3.0.0 3309 2023-01-11T13:33:35Z 2023-01-11T13:33:35Z Senate S 2016-09-12 114 ssra00 Rules and Administration Committee Senate Standing Referred to 2016-09-12T21:32:13Z Voter Empowerment Act of 2015 114 12 HR 2015-04-29 Referred to the Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training. Related bill CRS Election Integrity Act of 2016 114 6072 HR 2016-09-30 Referred to the Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice. Related bill CRS 2016-09-12 ssra00 Rules and Administration Committee Senate Read twice and referred to the Committee on Rules and Administration. IntroReferral 2016-09-12 Introduced in Senate IntroReferral 10000 9 Library of Congress G000555 Sen. Gillibrand, Kirsten E. [D-NY] Kirsten Gillibrand D NY E. N B000944 Sen. Brown, Sherrod [D-OH] Sherrod Brown D OH 2016-09-12 True M001169 Sen. Murphy, Christopher [D-CT] Christopher Murphy D CT S. 2016-09-12 True K000367 Sen. Klobuchar, Amy [D-MN] Amy Klobuchar D MN 2016-09-12 True B000711 Sen. Boxer, Barbara [D-CA] BARBARA BOXER D CA 2016-09-12 True W000779 Sen. Wyden, Ron [D-OR] Ron Wyden D OR 2016-09-12 True C001088 Sen. Coons, Christopher A. [D-DE] Christopher Coons D DE A. 2016-09-12 True S000033 Sen. Sanders, Bernard [I-VT] Bernard Sanders I VT 2016-09-12 True M000133 Sen. Markey, Edward J. [D-MA] Edward Markey D MA J. 2016-09-12 True C000141 Sen. Cardin, Benjamin L. [D-MD] Ben Cardin D MD 2016-09-12 True M001176 Sen. Merkley, Jeff [D-OR] Jeff Merkley D OR 2016-09-12 True B001277 Sen. Blumenthal, Richard [D-CT] Richard Blumenthal D CT 2016-09-12 True W000802 Sen. Whitehouse, Sheldon [D-RI] Sheldon Whitehouse D RI 2016-09-12 True Government Operations and Politics Administrative law and regulatory procedures Administrative remedies Adult education and literacy Advisory bodies Census and government statistics Civil actions and liability Computer security and identity theft Computers and information technology Congressional elections Congressional oversight Criminal justice information and records Criminal procedure and sentencing Department of Justice Diplomacy, foreign officials, Americans abroad Disability and health-based discrimination Disability and paralysis Educational facilities and institutions Election Assistance Commission Elections, voting, political campaign regulation Employee leave Employment and training programs Executive agency funding and structure Fraud offenses and financial crimes Government employee pay, benefits, personnel management Government ethics and transparency, public corruption Government information and archives Government studies and investigations Higher education Internet and video services Internet, web applications, social media Military personnel and dependents Northern Mariana Islands Postal service Public contracts and procurement Right of privacy State and local government operations Telephone and wireless communication U.S. territories and protectorates Voting rights Government Operations and Politics 00 2016-09-12 Introduced in Senate 2016-11-15T15:38:57Z Voter Empowerment Act of 2015

Voter Registration Modernization Act of 2015

Amends the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA) to require states to make available websites for online voter registration.

Authorizes automated voter registration of certain individuals and establishes other initiatives to promote voter registration, such as same-day registration and voter registration of individuals under 18 years of age.

Amends the federal criminal code to prohibit hindering, interfering with, or preventing voter registration.

Amends the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) to establish requirements for states to promote access to voter registration and voting for individuals with disabilities, including a single office for providing related information.

Directs the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) to make grants for pilot programs enabling individuals with disabilities to register to vote and vote privately and independently at their own residences.

Reauthorizes the program of grants to state and local governments to assure voting access for individuals with disabilities.

Prohibits state or local election officials from preventing an individual from registering or voting in any federal election (voter caging), or from permitting a formal challenge under state law to an individual's registration status or eligibility to vote.

