[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2540 Introduced in House (IH)]

112th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2540

  To direct the Attorney General to establish and operate a toll-free 
   nationwide telephone hotline through which individuals may obtain 
   information on voting in elections for Federal office and report 
 information on problems encountered in voting in such elections, and 
                          for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 14, 2011

  Ms. Fudge introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on House Administration, and in addition to the Committee on 
   the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the 
  Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall 
           within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To direct the Attorney General to establish and operate a toll-free 
   nationwide telephone hotline through which individuals may obtain 
   information on voting in elections for Federal office and report 
 information on problems encountered in voting in such elections, and 
                          for other purposes.

    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 ``Voter Protection Hotline Act of 
2011''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds as follows:
            (1) At the Federal, State, and local levels, government 
        funding supports well-intentioned voter hotlines that are not 
        fully utilized because of a lack of access to information on 
        such programs by the public at-large. All 50 states and the 
        District of Columbia have at least one voter hotline in 
        addition to an unprecedented amount of privately funded voter 
        hotlines, all with different telephone numbers. The 
        multiplicity of resources makes it difficult for voters to 
        identify the correct hotline for their needs, which may result 
        in voters who have immediate or urgent needs abandoning their 
        effort to vote.
            (2) The Department of Justice has declared that a national 
        telephone number or hotline on voting information is an 
        important tool to facilitate the voting process, and has 
        established a hotline through which individuals may obtain this 
        kind of information. Notwithstanding the existence of the 
        hotline, voting irregularities were still rampant, as evidenced 
        by a number of problems that occurred during the 2008 election 
        cycle, including the following:
                    (A) Virginia voters who registered through the 
                Department of Motor Vehicles or via third party groups 
                reported never receiving a registration card. In other 
                cases, they arrived at their polling places only to 
                find their names missing from the voter rolls. Some 
                voters did not fill out their registration paperwork 
                correctly, but were not notified of this until well 
                after the registration deadline of October 6. There 
                were reports in one location all seven voting machines 
                in the building had failed and that there were no paper 
                ballots available. Voters at that polling place waited 
                in line for an extraordinary 7 hours and 15 minutes to 
                vote.
                    (B) St. Louis voters who had submitted change of 
                address forms several weeks prior to Election Day found 
                that these forms had not been processed by Election 
                Day.
                    (C) On December 2, the New York Post reported that 
                more than 3,500 voter registration forms were shipped 
                to the New York City Board of Elections on September 
                10, only to sit in a box until November 6, 2 days after 
                the election. Of these voters, those who cast 
                provisional ballots had their votes counted, but it is 
                unclear how many other voters were turned away at the 
                polls.
                    (D) Pennsylvania voters in cities reported not 
                receiving absentee ballots by Election Day. This caused 
                additional problems at polling places on Election Day, 
                as some of those who feared their votes would go 
                uncounted took time away from family obligations, work, 
                or struggled with a disability to get to their polling 
                place. Upon arrival, they were told they would be 
                unable to vote in person since they had already 
                requested an absentee ballot.
                    (E) Voters at poorly prepared poll locations in Los 
                Angeles County and elsewhere in California began 
                reporting ballot shortages in the early afternoon on 
                Election Day. Many people who went to the wrong polling 
                place were incorrectly instructed to vote provisionally 
                instead of being sent to the correct location. At one 
                polling place, provisional ballots were handed out 
                because so many voters were unaware that their poll 
                location had changed and had gone to the wrong 
                location. In other places, voters were not offered 
                provisional ballots even when they were warranted, for 
                example, when paper ballots were requested or when 
                regular ballots were running out. In all, nearly 
                1,000,000 people voted by provisional ballot in 
                California.
                    (F) Wait times of 6 hours were reported for early 
                voting in Franklin County, Ohio, leading to people 
                leaving the line without voting. Wait times of between 
                2 and 10 hours were reported during early voting at 
                multiple Georgia locations.
            (3) The fifteenth amendment to the Constitution protects 
        the right of citizens to vote, yet every election cycle, the 
        voting rights of thousands of citizens are denied or abridged 
        due to factors ranging from misinformation to wholesale 
        intimidation. For example:
                    (A) In the 2004 presidential election, voters 
                reported receiving calls telling them to report to the 
                polls to vote the day after Election Day, that the 
                polling location had changed, and that they would only 
                be allowed to vote if they brought four separate forms 
                of identification to the poll. In 2008, in southern 
                Virginia and at George Mason University in the northern 
                part of the state, official-looking fliers ``informed'' 
                voters that, because of projected high turnout, 
                Democrats should wait and vote on November 5, 2008, the 
                day after the election. North Carolina voters 
                complained of misleading calls that provided inaccurate 
                information regarding absentee ballot deadlines.
                    (B) Michigan poll workers were often unaware that 
                Michigan voters who did not have a government-issued 
                photo ID could vote after signing an affidavit.
                    (C) In 2008, fliers distributed and posted in a 
                west Philadelphia neighborhood claimed that any 
                violation as simple as an unpaid parking ticket would 
                render citizens ineligible to vote and subject to 
                arrest at the polls. A flier disseminated on the campus 
                of Drexel University in Philadelphia warned that 
                undercover officers would be present at the polls, 
                looking for voters with outstanding warrants or parking 
                violations.
                    (D) In Virginia, Michigan and Colorado, students 
                were told that if they registered to vote where they 
                went to school (instead of at their parents' address) 
                they could lose their healthcare, financial aid, and 
                jeopardize their parent's taxes, all false claims.
                    (E) In 2008, the non-profit group Minnesota 
                Majority, pretending to be from the Secretary of 
                State's office, made calls to voters questioning their 
                registrations in a supposed attempt to uncover voting 
                irregularities.
                    (F) Twelve Ohio counties released sample paper 
                ballots that split the presidential contest over two 
                columns for the November election. A study found that 
                this particular layout often confuses voters and causes 
                them to double-vote, which ultimately disqualifies the 
                ballot.

