.—In any ac-7
tion for equitable relief pursuant to a law listed under sub-8
section (a), proximity of the action to an election shall not 9
be a valid reason to deny such relief, or stay the operation 10
of or vacate the issuance of such relief, unless the party 11
opposing the issuance or continued operation of relief 12
meets the burden of proving by clear and convincing evi-13
dence that the issuance of the relief would be so close in 14
time to the election as to cause irreparable harm to the 15
public interest or that compliance with such relief would 16
impose serious burdens on the party opposing relief. 17
(1) I
N GENERAL.—In considering whether to 18
grant, deny, stay, or vacate any order of equitable 19
relief, the court shall give substantial weight to the 20
public’s interest in expanding access to the right to 21
vote. A State’s generalized interest in enforcing its 22
enacted laws shall not be a relevant consideration in 23
determining whether equitable relief is warranted. 24
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(2) PRESUMPTIVE SAFE HARBOR .—Where equi-1
table relief is sought either within 30 days of the 2
adoption or reasonable public notice of the chal-3
lenged policy or practice, or more than 45 days be-4
fore the date of an election to which the relief being 5
sought will apply, proximity to the election will be 6
presumed not to constitute a harm to the public in-7
terest or a burden on the party opposing relief. 8
(c) G
ROUNDS FORSTAY ORVACATUR INFEDERAL 9
C
LAIMSINVOLVINGVOTINGRIGHTS.— 10
(1) P
ROSPECTIVE EFFECT .—In reviewing an 11
application for a stay or vacatur of equitable relief 12
granted pursuant to a law listed in subsection (a), 13
a court shall give substantial weight to the reliance 14
interests of citizens who acted pursuant to such 15
order under review. In fashioning a stay or vacatur, 16
a reviewing court shall not order relief that has the 17
effect of denying or abridging the right to vote of 18
any citizen who has acted in reliance on the order. 19
(2) W
RITTEN EXPLANATION .—No stay or 20
vacatur under this subsection shall issue unless the 21
reviewing court makes specific findings that the pub-22
lic interest, including the public’s interest in expand-23
ing access to the ballot, will be harmed by the con-24
tinuing operation of the equitable relief or that com-25
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•S 4 IS
pliance with such relief will impose serious burdens 1
on the party seeking such a stay or vacatur such 2
that those burdens substantially outweigh the bene-3
fits to the public interest. In reviewing an applica-4
tion for a stay or vacatur of equitable relief, findings 5
of fact made in issuing the order under review shall 6
not be set aside unless clearly erroneous. 7
SEC. 112. PROTECTION OF TABULATED VOTES. 8
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 10307) 9
is amended— 10
(1) in section 11— 11
(A) by amending subsection (a) to read as 12
follows: 13
‘‘(a) No person acting under color of law shall— 14
‘‘(1) fail or refuse to permit any person to vote 15
who is entitled to vote under Federal law or is other-16
wise qualified to vote; 17
‘‘(2) willfully fail or refuse to tabulate, count, 18
and report such person’s vote; or 19
‘‘(3) willfully fail or refuse to certify the aggre-20
gate tabulations of such persons’ votes or certify the 21
election of the candidates receiving sufficient such 22
votes to be elected to office.’’; and 23
(B) in subsection (b), by inserting ‘‘sub-24
section (a) or’’ after ‘‘duties under’’; and 25
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•S 4 IS
(2) in section 12— 1
(A) in subsection (b)— 2
(i) by striking ‘‘a year following an 3
election in a political subdivision in which 4
an observer has been assigned’’ and insert-5
ing ‘‘22 months following an election for 6
Federal office’’; and 7
(ii) by adding at the end the fol-8
lowing: ‘‘Whenever the Attorney General 9
has reasonable grounds to believe that any 10
person has engaged in or is about to en-11
gage in an act in violation of this sub-12
section, the Attorney General may institute 13
(in the name of the United States) a civil 14
action in Federal district court seeking ap-15
propriate relief.’’; 16
(B) in subsection (c), by inserting ‘‘or so-17
