[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 507 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 507

To amend the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 to clarify that a 
  State may not use an individual's failure to vote as the basis for 
 initiating the procedures provided under such Act for the removal of 
the individual from the official list of registered voters in the State 
on the grounds that the individual has changed residence, and for other 
                               purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           February 14, 2019

Ms. Klobuchar (for herself, Mr. Brown, Ms. Harris, Mr. Van Hollen, Ms. 
 Smith, Mr. Booker, Mr. Blumenthal, Mrs. Gillibrand, Mr. Sanders, Mr. 
Jones, and Ms. Duckworth) introduced the following bill; which was read 
    twice and referred to the Committee on Rules and Administration

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 to clarify that a 
  State may not use an individual's failure to vote as the basis for 
 initiating the procedures provided under such Act for the removal of 
the individual from the official list of registered voters in the State 
on the grounds that the individual has changed residence, 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 ``Stop Automatically Voiding Eligible 
Voters Off Their Enlisted Rolls in States Act'' or the ``Save Voters 
Act''.

SEC. 2. PURPOSE.

    The purposes of this Act are--
            (1) to prohibit States from removing individuals from an 
        official list of registered voters due to changes in residence; 
        and
            (2) to protect the right to vote by allowing voters who are 
        automatically registered or had previously registered to vote 
        in a State to update their address through the day of the 
        election.

SEC. 3. CLARIFICATION THAT STATES MAY NOT USE FAILURE TO VOTE AS BASIS 
              FOR INITIATING PROCEDURES TO REMOVE VOTERS FROM LIST OF 
              REGISTERED VOTERS ON GROUNDS OF CHANGED RESIDENCE.

    (a) Criteria for Confirmation of Voter Registration.--Section 8(b) 
of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (52 U.S.C. 20507(b)) is 
amended--
            (1) by striking ``and'' at the end of paragraph (1);
            (2) by striking the period at the end of paragraph (2) and 
        inserting ``; and''; and
            (3) by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
            ``(3) shall not use the failure of a registrant to vote or 
        the failure of a registrant to respond to a notice from the 
        State as the basis for sending the registrant the notice 
        described in subsection (d).''.
    (b) Criteria for Voter Removal Program.--Section 8(d) of such Act 
(52 U.S.C. 20507(d)) is amended--
            (1) by redesignating paragraph (3) as paragraph (4); and
            (2) by inserting after paragraph (2) the following new 
        paragraph:
            ``(3) A State may not use the procedures described in this 
        subsection with respect to any registrant unless the State has 
        first obtained objective and reliable evidence of the 
        registrant's change of residence. For purposes of this 
        paragraph, the objective and reliable evidence of a 
        registrant's change of residence shall not include the failure 
        of the registrant to vote or the failure of the registrant to 
        respond to a notice from the State.''.
    (c) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this section shall take 
effect on the date of the enactment of this Act.

SEC. 4. STATE REGISTRATION PORTABILITY.

    (a) In General.--Section 8(e) of the National Voter Registration 
Act of 1993 (52 U.S.C. 20507(e)) is amended to read as follows:
    ``(e) Procedure for Voting Following Failure To Return Card.--
Notwithstanding failure to notify the registrar of the change of 
address prior to the date of an election, a registrant who has moved 
from an address in the State to an address in the same State shall, 
upon oral or written affirmation by the registrant of the change of 
address before an election official, be permitted to vote (at the 
option of the voter)--
            ``(1) at the polling place of the registrant's current 
        address; or
            ``(2) at a central location within the same registrar's 
        jurisdiction.''.
    (b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by this section shall take 
effect on the date of the enactment of this Act.
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