SEC. 3. VOTER INFORMATION HOTLINE.

    (a) Establishment and Operation of Telephone Service.--The Attorney 
General, in consultation with State election officials, shall establish 
and operate a toll-free telephone service, using a telephone number 
that is accessible throughout the United States and that uses easily 
identifiable numerals, through which individuals throughout the United 
States--
            (1) may obtain information on voting in elections for 
        Federal office, including information on how to register to 
        vote in such elections, the hours of operation of polling 
        places, and how to obtain absentee ballots; and
            (2) may report information to the Attorney General on 
        problems encountered in registering to vote or voting, 
        including incidences of voter intimidation or suppression.
    (b) Voter Hotline Task Force.--
            (1) Appointment by attorney general.--The Attorney General 
        shall appoint individuals (in such number as the Attorney 
        General considers appropriate) to serve on a Voter Hotline Task 
        Force to provide ongoing analysis and assessment of the 
        operation of the telephone service established under this Act, 
        and shall give special consideration in making appointments to 
        the Task Force to individuals who represent civil rights 
        organizations.
            (2) Eligibility.--An individual shall be eligible to serve 
        on the Task Force under this subsection if the individual meets 
        such criteria as the Attorney General may establish, except 
        that an individual may not serve on the task force if the 
        individual has been convicted of any criminal offense relating 
        to voter intimidation or voter suppression.
            (3) Term of service.--An individual appointed to the Task 
        Force shall serve a single term of 2 years. A vacancy in the 
        membership of the Task Force shall be filled in the same manner 
        as the original appointment.
            (4) No compensation for service.--Members of the Task Force 
        shall serve without pay, but shall receive travel expenses, 
        including per diem in lieu of subsistence, in accordance with 
        applicable provisions under subchapter I of chapter 57 of title 
        5, United States Code.
    (c) Bi-Annual Report to Congress.--Not later than March 1 of each 
odd-numbered year, the Attorney General shall submit a report to 
Congress on the operation of the telephone service established under 
this Act during the previous 2 years, and shall include in the report--
            (1) a compilation and description of the reports made to 
        the hotline by individuals citing instances of voter 
        intimidation or suppression; and
            (2) an assessment of the effectiveness of the service in 
        making information available to all households in the United 
        States with telephone service.

SEC. 4. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

    (a) Authorization.--There are authorized to be appropriated to the 
Attorney General for fiscal year 2011 and each succeeding fiscal year 
such sums as may be necessary to carry out this Act.
    (b) Set-Aside for Outreach.--Of the amounts appropriated to carry 
out this Act for a fiscal year pursuant to the authorization under 
subsection (a), not less than 15% shall be used for outreach activities 
to make the public aware of the availability of the telephone service 
established under this Act.
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