licits a violation of’’ after ‘‘conspires to violate’’; 18
and 19
(C) in subsection (e), by striking the first 20
and second sentences and inserting the fol-21
lowing: ‘‘If, after the closing of the polls in an 22
election for Federal office, persons allege that 23
notwithstanding (1) their registration by an ap-24
propriate election official and (2) their eligi-25
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•S 4 IS
bility to vote in the political subdivision, their 1
ballots have not been counted in such election, 2
and if upon prompt receipt of notifications of 3
these allegations, the Attorney General finds 4
such allegations to be well founded, the Attor-5
ney General may forthwith file with the district 6
court an application for an order providing for 7
the counting and certification of the ballots of 8
such persons and requiring the inclusion of 9
their votes in the total vote for all applicable of-10
fices before the results of such election shall be 11
deemed final and any force or effect given 12
thereto.’’. 13
SEC. 113. ENFORCEMENT OF VOTING RIGHTS BY ATTORNEY 14
GENERAL. 15
Section 12 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (52 16
U.S.C. 10308), as amended by this Act, is further amend-17
ed by adding at the end the following: 18
‘‘(g) V
OTINGRIGHTSENFORCEMENT BY ATTORNEY 19
G
ENERAL.— 20
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—In order to fulfill the At-21
torney General’s responsibility to enforce this Act 22
and other Federal laws that protect the right to 23
vote, the Attorney General (or upon designation by 24
the Attorney General, the Assistant Attorney Gen-25
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•S 4 IS
eral for Civil Rights) is authorized, before com-1
mencing a civil action, to issue a demand for inspec-2
tion and information in writing to any State or polit-3
ical subdivision, or other governmental representa-4
tive or agent, with respect to any relevant documen-5
tary material that the Attorney General has reason 6
to believe is within their possession, custody, or con-7
trol. A demand by the Attorney General under this 8
subsection may require— 9
‘‘(A) the production of such documentary 10
material for inspection and copying; 11
‘‘(B) answers in writing to written ques-12
tions with respect to such documentary mate-13
rial; or 14
‘‘(C) both the production described under 15
subparagraph (A) and the answers described 16
under subparagraph (B). 17
‘‘(2) C
ONTENTS OF AN ATTORNEY GENERAL 18
DEMAND.— 19
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Any demand issued 20
under paragraph (1), shall include a sworn cer-21
tificate to identify the voting qualification or 22
prerequisite to voting or standard, practice, or 23
procedure with respect to voting, or other vot-24
ing related matter or issue, whose lawfulness 25
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the Attorney General is investigating and to 1
identify the Federal law that protects the right 2
to vote under which the investigation is being 3
conducted. The demand shall be reasonably cal-4
culated to lead to the discovery of documentary 5
material and information relevant to such inves-6
tigation. Documentary material includes any 7
material upon which relevant information is re-8
corded, and includes written or printed mate-9
rials, photographs, tapes, or materials upon 10
which information is electronically or magneti-11
cally recorded. Such demands shall be aimed at 12
the Attorney General having the ability to in-13
spect and obtain copies of relevant materials (as 14
well as obtain information) related to voting 15
and are not aimed at the Attorney General tak-16
ing possession of original records, particularly 17
those that are required to be retained by State 18
and local election officials under Federal or 19
State law. 20
‘‘(B) N
O REQUIREMENT FOR PRODUC -21
TION.—Any demand issued under paragraph 22
(1) may not require the production of any docu-23
mentary material or the submission of any an-24
swers in writing to written questions if such 25
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material or answers would be protected from 1
disclosure under the standards applicable to 2
discovery requests under the Federal Rules of 3
Civil Procedure in an action in which the Attor-4
