I 

117TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2301 

To amend the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 to require each 

State to ensure that each individual who provides identifying information 

to the State motor vehicle authority is automatically registered to vote 

in elections for Federal office held in the State unless the individual 

does not meet the eligibility requirements for registering to vote in 

such elections or declines to be registered to vote in such elections, 

and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

APRIL 1, 2021 

Mr. CICILLINE (for himself, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. TAKANO, Mrs. WATSON

COLEMAN, Mrs. NAPOLITANO, Mr. MCGOVERN, Mr. COOPER, Mr. 

PAYNE, Mrs. BEATTY, Ms. SPEIER, Ms. MCCOLLUM, Mr. THOMPSON of 

California, Mr. EVANS, Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois, Ms. DELBENE, 

Mr. SARBANES, Ms. CASTOR of Florida, Mr. MEEKS, Mr. BLUMENAUER, 

Mrs. TRAHAN, Mr. BRENDAN F. BOYLE of Pennsylvania, Ms. LEE of 

California, Ms. CLARKE of New York, Mr. RASKIN, Mr. KIM of New Jersey, Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, Mr. ESPAILLAT, Ms. SEWELL, Mr. 

SMITH of Washington, Mr. PRICE of North Carolina, Ms. TLAIB, Miss 

RICE of New York, Mr. SCHIFF, Mr. LEVIN of Michigan, Ms. ROYBALALLARD, Mr. STANTON, Mr. MOULTON, Mr. GARAMENDI, Mr. WELCH, 

Mr. PALLONE, Mr. LANGEVIN, Mr. RUSH, Mr. HUFFMAN, Ms. MENG, 

Mr. TRONE, Mr. GARCI ́A of Illinois, Ms. ESCOBAR, Mrs. CAROLYN B. 

MALONEY of New York, Mr. NEGUSE, Ms. NORTON, Ms. DEGETTE, Mrs. 

LAWRENCE, Ms. SCANLON, Ms. PRESSLEY, Mr. TONKO, Ms. BROWNLEY, 

Mr. SWALWELL, Ms. GARCIA of Texas, Mr. PANETTA, Mrs. DEMINGS, 

Ms. TITUS, Mr. LOWENTHAL, Mrs. HAYES, Mr. CARBAJAL, Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia, Mr. SUOZZI, Mr. KRISHNAMOORTHI, Mr. KHANNA, Mr. 

HASTINGS, Mr. DEFAZIO, Ms. LOIS FRANKEL of Florida, Ms. JAYAPAL, 

Mr. PETERS, Mr. GOMEZ, Mr. RYAN, Mr. CARTWRIGHT, Mr. KILMER, 

Mr. POCAN, Mr. CASTEN, Ms. ESHOO, Mr. SIRES, Mr. CROW, Mr. SAN

NICOLAS, Mr. NADLER, Mr. COURTNEY, Mr. MICHAEL F. DOYLE of 

Pennsylvania, Mr. CONNOLLY, Mr. SCHNEIDER, Mr. SCOTT of Virginia, 

Mr. SOTO, Mr. YARMUTH, Ms. BONAMICI, Mr. KIND, Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin, Ms. JACKSON LEE, Ms. MATSUI, Mr. MALINOWSKI, Ms. 

HOULAHAN, Mr. TORRES of New York, Ms. KAPTUR, Ms. OCASIO-CORTEZ, Mr. HIGGINS of New York, Ms. WILSON of Florida, Mr. COHEN, 

Mr. HIMES, Mr. BOWMAN, Mr. DEUTCH, Mr. AUCHINCLOSS, and Mr. 


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DESAULNIER) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 

Committee on House Administration 

A BILL 

To amend the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 to 

require each State to ensure that each individual who 

provides identifying information to the State motor vehicle authority is automatically registered to vote in elections for Federal office held in the State unless the 

individual does not meet the eligibility requirements for 

registering to vote in such elections or declines to be 

registered to vote in such elections, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Automatic Voter Reg5 istration Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. AUTOMATIC VOTER REGISTRATION THROUGH 

7 STATE MOTOR VEHICLE AUTHORITIES. 

8 (a) AUTOMATIC VOTER REGISTRATION.—Section 5 

9 of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (52 U.S.C. 

10 20504) is amended to read as follows: 

11 ‘‘SEC. 5. AUTOMATIC VOTER REGISTRATION THROUGH 

12 MOTOR VEHICLE AUTHORITY. 

13 ‘‘(a) TRANSMISSION OF INFORMATION TO ELECTION

14 OFFICIALS.— 


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1 ‘‘(1) TRANSMISSION.—Each State’s motor vehi2 cle authority, upon receiving the identifying informa3 tion described in paragraph (2) with respect to any 

4 individual who requests services from the authority, 

5 shall transmit the identifying information to the ap6 propriate State election official. 

