I 

114TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 5488 

To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require States to meet 

standards for the location and operation of polling places used in elections for Federal office, including a standard requiring States to ensure 

that no individual waits for longer than one hour to cast a vote at 

a polling place, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JUNE 15, 2016 

Mr. GRIJALVA (for himself, Mrs. KIRKPATRICK, Mr. GALLEGO, Mr. VEASEY, 

Ms. JACKSON LEE, Mr. TED LIEU of California, Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN, Ms. NORTON, Mr. CONYERS, Mr. MEEKS, Mr. HIGGINS, Ms. 

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, Mr. RICHMOND, Mr. VAN HOLLEN, Mr. SCOTT

of Virginia, Mr. BLUMENAUER, and Ms. LEE) introduced the following 

bill; which was referred to the Committee on House Administration 

A BILL 

To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require 

States to meet standards for the location and operation 

of polling places used in elections for Federal office, 

including a standard requiring States to ensure that 

no individual waits for longer than one hour to cast 

a vote at a polling place, 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 ‘‘Voting Access Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. REQUIRING STATES TO MEET STANDARDS FOR LO2 CATION AND OPERATION OF POLLING 

3 PLACES USED IN ELECTIONS FOR FEDERAL 

4 OFFICE. 

5 (a) ESTABLISHMENT OF STANDARDS.— 

6 (1) IN GENERAL.—Title III of the Help Amer7 ica Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21081 et seq.) is 

8 amended by inserting after section 303 the following 

9 new section: 

10 ‘‘SEC. 303A. COMPLIANCE WITH STANDARDS FOR LOCATION 

11 AND OPERATION OF POLLING PLACES. 

12 ‘‘(a) COMPLIANCE.—Each State shall comply with 

13 the standards established by the Commission under this 

14 section for the location and operation of polling places 

15 used in elections for Federal office. 

16 ‘‘(b) ESTABLISHMENT OF STANDARDS.— 

17 ‘‘(1) STANDARDS DESCRIBED.—In consultation 

18 with the chief State election officials of the States, 

19 the Commission shall establish national standards 

20 for the location and operation of polling places used 

21 in elections for Federal office (other than sites used 

22 as polling places on dates other than the date of the 

23 election), including the following: 

24 ‘‘(A) A requirement that no individual 

25 shall be required to wait for longer than one 

26 hour in order to cast a vote at a polling place. 


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1 ‘‘(B) Standards for determining the num2 ber of polling places within a jurisdiction on the 

3 basis of the voting age population of the juris4 diction, taking into consideration factors which 

5 include the linguistic preferences of voters in 

6 the jurisdiction, the availability of same-day 

7 voter registration in the jurisdiction, and other 

8 relevant factors. 

9 ‘‘(C) Standards for the nondiscriminatory 

10 placement and location of polling places within 

11 a jurisdiction, including standards to ensure 

12 that polling places are accessible to voters with 

13 disabilities and voters using public transpor14 tation. 

15 ‘‘(D) Standards for ensuring that each 

16 polling place has sufficient resources, including 

17 voting systems, ballots, and election officials, to 

18 meet the requirement described in subpara19 graph (A). 

20 ‘‘(E) Standards for ensuring that voters 

21 are given timely, accurate, and current informa22 tion in clear and concise language regarding 

23 ballot information and the location of polling 

24 places. 


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1 ‘‘(F) Best practices for preventing viola2 tions of laws prohibiting the intimidation or 

3 harassment of voters at polling places. 

4 ‘‘(2) PROCESS FOR ESTABLISHMENT OF STAND5 ARDS.—The establishment of the standards under 

6 this section shall be carried out by the Commission 

7 in a manner that provides for each of the following: 

8 ‘‘(A) Publication of notice of the proposed 

9 standards in the Federal Register. 

10 ‘‘(B) An opportunity for public comment 

11 on the proposed standards. 

12 ‘‘(C) Publication of the final standards in 

13 the Federal Register. 

14 ‘‘(c) DEADLINE; EFFECTIVE DATE.—The Commis15 sion shall establish the standards under this section not 

16 later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this 

17 section, and each State shall comply with the standards 

18 with respect to all elections for Federal office held on or 

19 after the expiration of the 180-day period which begins 

20 on the date the Commission establishes the standards.’’. 

21 (2) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of con22 tents of such Act is amended by inserting after the 

23 item relating to section 303 the following new item: 

‘‘Sec. 303A. Compliance with standards for location and operation of polling 

places.’’. 


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1 (b) ENFORCEMENT.—Section 401 of such Act (52 

2 U.S.C. 21111) is amended by striking ‘‘and 303’’ and in3 serting ‘‘303, and 303A’’. 

4 (c) FUNDING.—Section 257(a) of such Act (52 

5 U.S.C. 21007(a)) is amended by adding at the end the 

6 following new paragraph: 

7 ‘‘(5) For the first fiscal year during which 

8 States are subject to the requirements of section 

9 303A (relating to standards established by the Com10 mission for the location and operation of polling 

11 places), such sums as are necessary for requirements 

12 payments to enable the States to meet the require13 ments of such section.’’. 

14 SEC. 3. STUDY AND REPORT ON MISIDENTIFICATION OF IN15 DIVIDUAL POLITICAL PARTY REGISTRATION. 

16 (a) STUDY.—The Election Assistance Commission 

17 shall conduct a study of instances of the misidentification 

18 by election officials of the political party registration of 

19 individuals attempting to vote in primary elections for 

20 Federal office, including an analysis of the frequency of 

21 such misidentification among various jurisdictions. 

22 (b) REPORT.—Not later than 180 days after the date 

23 of the enactment of this Act, the Commission shall submit 

24 to Congress a report on the study conducted under sub25 section (a), and shall include in the report such recVerDate Sep 11 2014 02:55 Jun 16, 2016 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5488.IH H5488

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1 ommendations as the Commission considers appropriate to 

2 prevent and respond to the misidentification of an individ3 ual’s political party registration, including recommenda4 tions to permit individuals to correct their political party 

5 registration at the polling place on the date of voting. 

Æ 


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