ney General or the United States is a party. 5
‘‘(C) D
OCUMENTARY MATERIAL .—If the 6
demand issued under paragraph (1) requires 7
the production of documentary material, it 8
shall— 9
‘‘(i) identify the class of documentary 10
material to be produced with such definite-11
ness and certainty as to permit such mate-12
rial to be fairly identified; and 13
‘‘(ii) prescribe a return date for pro-14
duction of the documentary material at 15
least 20 days after issuance of the demand 16
to give the State or political subdivision, or 17
other governmental representative or 18
agent, a reasonable period of time for as-19
sembling the documentary material and 20
making it available for inspection and 21
copying. 22
‘‘(D) A
NSWERS TO WRITTEN QUES -23
TIONS.—If the demand issued under paragraph 24
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(1) requires answers in writing to written ques-1
tions, it shall— 2
‘‘(i) set forth with specificity the writ-3
ten question to be answered; and 4
‘‘(ii) prescribe a date at least 20 days 5
after the issuance of the demand for sub-6
mitting answers in writing to the written 7
questions. 8
‘‘(E) S
ERVICE.—A demand issued under 9
paragraph (1) may be served by a United 10
States marshal or a deputy marshal, or by cer-11
tified mail, at any place within the territorial 12
jurisdiction of any court of the United States. 13
‘‘(3) R
ESPONSES TO AN ATTORNEY GENERAL 14
DEMAND.—A State or political subdivision, or other 15
governmental representative or agent, shall, with re-16
spect to any documentary material or any answer in 17
writing produced under this subsection, provide a 18
sworn certificate, in such form as the demand issued 19
under paragraph (1) designates, by a person having 20
knowledge of the facts and circumstances relating to 21
such production or written answer, authorized to act 22
on behalf of the State or political subdivision, or 23
other governmental representative or agent, upon 24
which the demand was served. The certificate— 25
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‘‘(A) shall state that— 1
‘‘(i) all of the documentary material 2
required by the demand and in the posses-3
sion, custody, or control of the State or po-4
litical subdivision, or other governmental 5
representative or agent, has been produced; 6
‘‘(ii) with respect to every answer in 7
writing to a written question, all informa-8
tion required by the question and in the 9
possession, custody, control, or knowledge 10
of the State or political subdivision, or 11
other governmental representative or 12
agent, has been submitted; or 13
‘‘(iii) the requirements described in 14
both clause (i) and clause (ii) have been 15
met; or 16
‘‘(B) provide the basis for any objection to 17
producing the documentary material or answer-18
ing the written question. 19
To the extent that any information is not furnished, 20
the information shall be identified and reasons set 21
forth with particularity regarding the reasons why 22
the information was not furnished. 23
‘‘(4) J
UDICIAL PROCEEDINGS.— 24
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‘‘(A) PETITION FOR ENFORCEMENT .— 1
Whenever any State or political subdivision, or 2
other governmental representative or agent, 3
fails to comply with demand issued by the At-4
torney General under paragraph (1), the Attor-5
ney General may file, in a district court of the 6
United States in which the State or political 7
subdivision, or other governmental representa-8
tive or agent, is located, a petition for a judicial 9
order enforcing the Attorney General demand 10
issued under paragraph (1). 11
‘‘(B) P
ETITION TO MODIFY.— 12
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—Any State or po-13
litical subdivision, or other governmental 14
representative or agent, that is served with 15
a demand issued by the Attorney General 16
under paragraph (1) may file in the United 17
States District Court for the District of 18
Columbia a petition for an order of the 19
court to modify or set aside the demand of 20
the Attorney General. 21
‘‘(ii) P
ETITION TO MODIFY.—Any pe-22
tition to modify or set aside a demand of 23
the Attorney General issued under para-24
graph (1) must be filed within 20 days 25
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after the date of service of the Attorney 1