7 ‘‘(2) IDENTIFYING INFORMATION DESCRIBED.— 

8 The identifying information described in this para9 graph with respect to any individual is as follows: 

10 ‘‘(A) The individual’s legal name. 

11 ‘‘(B) The individual’s age. 

12 ‘‘(C) The individual’s residence. 

13 ‘‘(D) The individual’s citizenship status. 

14 ‘‘(E) The individual’s electronic signature. 

15 ‘‘(3) RESTRICTION ON USE OF INFORMATION

16 ON CITIZENSHIP STATUS.—A State may not use any 

17 identifying information regarding an individual’s 

18 citizenship status which is transmitted under this 

19 subsection for any purpose other than determining 

20 whether the individual is eligible to vote in elections 

21 for Federal office. 

22 ‘‘(b) NOTIFICATION TO INDIVIDUALS.—Upon receiv23 ing the identifying information with respect to an indi24 vidual under subsection (a), the appropriate State election 


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1 official shall issue a notification to the individual con2 taining— 

3 ‘‘(1) a statement that, unless the individual no4 tifies the election official prior to the expiration of 

5 the 21-calendar day period which begins on the date 

6 the official issued the notification that the individual 

7 declines to be registered to vote in elections for Fed8 eral office held in the State, the individual shall be 

9 considered to have completed and submitted a voter 

10 registration application for purposes of this Act; and 

11 ‘‘(2) a description of the process by which the 

12 individual may decline to be registered to vote in 

13 elections for Federal office in the State. 

14 ‘‘(c) AUTOMATIC REGISTRATION OF ELIGIBLE INDI15 VIDUALS.—Upon the expiration of the 21-calendar day pe16 riod which begins on the date the appropriate State elec17 tion official issues a notification to an individual under 

18 subsection (b)(1), the official shall ensure that the indi19 vidual is registered to vote in elections for Federal office 

20 held in the State unless— 

21 ‘‘(1) the official determines that the individual 

22 does not meet the eligibility requirements for reg23 istering to vote in such elections; 

24 ‘‘(2) prior to the expiration of such 21-calendar 

25 day period, the individual notifies the official that 


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1 the individual declines to be registered to vote in 

2 such elections; or 

3 ‘‘(3) the individual is already registered to vote 

4 in such elections. 

5 ‘‘(d) APPLICATION TO TERRITORIES.—This section 

6 shall apply with respect to the Commonwealth of Puerto 

7 Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the United States Virgin 

8 Islands, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana 

9 Islands in the same manner as this section applies to a 

10 State.’’. 

11 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT RELATING TO TIM12 ING OF REGISTRATION PRIOR TO ELECTIONS.—Section 

13 8(a)(1)(A) of such Act (52 U.S.C. 20507(a)(1)(A)) is 

14 amended to read as follows: 

15 ‘‘(A) in the case of registration through a 

16 motor vehicle authority under section 5, if the 

17 identifying information with respect to the indi18 vidual is transmitted by the authority to the ap19 propriate State election official under section 

20 5(a)(1) not later than the lesser of 30 days, or 

21 the period provided by State law, before the 

22 date of the election;’’. 

23 (c) OTHER CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—Section 

24 4(a)(1) of such Act (52 U.S.C. 20503(a)(1)) is amended 

25 to read as follows: 


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1 ‘‘(1) through the State motor vehicle authority 

2 pursuant to section 5;’’. 

3 SEC. 3. EFFECTIVE DATE. 

4 (a) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 

5 this Act shall take effect upon the expiration of the 180- 

6 day period which begins on the date of the enactment of 

7 this Act. 

8 (b) TIMING OF AUTOMATIC REGISTRATION OF INDI9 VIDUALS PROVIDING IDENTIFYING INFORMATION TO

10 MOTOR VEHICLE AUTHORITY PRIOR TO EFFECTIVE

11 DATE.— 

12 (1) RETROACTIVE AUTOMATIC REGISTRATION

13 REQUIREMENTS.—For purposes of section 5 of the 

14 National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (52 U.S.C. 

15 20504), as amended by section 2(a), if an individual 

16 provided identifying information (as described in sec17 tion 5(a)(2) of such Act) to a State motor vehicle 

18 authority at any time during the period described in 

19 paragraph (2), the authority shall transmit such in20 formation to the appropriate State election official 

21 pursuant to section 5(a)(1) of such Act not later 

22 than such effective date, unless the motor vehicle au23 thority determines that the information is no longer 

24 valid with respect to the individual. 


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1 (2) PERIOD DESCRIBED.—The period described 

2 in this paragraph is the period which begins on the 

3 date which is 2 years prior to the date of the enact4 ment of this Act and which ends on the effective 

5 date described in subsection (a). 

Æ 


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