Prohibits a person from knowingly and willfully attempting to or depriving or defrauding the residents of a state of the right to vote by the communication of election-related information that is known to be materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent. Increases the penalty for voter intimidation.

Declares that the right of a U.S. citizen to vote in any federal election shall not be denied or abridged because of a criminal conviction unless he or she is serving a felony sentence in a correctional institution at the time of the election.

Requires each state to notify an individual convicted of a criminal offense under state law, upon release from state custody or upon sentence to probation, of the right to vote in a federal election.

Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2015

Revises requirements for the audit capacity of voting systems, particularly those for a permanent paper record.

Requires the voting system to require the use of an individual, durable, voter-verified paper ballot of the voter's vote that shall be marked and made available for inspection by the voter before the vote is cast and counted, and which shall be counted by hand or read by an optical character recognition device or other counting device. Requires the system to provide an opportunity to correct any system-made error in the voter-verified paper ballot before it is permanently preserved.

Requires the National Science Foundation to make grants for the study and development of accessible ballot voting, verification, and casting mechanisms and devices and best practices to enhance the accessibility of paper ballot voting and verification mechanisms for individuals with disabilities, those whose primary language is not English, and those with difficulties in literacy.

Requires each state, except when the winning candidate had no opponent or received 80% or more of the votes, to administer audits of federal election results, without advance notice, consisting of random hand counts of the voter-verified paper ballots.

Prohibits certification of election results until completion of audits.

Adds requirements for counting provisional ballots. Requires each state to allow early voting and facilitate voting by mail.

Amends the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act to extend the guarantee of voting residency to family members of absent military personnel.

Revises absentee ballot procedures concerning applications, transmission, and overseas voters.

Entitles to leave a federal employee who serves as a poll worker.

Directs the EAC to make grants for poll-worker recruitment and training and develop materials for a model program.

Makes available to any person aggrieved by a violation of uniform and nondiscriminatory election technology and administration requirements the option to file a complaint with the Department of Justice (DOJ) or pursue a private right of action.

Amends the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to make it unlawful for a chief state election administration official, unless he or she or a family member is a candidate, to take an active part in political management or in a political campaign for federal office over which such official has supervisory authority.

Treats universities as voter registration agencies.

Establishes minimum notification requirements regarding voters affected by polling place changes.

Directs DOJ to: (1) coordinate the establishment of a state-based response system for responding to questions and complaints from individuals voting or seeking to vote, or registering to vote or seeking to, in federal elections; (2) establish and operate a toll-free telephone service to connect directly to such response system; and (3) appoint a Voter Hotline Task Force.

Makes NVRA and HAVA requirements applicable to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

Reauthorizes and extends the EAC and repeals its exemption from certain contracting requirements.

]]> Voter Empowerment Act of 2015 Display Title Voter Empowerment Act of 2015 Short Titles as Introduced Voter Empowerment Act of 2015 Short Titles as Introduced for portions of this bill Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2015 Short Titles as Introduced for portions of this bill Voter Registration Modernization Act of 2015 Official Title as Introduced A bill to modernize voter registration, promote access to voting for individuals with disabilities, protect the ability of individuals to exercise the right to vote in elections for Federal office, and for other purposes. Introduced in Senate 2016-09-12T04:00:00Z https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/BILLS-114s3309is/xml/BILLS-114s3309is.xml 2016-09-12 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Rules and Administration. text/xml EN Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain. Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress This file contains bill summaries and statuses for federal legislation. A bill summary describes the most significant provisions of a piece of legislation and details the effects the legislative text may have on current law and federal programs. Bill summaries are authored by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) of the Library of Congress. As stated in Public Law 91-510 (2 USC 166 (d)(6)), one of the duties of CRS is "to prepare summaries and digests of bills and resolutions of a public general nature introduced in the Senate or House of Representatives". For more information, refer to the User Guide that accompanies this file.