General’s demand or at any time before 2
the return date specified in the Attorney 3
General’s demand, whichever date is ear-4
lier. 5
‘‘(iii) C
ONTENTS OF PETITION .—The 6
petition shall specify each ground upon 7
which the petitioner relies in seeking relief 8
under clause (i), and may be based upon 9
any failure of the Attorney General’s de-10
mand to comply with the provisions of this 11
section or upon any constitutional or other 12
legal right or privilege of the State or po-13
litical subdivision, or other governmental 14
representative or agent. During the pend-15
ency of the petition in the court, the court 16
may stay, as it deems proper, the running 17
of the time allowed for compliance with the 18
Attorney General’s demand, in whole or in 19
part, except that the State or political sub-20
division, or other governmental representa-21
tive or agent, filing the petition shall com-22
ply with any portions of the Attorney Gen-23
eral’s demand not sought to be modified or 24
set aside.’’. 25
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SEC. 114. DEFINITIONS. 1
Title I of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 2
10301) is amended by adding at the end the following: 3
‘‘SEC. 21. DEFINITIONS. 4
‘‘In this Act: 5
‘‘(1) I
NDIAN.—The term ‘Indian’ has the mean-6
ing given the term in section 4 of the Indian Self- 7
Determination and Education Assistance Act (25 8
U.S.C. 5304). 9
‘‘(2) I
NDIAN LANDS.—The term ‘Indian lands’ 10
means— 11
‘‘(A) any Indian country of an Indian 12
tribe, as such term is defined in section 1151 13
of title 18, United States Code; 14
‘‘(B) any land in Alaska that is owned, 15
pursuant to the Alaska Native Claims Settle-16
ment Act, by an Indian tribe that is a Native 17
village (as such term is defined in section 3 of 18
such Act), or by a Village Corporation that is 19
associated with the Indian tribe (as such term 20
is defined in section 3 of such Act); 21
‘‘(C) any land on which the seat of govern-22
ment of the Indian tribe is located; and 23
‘‘(D) any land that is part or all of a tribal 24
designated statistical area associated with the 25
Indian tribe, or is part or all of an Alaska Na-26
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tive village statistical area associated with the 1
tribe, as defined by the Bureau of the Census 2
for the purposes of the most recent decennial 3
census. 4
‘‘(3) I
NDIAN TRIBE.—The term ‘Indian tribe’ or 5
‘tribe’ has the meaning given the term ‘Indian tribe’ 6
in section 4 of the Indian Self-Determination and 7
Education Assistance Act (25 U.S.C. 5304). 8
‘‘(4) T
RIBAL GOVERNMENT .—The term ‘Tribal 9
Government’ means the recognized governing body 10
of an Indian Tribe. 11
‘‘(5) V
OTING-AGE POPULATION .—The term 12
‘voting-age population’ means the numerical size of 13
the population within a State, within a political sub-14
division, or within a political subdivision that con-15
tains Indian lands, as the case may be, that consists 16
of persons age 18 or older, as calculated by the Bu-17
reau of the Census under the most recent decennial 18
census.’’. 19
SEC. 115. ATTORNEYS’ FEES. 20
Section 14(c) of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (52 21
U.S.C. 10310(c)) is amended by adding at the end the 22
following: 23
‘‘(4) The term ‘prevailing party’ means a party to an 24
action that receives at least some of the benefit sought 25
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by such action, states a colorable claim, and can establish 1
that the action was a significant cause of a change to the 2
status quo.’’. 3
SEC. 116. OTHER TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMEND-4
MENTS. 5
(a) A
CTIONSCOVEREDUNDERSECTION3.—Section 6
3(c) of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 7
10302(c)) is amended— 8
(1) by striking ‘‘any proceeding instituted by 9
the Attorney General or an aggrieved person under 10
any statute to enforce’’ and inserting ‘‘any action 11
under any statute in which a party (including the 12
Attorney General) seeks to enforce’’; and 13
(2) by striking ‘‘at the time the proceeding was 14
commenced’’ and inserting ‘‘at the time the action 15
was commenced’’. 16
(b) C
LARIFICATION OFTREATMENT OFMEMBERS OF 17
L
ANGUAGEMINORITYGROUPS.—Section 4(f) of such Act 18
(52 U.S.C. 10303(f)) is amended— 19
