I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 156
To ensure election integrity and security by establishing consistent photo
identification requirements for voting in elections for Federal office,
and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY3, 2025
Mr. F
ITZPATRICKintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on House Administration
A BILL
To ensure election integrity and security by establishing con-
sistent photo identification requirements for voting 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 ‘‘Securing our Elections 4
Act of 2025’’. 5
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 6
Congress finds the following: 7
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(1) Free, fair, and secure elections are nec-1
essary to the prosperity of democracy in the United 2
States and around the world. 3
(2) The right to vote is a crucial aspect of 4
American citizenship and must be protected from 5
any potential interference, abuse, and fraud. 6
(3) The passage of the Help America Vote Act 7
of 2002 improved and standardized State and local 8
governments’ administration of Federal elections, 9
but lacked strong provisions to validate a voter’s 10
identity prior to their voting. 11
(4) In 2005, the bipartisan Commission on 12
Federal Election Reform co-chaired by former 13
Democratic President Jimmy Carter and former Re-14
publican Secretary of State James A. Baker III re-15
leased a report which explicitly recommended that 16
States require voters to use a valid identification 17
that includes their full legal name, date of birth, a 18
signature, and a photo. 19
(5) A public survey conducted by the reputable, 20
nonpartisan Monmouth University Polling Institute 21
in June 2021 indicated that an overwhelming 80 22
percent of Americans support requiring voters to 23
show a photo identification in order to vote. 24
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(6) Valid identification is required by the States 1
and the Federal Government for a multitude of seri-2
ous purposes in public life such as driving or renting 3
a car, boarding an airplane or train, traveling within 4
and outside of the United States, purchasing alcohol 5
or controlled substances, picking up prescription 6
medication, opening a bank account or cashing a 7
check, applying for employment or housing opportu-8
nities, and much more. 9
(7) As determined by the Congressional Re-10
search Service, 161 nations worldwide—approxi-11
mately 83 percent—require their citizens to present 12
a form of identification in order to vote, including 13
38 of the top 50 most democratic nations identified 14
by the Democracy Index 2021. 15
(8) More than two-thirds of the States already 16
request or require citizens to show a form of identi-17
fication in order to vote, 22 of which request or re-18
quire a photo identification for the purposes of vot-19
ing. 20
SEC. 3. REQUIRING VOTERS TO PROVIDE PHOTO IDENTI-21
FICATION. 22
(a) R
EQUIREMENTTOPROVIDEPHOTOIDENTIFICA-23
TION ASCONDITION OFCASTINGBALLOT.— 24
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(1) IN GENERAL.—Title III of the Help Amer-1
ica Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21081 et seq.) is 2
amended by inserting after section 303 the following 3
new section: 4
‘‘SEC. 303A. PHOTO IDENTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS. 5
‘‘(a) P
ROVISION OFIDENTIFICATIONREQUIRED AS 6
C
ONDITION OFCASTINGBALLOT.— 7
‘‘(1) I
NDIVIDUALS VOTING IN PERSON .— 8
‘‘(A) R
EQUIREMENT TO PROVIDE IDENTI -9
FICATION.—Notwithstanding any other provi-10
sion of law and except as provided in subpara-11
graph (B), the appropriate State or local elec-12
tion official may not provide a ballot for an 13
election for Federal office to an individual who 14
desires to vote in person unless the individual 15
presents to the official a valid photo identifica-16
tion. 17
‘‘(B) A
VAILABILITY OF PROVISIONAL BAL -18
LOT.— 19
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—If an individual 20
does not present the identification required 21
under subparagraph (A), the individual 22
shall be permitted to cast a provisional bal-23
lot with respect to the election under sec-24
tion 302(a), except that the appropriate 25
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State or local election official may not 1
make a determination under section 2
302(a)(4) that the individual is eligible 3
