[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4476 Introduced in House (IH)]

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118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 4476

 To amend title 39, United States Code, to establish standards for the 
   processing and delivery of election mail, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              July 6, 2023

 Mrs. Chavez-DeRemer introduced the following bill; which was referred 
 to the Committee on Oversight and Accountability, 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 amend title 39, United States Code, to establish standards for the 
   processing and delivery of election mail, 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 ``Election Integrity Mail Reform Act 
of 2023''.

SEC. 2. REQUIREMENTS WITH RESPECT TO ELECTION MAIL.

    (a) Prioritizing Election Mail.--Title 39, United States Code, is 
amended by adding after chapter 36 the following:

               ``CHAPTER 37--ELECTION AND POLITICAL MAIL

``Sec.
``3701. Prioritization of processing and delivery of election mail.
``3702. Use of nonprofit permit for cooperative mailings.
``3703. Marking or notice on election mail.
``3704. Application to Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting 
                            Act.
``Sec. 3701. Prioritization of processing and delivery of election mail
    ``(a) In General.--The Postal Service shall give priority to the 
processing and delivery of election mail. In carrying out this 
subsection, the Postal Service shall at a minimum--
            ``(1) deliver any election mail regardless of the amount of 
        postage paid;
            ``(2) shall, to the greatest extent practicable, process 
        and clear election mail from any postal facility each day; and
            ``(3) carry and deliver election mail expeditiously.
    ``(b) Election Mail With Insufficient Postage.--In carrying out 
subsection (a)(1), the Postal Service shall process and deliver 
election mail with insufficient postage in the same manner as election 
mail with sufficient postage, but may collect insufficient postage 
after delivery of any election mail with insufficient postage.
    ``(c) Underfunded or Overdrawn Accounts.--The Postal Service shall 
process and deliver election mail, under the standards in place under 
subsection (a), sent from a customer using an account registered with 
the Postal Service (including a corporate account or an advance deposit 
account) even if such account is underfunded or overdrawn. Nothing in 
this section shall be construed to limit or otherwise prevent the 
Postal Service from seeking reimbursement from any person regarding 
unpaid postage.
    ``(d) Election Mail Defined.--In this chapter, the term `election 
mail' means any item mailed to or from an individual for purposes of 
the individual's participation in an election for public office, 
including balloting materials, voter registration cards, absentee 
ballot applications, polling place notification and photographic voter 
identification materials.
``Sec. 3702. Use of nonprofit permit for cooperative mailings
    ``Notwithstanding any other law, rule, or regulation, a national, 
State, or local committee of a political party (as defined under the 
Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971) which is eligible to mail at the 
nonprofit rate may conduct a cooperative mailing at that nonprofit rate 
with a candidate, a candidate's committee, or another committee of a 
political party, and may seek reimbursement from such a candidate, 
candidate's committee, or committee of a political party for the costs 
of such mailing.
``Sec. 3703. Marking or notice on election mail
    ``(a) In General.--For the purposes of assisting election officials 
in processing election mail, the Postal Service shall place a marking 
or notice indicating that a piece of mail is election mail.
    ``(b) Requirements.--The Postal Service may determine the 
appropriate manner in which subsection (a) is carried out, but at a 
minimum such marking or notice shall--
            ``(1) be placed, as soon as practicable, at the time the 
        election mail is received by the Postal Service, in a 
        conspicuous and legible type or in a common machine-readable 
        technology on the envelope or other cover in which the election 
        mail is mailed; and
            ``(2) clearly demonstrate the date and time that such 
        marking or notice was so placed.
    ``(c) Rule of Construction.--Nothing in this section may be 
construed as requiring any change to the processes and procedures used 
by the Postal Service with respect to Postal Service barcodes on 
envelopes carried or delivered by the Postal Service.
``Sec. 3704. Application to Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee 
              Voting Act
    ``This chapter shall not apply to balloting materials under the 
Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act and nothing in this 
chapter shall be construed to alter or otherwise affect the operation 
of such Act or section 3406 of this title.''.
    (b) Postmarking Stamps.--Section 503 of title 18, United States 
Code, is amended--
            (1) by striking ``Whoever forges'' and inserting ``(a) 
        Whoever forges'';
            (2) by striking ``or such impression thereof,'' and all 
        that follows and inserting the following:
``or such impression thereof--
            ``(1) shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not 
        more than five years, or both; or
            ``(2) if the impression from a postmarking stamp or 
        impression thereof forged, counterfeited, used, sold, or 
        possessed in violation of this section is applied to a mailed 
        ballot for an election for Federal, State, or local office, 
        shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 10 
        years, or both.''; and
            (3) by adding at the end following new subsection:
    ``(a) Whoever, with the intent to falsify the date on which a 
postmark was applied, applies to a mailed ballot described in 
subsection (a)(2) a genuine postmark that bears a date other than the 
date on which such postmark was applied, shall be subject to the 
penalties set forth in such subsection.''.
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