(1) in paragraph (1), by striking the second 20
sentence; and 21
(2) by striking paragraphs (3) and (4). 22
(c) P
ERIODDURINGWHICHCHANGES INVOTING 23
P
RACTICESARESUBJECT TOPRECLEARANCE UNDER 24
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SECTION5.—Section 5 of such Act (52 U.S.C. 10304) 1
is amended— 2
(1) in subsection (a), by striking ‘‘based upon 3
determinations made under the first sentence of sec-4
tion 4(b) are in effect’’ and inserting ‘‘are in effect 5
during a calendar year’’; 6
(2) in subsection (a), by striking ‘‘November 1, 7
1964’’ and all that follows through ‘‘November 1, 8
1972’’ and inserting ‘‘the applicable date of cov-9
erage’’; and 10
(3) by adding at the end the following new sub-11
section: 12
‘‘(e) The term ‘applicable date of coverage’ means, 13
with respect to a State or political subdivision— 14
‘‘(1) June 25, 2013, if the most recent deter-15
mination for such State or subdivision under section 16
4(b) was made on or before December 31, 2021; or 17
‘‘(2) the date on which the most recent deter-18
mination for such State or subdivision under section 19
4(b) was made, if such determination was made 20
after December 31, 2021.’’. 21
(d) R
EVIEW OFPRECLEARANCESUBMISSIONUNDER 22
S
ECTION5 DUE TOEXIGENCY.—Section 5 of such Act 23
(52 U.S.C. 10304) is amended, in subsection (a), by in-24
serting ‘‘An exigency, including a natural disaster, inclem-25
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ent weather, or other unforeseeable event, requiring such 1
different qualification, prerequisite, standard, practice, or 2
procedure within 30 days of a Federal, State, or local elec-3
tion shall constitute good cause requiring the Attorney 4
General to expedite consideration of the submission.’’ after 5
‘‘will not be made.’’. 6
SEC. 117. SEVERABILITY. 7
If any provision of the John R. Lewis Voting Rights 8
Advancement Act of 2024 or any amendment made by this 9
title, or the application of such a provision or amendment 10
to any person or circumstance, is held to be unconstitu-11
tional or is otherwise enjoined or unenforceable, the re-12
mainder of this title and amendments made by this title, 13
and the application of the provisions and amendments to 14
any other person or circumstance, and any remaining pro-15
vision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 10301 16
et seq.), shall not be affected by the holding. In addition, 17
if any provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (52 18
U.S.C. 10301 et seq.), or any amendment to the Voting 19
Rights Act of 1965, or the application of such a provision 20
or amendment to any person or circumstance, is held to 21
be unconstitutional or is otherwise enjoined or unenforce-22
able, the application of the provision and amendment to 23
any other person or circumstance, and any remaining pro-24
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visions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, shall not be af-1
fected by the holding. 2
SEC. 118. GRANTS TO ASSIST WITH NOTICE REQUIREMENTS 3
UNDER THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT OF 1965. 4
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Attorney General shall make 5
grants each fiscal year to small jurisdictions who submit 6
applications under subsection (b) for purposes of assisting 7
such small jurisdictions with compliance with the require-8
ments of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to submit or pub-9
lish notice of any change to a qualification, prerequisite, 10
standard, practice or procedure affecting voting. 11
(b) A
PPLICATION.—To be eligible for a grant under 12
this section, a small jurisdiction shall submit an applica-13
tion to the Attorney General in such form and containing 14
such information as the Attorney General may require re-15
garding the compliance of such small jurisdiction with the 16
provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. 17
(c) S
MALLJURISDICTIONDEFINED.—For purposes 18
of this section, the term ‘‘small jurisdiction’’ means any 19
political subdivision of a State with a population of 10,000 20
or less. 21
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TITLE II—ELECTION WORKER 1
AND POLLING PLACE PRO-2
TECTION 3
SEC. 201. SHORT TITLE. 4
This title may be cited as the ‘‘Election Worker and 5