under State law to vote in the election un-4
less, not later than 3 days after casting the 5
provisional ballot, the individual presents 6
to the official— 7
‘‘(I) the identification required 8
under subparagraph (A); or 9
‘‘(II) an affidavit developed and 10
made available to the individual by 11
the State attesting that the individual 12
does not possess the identification re-13
quired under subparagraph (A) be-14
cause the individual has a religious 15
objection to being photographed. 16
‘‘(ii) N
O EFFECT ON OTHER PROVI -17
SIONAL BALLOTING RULES .—Nothing in 18
clause (i) may be construed to apply to the 19
casting of a provisional ballot pursuant to 20
section 302(a) or any State law for reasons 21
other than the failure to present the identi-22
fication required under subparagraph (A). 23
‘‘(2) I
NDIVIDUALS VOTING OTHER THAN IN 24
PERSON.— 25
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‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any 1
other provision of law and except as provided in 2
subparagraph (B), the appropriate State or 3
local election official may not accept any ballot 4
for an election for Federal office provided by an 5
individual who votes other than in person unless 6
the individual submits with the ballot— 7
‘‘(i) a copy of a valid photo identifica-8
tion; or 9
‘‘(ii) the last four digits of the individ-10
ual’s Social Security number and an affi-11
davit developed and made available to the 12
individual by the State attesting that the 13
individual is unable to obtain a copy of a 14
valid photo identification after making rea-15
sonable efforts to obtain such a copy. 16
‘‘(B) E
XCEPTION FOR OVERSEAS MILITARY 17
VOTERS.—Subparagraph (A) does not apply 18
with respect to a ballot provided by an absent 19
uniformed services voter who, by reason of ac-20
tive duty or service, is absent from the United 21
States on the date of the election involved. In 22
this subparagraph, the term ‘absent uniformed 23
services voter’ has the meaning given such term 24
in section 107(1) of the Uniformed and Over-25
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seas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (52 U.S.C. 1
20310(1)), other than an individual described 2
in section 107(1)(C) of such Act. 3
‘‘(b) P
ROVIDINGCERTAINASSISTANCE TOINDIVID-4
UALSUNABLETOPAYCOSTS OFOBTAININGIDENTI-5
FICATION OROTHERWISEUNABLETOOBTAINIDENTI-6
FICATION.— 7
‘‘(1) P
ROVISION OF IDENTIFICATION WITHOUT 8
CHARGE TO CERTAIN INDIVIDUALS .—If an individual 9
presents a State official at the appropriate State 10
agency or department designated by the State with 11
an affidavit developed and made available to the in-12
dividual by the State attesting that the individual is 13
unable to pay the costs associated with obtaining a 14
valid photo identification under this section, or at-15
testing that the individual is otherwise unable to ob-16
tain a valid photo identification under this section 17
after making reasonable efforts to obtain such an 18
identification, the official shall provide the individual 19
with a valid photo identification under this sub-20
section without charge to the individual. 21
‘‘(2) P
UBLIC ACCESS TO DIGITAL IMAGING DE -22
VICES.—With respect to each State, the appropriate 23
State or local government official of the State shall 24
ensure, to the extent practicable, public access to a 25
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digital imaging device, which shall include a printer, 1
copier, image scanner, or multifunction machine, at 2
State and local government buildings in the State, 3
including courts, libraries, and police stations, for 4
the purpose of allowing individuals to use such a de-5
vice at no cost to the individual to make a copy of 6
a valid photo identification. 7
‘‘(c) V
ALIDPHOTOIDENTIFICATIONSDESCRIBED.— 8
For purposes of this section, a ‘valid photo identification’ 9
means, with respect to an individual who seeks to vote in 10
a State, any of the following: 11
‘‘(1) A valid State-issued motor vehicle driver’s 12
license that includes a photo of the individual and an 13
expiration date. 14
‘‘(2) A valid State-issued identification card 15
that includes a photo of the individual and an expi-16
ration date. 17
‘‘(3) A valid United States passport for the in-18
dividual. 19
‘‘(4) A valid military identification for the indi-20
vidual. 21
‘‘(5) Any other form of government-issued iden-22
tification that the State may specify as a valid photo 23
