I 

113TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 97 

To provide incentives for States to invest in practices and technology that 

are designed to expedite voting at the polls and to simplify voter registration. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JANUARY 3, 2013 

Mr. CONNOLLY (for himself and Mr. LANGEVIN) 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 provide incentives for States to invest in practices and 

technology that are designed to expedite voting at the 

polls and to simplify voter registration. 

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 ‘‘Fair, Accurate, Secure, 

5 and Timely Voting Act’’ or the ‘‘FAST Voting Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. INCENTIVES FOR STATES TO INVEST IN PRACTICES 

2 AND TECHNOLOGY THAT ARE DESIGNED TO 

3 EXPEDITE VOTING AT THE POLLS AND SIM4 PLIFY VOTER REGISTRATION. 

5 (a) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this section are 

6 to— 

7 (1) provide incentives for States to invest in 

8 practices and technology that are designed to expe9 dite voting at the polls; and 

10 (2) provide incentives for States to simplify 

11 voter registration. 

12 (b) RESERVATION OF FUNDS.—From the amount 

13 made available to carry out this section for a fiscal year, 

14 the Attorney General may reserve not more than 10 per15 cent of such amount to carry out activities related to— 

16 (1) technical assistance; and 

17 (2) outreach and dissemination. 

18 (c) PROGRAM AUTHORIZED.— 

19 (1) IN GENERAL.—From the amounts made 

20 available under subsection (h) for a fiscal year and 

21 not reserved under subsection (b), the Attorney Gen22 eral shall award grants, on a competitive basis, to 

23 States in accordance with subsection (d)(2), to en24 able the States to carry out the purposes of this sec25 tion. 


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1 (2) NUMBER OF GRANTS.—A State may not re2 ceive more than 1 grant under this section per grant 

3 period. 

4 (3) DURATION OF GRANTS.— 

5 (A) IN GENERAL.—A grant under this sec6 tion shall be awarded for a period of not more 

7 than 4 years. 

8 (B) CONTINUATION OF GRANTS.—A State 

9 that is awarded a grant under this section shall 

10 not receive grant funds under this section for 

11 the second or any subsequent year of the grant 

12 unless the State demonstrates to the Attorney 

13 General, at such time and in such manner as 

14 determined by the Attorney General, that the 

15 State is— 

16 (i) making progress in implementing 

17 the plan under subsection (d)(1)(C) at a 

18 rate that the Attorney General determines 

19 will result in the State fully implementing 

20 such plan during the remainder of the 

21 grant period; or 

22 (ii) making progress against the per23 formance measures set forth in subsection 

24 (e) at a rate that the Attorney General de25 termines will result in the State reaching 


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1 its targets and achieving the objectives of 

2 the grant during the remainder of the 

3 grant period. 

4 (d) APPLICATIONS.— 

5 (1) APPLICATIONS.—Each State that desires to 

6 receive a grant under this section shall submit an 

7 application to the Attorney General at such time, in 

8 such manner, and containing such information as 

9 the Attorney General may reasonably require. At a 

10 minimum, each such application shall include— 

11 (A) documentation of the applicant’s 

12 record, as applicable— 

13 (i) in providing various voter registra14 tion opportunities; 

15 (ii) in providing early voting; 

16 (iii) in providing absentee voting; 

17 (iv) in providing assistance to voters 

18 who do not speak English as a primary 

19 language; 

20 (v) in providing assistance to voters 

21 with disabilities; 

22 (vi) in providing effective access to 

23 voting for members of the armed services; 

24 (vii) in providing formal training of 

25 election officials; 


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1 (viii) in auditing or otherwise docu2 menting waiting times at polling stations; 

3 (ix) in allocating polling locations, 

4 equipment, and staff to match population 

5 distribution; 

6 (x) in responding to voting irregular7 ities and concerns raised at polling sta8 tions; 

9 (xi) in creating and adhering to con10 tingency voting plans in the event of a nat11 ural or other disaster; and 

12 (xii) with respect to any other per13 formance measure described in subsection 

14 (e) that is not included in clauses (i) 

15 through (xi); 

16 (B) evidence of conditions of innovation 

17 and reform that the applicant has established 

18 and the applicant’s proposed plan for imple19 menting additional conditions for innovation 

20 and reform, including— 

21 (i) a description of how the applicant 

22 has identified and eliminated ineffective 

23 practices in the past and the applicant’s 

24 plan for doing so in the future; 


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1 (ii) a description of how the applicant 

2 has identified and promoted effective prac3 tices in the past and the applicant’s plan 

4 for doing so in the future; and 

5 (iii) steps the applicant has taken and 

6 will take to eliminate statutory, regulatory, 

7 procedural, or other barriers and to facili8 tate the full implementation of the pro9 posed plan under this subparagraph; 