Polling Place Protection Act’’. 6
SEC. 202. PROHIBITION ON INTERFERENCE AND INTIMIDA-7
TION. 8
Section 11 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (52 9
U.S.C. 10307) is amended by adding at the end the fol-10
lowing: 11
‘‘(f)(1)(A) Whoever, whether or not acting under 12
color of law, by force or threat of force, or by violence 13
or threat of violence to any person or property, willfully 14
interferes with or attempts to interfere with, the ability 15
of any person or any class of persons to vote or qualify 16
to vote, or to qualify or act as a poll watcher or as any 17
legally authorized election official, in any primary, special, 18
or general election, or any person who is, or is employed 19
by, an agent, contractor, or vendor of a legally authorized 20
election official assisting in the administration of any pri-21
mary, special, or general election to assist in that adminis-22
tration, shall be fined not more than $2,500, or impris-23
oned not more than 6 months, or both. 24
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‘‘(B) Whoever, whether or not acting under color of 1
law, by force or threat of force, or by violence or threat 2
of violence to any person or property, willfully intimidates 3
or attempts to intimidate, any person or any class of per-4
sons seeking to vote or qualify to vote, or to qualify or 5
act as a poll watcher or as any legally authorized election 6
official, in any primary, special, or general election, or any 7
person who is, or is employed by, an agent, contractor, 8
or vendor of a legally authorized election official assisting 9
in the administration of any primary, special, or general 10
election, shall be fined not more than $2,500, or impris-11
oned not more than 6 months, or both. 12
‘‘(C) If bodily injury results from an act committed 13
in violation of this paragraph or if such act includes the 14
use, attempted use, or threatened use of a dangerous 15
weapon, an explosive, or fire, then, in lieu of the remedy 16
described in subparagraph (A) or (B), the violator shall 17
be fined not more than $5,000 or imprisoned not more 18
than 1 year, or both. 19
‘‘(2)(A) Whoever, whether or not acting under color 20
of law, willfully physically damages or threatens to phys-21
ically damage any physical property being used as a poll-22
ing place or tabulation center or other election infrastruc-23
ture, with the intent to interfere with the administration 24
of a primary, general, or special election or the tabulation 25
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or certification of votes for such an election, shall be fined 1
not more than $2,500, or imprisoned not more than 6 2
months, or both. 3
‘‘(B) If bodily injury results from an act committed 4
in violation of this paragraph or if such act includes the 5
use, attempted use, or threatened use of a dangerous 6
weapon, an explosive, or fire, then, in lieu of the remedy 7
described in subparagraph (A), the violator shall be fined 8
not more than $5,000 or imprisoned not more than 1 year, 9
or both. 10
‘‘(3) For purposes of this subsection, de minimus 11
damage or a threat of de minimus damage to physical 12
property shall not be considered a violation of this sub-13
section. 14
‘‘(4) For purposes of this subsection, the term ‘elec-15
tion infrastructure’ means any office of a legally author-16
ized election official, or a staffer, worker, or volunteer, as-17
sisting such an election official or any physical, mechan-18
ical, or electrical device, structure, or tangible item, used 19
in the process of creating, distributing, voting, returning, 20
counting, tabulating, auditing, storing, or other handling 21
of voter registration or ballot information. 22
‘‘(g) No prosecution of any offense described in sub-23
section (f) may be undertaken by the United States, ex-24
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cept under the certification in writing of the Attorney Gen-1
eral, or a designee, that— 2
‘‘(1) the State does not have jurisdiction; 3
‘‘(2) the State has requested that the Federal 4
Government assume jurisdiction; or 5
‘‘(3) a prosecution by the United States is in 6
the public interest and necessary to secure substan-7
tial justice.’’. 8
Æ 
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