identification for purposes of this subsection. 24
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‘‘(d) NOTIFICATION OFIDENTIFICATIONREQUIRE-1
MENT TOAPPLICANTS FORVOTERREGISTRATION.— 2
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Each State shall ensure 3
that, at the time an individual applies to register to 4
vote in elections for Federal office in the State, the 5
appropriate State or local election official notifies 6
the individual of the photo identification require-7
ments of this section. 8
‘‘(2) S
PECIAL RULE FOR INDIVIDUALS APPLY -9
ING TO REGISTER TO VOTE ONLINE .—Each State 10
shall ensure that, in the case of an individual who 11
applies to register to vote in elections for Federal of-12
fice in the State online, the online voter registration 13
system notifies the individual of the photo identifica-14
tion requirements of this section before the indi-15
vidual completes the online registration process. 16
‘‘(e) T
REATMENT OFSTATESWITHCERTAINPHOTO 17
I
DENTIFICATIONREQUIREMENTS INEFFECT AS OFDATE 18
OFENACTMENT.—If, as of the date of the enactment of 19
this section, a State has in effect a law that satisfies or 20
exceeds the requirements of this section for an individual 21
to provide a photo identification as a condition of casting 22
a ballot in elections for Federal office held in the State 23
and the law remains in effect on and after the effective 24
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date of this section, the State shall be considered to meet 1
the requirements of this section if— 2
‘‘(1) the State submits a request to the Attor-3
ney General and provides such information as the 4
Attorney General may consider necessary to deter-5
mine that the State has in effect such a law and 6
that the law remains in effect; and 7
‘‘(2) the Attorney General— 8
‘‘(A) approves the request; or 9
‘‘(B) fails to issue a determination with re-10
spect to the request during the 180-day period 11
that begins on the date the State submits such 12
request. 13
‘‘(f) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—This section shall apply 14
with respect to elections for Federal office held in 2026 15
or any succeeding year.’’. 16
(2) C
LERICAL AMENDMENT .—The table of con-17
tents of such Act is amended by inserting after the 18
item relating to section 303 the following new item: 19
‘‘Sec. 303A. Photo identification requirements.’’.
(b) CONFORMINGAMENDMENT RELATING TOVOL-20
UNTARYGUIDANCE BYELECTIONASSISTANCECOMMIS-21
SION.—Section 311(b) of such Act (52 U.S.C. 21101(b)) 22
is amended— 23
(1) by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end of paragraph 24
(2); 25
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(2) by striking the period at the end of para-1
graph (3) and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 2
(3) by adding at the end the following new 3
paragraph: 4
‘‘(4) in the case of the recommendations with 5
respect to section 303A, October 1, 2025.’’. 6
(c) C
ONFORMINGAMENDMENT RELATING TOEN-7
FORCEMENT.—Section 401 of such Act (52 U.S.C. 21111) 8
is amended by striking ‘‘303, and 304’’ and inserting 9
‘‘303, 303A, and 304’’. 10
(d) C
ONFORMINGAMENDMENTS RELATING TORE-11
PEAL OFEXISTINGPHOTOIDENTIFICATIONREQUIRE-12
MENTS FORCERTAINVOTERS.— 13
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Section 303 of such Act (52 14
U.S.C. 21083) is amended— 15
(A) in the heading, by striking ‘‘
AND RE-16
QUIREMENTS FOR VOTERS WHO REGISTER 17
BY MAIL’’; 18
(B) in the heading of subsection (b), by 19
striking ‘‘
FORVOTERSWHOREGISTER BY 20
M
AIL’’ and inserting ‘‘FORMAIL-INREGISTRA-21
TIONFORMS’’; 22
(C) in subsection (b), by striking para-23
graphs (1) through (3) and redesignating para-24
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graphs (4) and (5) as paragraphs (1) and (2), 1
respectively; and 2
(D) in subsection (c), by striking ‘‘sub-3
sections (a)(5)(A)(i)(II) and (b)(3)(B)(i)(II)’’ 4
and inserting ‘‘subsection (a)(5)(A)(i)(II)’’. 5
(2) C
LERICAL AMENDMENT .—The table of con-6
tents of such Act is amended by amending the item 7
relating to section 303 to read as follows: 8
‘‘Sec. 303. Computerized statewide voter registration list requirements.’’.
(e) EFFECTIVEDATE.—This section and the amend-9
ments made by this section shall apply with respect to 10
elections for Federal office held in 2026 or any succeeding 11
year. 12
Æ
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