[Congressional Bills 107th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2686 Introduced in House (IH)]







107th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2686

To prohibit States from carrying out certain law enforcement activities 
     which have the effect of intimidating individuals from voting.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 31, 2001

 Mr. Hilliard introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                       Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To prohibit States from carrying out certain law enforcement activities 
     which have the effect of intimidating individuals from voting.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``National Voter Anti-Intimidation 
Election Act of 2001''.

SEC. 2. TREATMENT OF CERTAIN LAW ENFORCEMENT ACTIVITIES AS INTERFERENCE 
              WITH ELECTION.

    Section 595 of title 18, United States Code, is amended--
            (1) by striking ``Whoever'' and inserting ``(a) Whoever'';
            (2) by striking ``This section'' and inserting ``(c) This 
        section''; and
            (3) by inserting after the first paragraph the following:
    ``(b) For purposes of subsection (a), if a law enforcement officer 
of a State or local government carries out any of the following 
activities on the date of an election for Federal office, the officer 
shall be considered to be using official authority for the purpose of 
interfering with the nomination or election of a candidate described in 
such subsection:
            ``(1) Attendance at any polling place for any reason other 
        than voting, responding to a request from an official 
        conducting the election at the polling place, or responding to 
        a threat of violence or harm directed at any person or property 
        at the polling place.
            ``(2) The arrest of any individual on the grounds that the 
        individual has any outstanding misdemeanor warrants.
            ``(3) The establishment of any traffic roadblock unless a 
        felony has been committed within the previous 24 hours (or is 
        in the process of being committed) and the roadblock is 
        necessary to prevent the alleged felon from escaping.''.

SEC. 3. EFFECTIVE DATE.

    Except as otherwise provided, this Act and the amendments made by 
this Act shall apply with respect to elections occurring after the date 
of the enactment of this Act.
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