I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 738
To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to allow all eligible voters
to vote by mail in Federal elections.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY24, 2025
Ms. S
ALINAS(for herself, Ms. NORTON, Mr. CLEAVER, Mr. VARGAS, Mrs.
D
INGELL, Mr. MULLIN, Mr. JOHNSONof Georgia, Ms. TLAIB, and Mr.
P
OCAN) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on House Administration
A BILL
To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to allow
all eligible voters to vote by mail in Federal elections.
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 ‘‘Universal Right To 4
Vote by Mail Act of 2025’’. 5
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 6
Congress finds the following: 7
(1) An inequity of voting rights exists in the 8
United States because voters in some States have 9
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the universal right to vote by mail while voters in 1
other States do not. 2
(2) Many voters often have work, family, or 3
other commitments that make getting to polls on the 4
date of an election difficult or impossible. Under 5
current State laws, many of these voters are not per-6
mitted to vote by mail. 7
(3) 36 States and the District of Columbia cur-8
rently allow universal absentee voting (also known as 9
‘‘no-excuse’’ absentee voting), which permits any 10
voter to request a mail-in ballot without providing a 11
reason for the request, and no State which has im-12
plemented no-excuse absentee voting has switched 13
back. 14
(4) Voting by mail gives voters more time to 15
consider their choices, which is especially important 16
as many ballots contain greater numbers of ques-17
tions about complex issues than in the past due to 18
the expanded use of the initiative and referendum 19
process in many States. 20
(5) Allowing all voters the option to vote by 21
mail can lead to increased voter participation. 22
(6) Allowing all voters the option to vote by 23
mail can reduce waiting times for those voters who 24
choose to vote at the polls. 25
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(7) Voting by mail is preferable to many voters 1
as an alternative to going to the polls. Voting by 2
mail has become increasingly popular with voters 3
who want to be certain that they are able to vote no 4
matter what comes up on Election Day. 5
(8) No evidence exists suggesting the potential 6
for fraud in absentee balloting is greater than the 7
potential for fraud by any other method of voting. 8
(9) Many of the reasons which voters in many 9
States are required to provide in order to vote by 10
mail require the revelation of personal information 11
about health, travel plans, or religious activities, 12
which violate voters’ privacy while doing nothing to 13
prevent voter fraud. 14
(10) State laws which require voters to obtain 15
a notary signature to vote by mail only add cost and 16
inconvenience to voters without increasing security. 17
SEC. 3. PROMOTING ABILITY OF VOTERS TO VOTE BY MAIL 18
IN FEDERAL ELECTIONS. 19
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Subtitle A of title III of the Help 20
America Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21081 et seq.) is 21
amended by inserting after section 303 the following new 22
section: 23
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‘‘SEC. 303A. PROMOTING ABILITY OF VOTERS TO VOTE BY 1
MAIL. 2
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—If an individual in a State is eli-3
gible to cast a vote in an election for Federal office, the 4
State may not impose any additional conditions or require-5
ments on the eligibility of the individual to cast the vote 6
in such election by mail, except to the extent that the 7
State imposes a deadline for requesting the ballot and re-8
lated voting materials from the appropriate State or local 9
election official and for returning the ballot to the appro-10
priate State or local election official. 11
‘‘(b) N
OTICE ANDOPPORTUNITYTOCUREDISCREP-12
ANCY ORDEFECT.— 13
‘‘(1) N
OTICE AND OPPORTUNITY TO CURE DIS -14
CREPANCY IN SIGNATURES .—If an individual sub-15
mits a mail-in ballot or an absentee ballot and the 16
appropriate State or local election official determines 17
that a discrepancy exists between the signature on 18
such ballot and the signature of such individual on 19
the official list of registered voters in the State or 20
other official record or document used by the State 21
to verify the signatures of voters, such election offi-22
cial, prior to making a final determination as to the 23
validity of such ballot, shall— 24
‘‘(A) as soon as practical, but not later 25
than the next business day after such deter-26
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mination is made, make a good faith effort to 1
notify the individual by mail, telephone, and (if 2
available) text message and electronic mail 3
that— 4
‘‘(i) a discrepancy exists between the 5
signature on such ballot and the signature 6
of the individual on the official list of reg-7
istered voters in the State or other official 8
record or document used by the State to 9
verify the signatures of voters; and 10
‘‘(ii) if such discrepancy is not cured 11
prior to the expiration of the third day fol-12
lowing the State’s deadline for receiving 13
mail-in ballots or absentee ballots, such 14
ballot will not be counted; and 15
‘‘(B) cure such discrepancy and count the 16
ballot if, prior to the expiration of the third day 17
following the State’s deadline for receiving mail- 18
in ballots or absentee ballots, the individual pro-19
vides the official with information to cure such 20
discrepancy, either in person, by telephone, or 21
by electronic methods. 22
‘‘(2) N
OTICE AND OPPORTUNITY TO CURE MISS -23
ING SIGNATURE OR OTHER DEFECT .—If an indi-24
vidual submits a mail-in ballot or an absentee ballot 25
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without a signature or submits a mail-in ballot or an 1
absentee ballot with another defect which, if left 2
uncured, would cause the ballot to not be counted, 3
the appropriate State or local election official, prior 4
to making a final determination as to the validity of 5
the ballot, shall— 6
‘‘(A) as soon as practical, but not later 7
than the next business day after such deter-8
mination is made, make a good faith effort to 9
notify the individual by mail, telephone, and (if 10
available) text message and electronic mail 11
that— 12
‘‘(i) the ballot did not include a signa-13
ture or has some other defect; and 14
‘‘(ii) if the individual does not provide 15
the missing signature or cure the other de-16
fect prior to the expiration of the third day 17
following the State’s deadline for receiving 18
mail-in ballots or absentee ballots, such 19
ballot will not be counted; and 20
‘‘(B) count the ballot if, prior to the expi-21
ration of the third day following the State’s 22
deadline for receiving mail-in ballots or absen-23
tee ballots, the individual provides the official 24
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with the missing signature on a form proscribed 1
by the State or cures the other defect. 2
This paragraph does not apply with respect to a de-3
fect consisting of the failure of a ballot to meet the 4
applicable deadline for the acceptance of the ballot 5
under State law. 6
‘‘(c) R
ULE OFCONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sec-7
tion shall be construed to affect the authority of States 8
to conduct elections for Federal office through the use of 9
polling places at which individuals cast ballots on the date 10
of the election. 11
‘‘(d) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—A State shall be required 12
to comply with the requirements of this section with re-13
spect to elections for Federal office held in years beginning 14
with 2026.’’. 15
(b) C
ONFORMINGAMENDMENT RELATING TOEN-16
FORCEMENT.—Section 401 of such Act (52 U.S.C. 21111) 17
is amended by striking ‘‘and 304’’ and inserting ‘‘303A, 18
and 304’’. 19
(c) C
LERICALAMENDMENT.—The table of contents 20
for such Act is amended by inserting after the item relat-21
ing to section 303 the following new item: 22
‘‘Sec. 303A. Promoting ability of voters to vote by mail.’’.
Æ
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