10 (C) a comprehensive and coherent plan for 

11 using funds under this section, and other Fed12 eral, State, and local funds, to improve the ap13 plicant’s performance on the measures de14 scribed in subsection (e), consistent with cri15 teria set forth by the Attorney General, includ16 ing how the applicant will, if applicable— 

17 (i) provide flexible registration oppor18 tunities, including online and same-day 

19 registration and registration updating; 

20 (ii) provide early voting, at a min21 imum of 9 of the 10 calendar days pre22 ceding an election, at sufficient and flexible 

23 hours; 

24 (iii) provide absentee voting, including 

25 no-excuse absentee voting; 


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1 (iv) provide assistance to voters who 

2 do not speak English as a primary lan3 guage; 

4 (v) provide assistance to voters with 

5 disabilities, including visual impairment; 

6 (vi) provide effective access to voting 

7 for members of the armed services; 

8 (vii) provide formal training of elec9 tion officials, including State and county 

10 administrators and volunteers; 

11 (viii) audit and reduce waiting times 

12 at polling stations; 

13 (ix) allocate polling locations, equip14 ment, and staff to match population dis15 tribution; 

16 (x) respond to any reports of voting 

17 irregularities or concerns raised at the poll18 ing station; 

19 (xi) create contingency voting plans in 

20 the event of a natural or other disaster; 

21 and 

22 (xii) improve the wait times at the 

23 persistently poorest performing polling sta24 tions within the jurisdiction of the appli25 cant; 


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1 (D) evidence of collaboration between the 

2 State, local election officials, and other stake3 holders, in developing the plan described in sub4 paragraph (C), including evidence of the com5 mitment and capacity to implement the plan; 

6 (E) the applicant’s annual performance 

7 measures and targets, consistent with the re8 quirements of subsection (e); and 

9 (F) a description of the applicant’s plan to 

10 conduct a rigorous evaluation of the effective11 ness of activities carried out with funds under 

12 this section. 

13 (2) CRITERIA FOR EVALUATING APPLICA14 TIONS.— 

15 (A) AWARD BASIS.—The Attorney General 

16 shall award grants under this section on a com17 petitive basis, based on the quality of the appli18 cations submitted under paragraph (1), includ19 ing— 

20 (i) each applicant’s record in the 

21 areas described in paragraph (1)(A); 

22 (ii) each applicant’s record of, and 

23 commitment to, establishing conditions for 

24 innovation and reform, as described in 

25 paragraph (1)(B); 


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1 (iii) the quality and likelihood of suc2 cess of each applicant’s plan described in 

3 paragraph (1)(C) in showing improvement 

4 in the areas described in paragraph (1)(A), 

5 including each applicant’s capacity to im6 plement the plan and evidence of collabora7 tion as described in paragraph (1)(D); and 

8 (iv) each applicant’s evaluation plan 

9 as described in paragraph (1)(F). 

10 (B) EXPLANATION.—The Attorney General 

11 shall publish an explanation of how the applica12 tion review process under this paragraph will 

13 ensure an equitable and objective evaluation 

14 based on the criteria described in subparagraph 

15 (A). 

16 (e) PERFORMANCE MEASURES.—Each State receiv17 ing a grant under this section shall establish performance 

18 measures and targets, approved by the Attorney General, 

19 for the programs and activities carried out under this sec20 tion. These measures shall, at a minimum, track the 

21 State’s progress— 

22 (1) in implementing its plan described in sub23 section (d)(1)(C); 

24 (2) in expediting voting at the polls or simpli25 fying voter registration, as applicable; and 


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1 (3) on any other measures identified by the At2 torney General. 

3 (f) USES OF FUNDS.—Each State that receives a 

4 grant under this section shall use the grant funds for any 

5 purpose included in the State’s plan under subsection 

6 (d)(1)(C). 

7 (g) REPORTING.—A State that receives a grant under 

8 this section shall submit to the Attorney General, at such 

9 time and in such manner as the Attorney General may 

10 require, an annual report including— 

11 (1) data on the State’s progress in achieving 

12 the targets for the performance measures established 

13 under subsection (e); 

14 (2) a description of the challenges the State has 

15 faced in implementing its program and how it has 

16 addressed or plans to address those challenges; and 

17 (3) findings from the evaluation plan as de18 scribed in subsection (d)(1)(F). 

19 (h) STATE DEFINED.—In this section, the term 

20 ‘‘State’’ means each of the several States, the District of 

21 Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, American 

22 Samoa, Guam, the United States Virgin Islands, and the 

23 Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. 


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1 (i) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 

2 are authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be 

3 necessary to carry out this section. 

Æ 


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