I 

111TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 3274 

To amend the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 to provide members 

of the Armed Forces and their family members equal access to voter 

registration assistance, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JULY 21, 2009 

Mr. HUNTER (for himself, Mr. MCCARTHY of California, Mr. WITTMAN, Mr. 

FLEMING, Mr. ROONEY, and Mr. FRANKS of Arizona) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on House Administration, and in addition to the Committee on Armed Services, 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 the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 to 

provide members of the Armed Forces and their family 

members equal access to voter registration assistance, 

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 ‘‘Military Voters’ Equal 

5 Access to Voter Registration Act of 2009’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

2 Congress makes the following findings: 

3 (1) Members of the Armed Forces and their 

4 family members (in this section referred to as ‘‘mili5 tary voters’’) who have sought to vote in recent elec6 tions for Federal office have had substantial dif7 ficulty doing so, frequently resulting in the dis8 enfranchisement of such military voters. 

9 (2) Due to the highly transient nature of mili10 tary service and frequent overseas deployments, mili11 tary voters are constantly on the move between mili12 tary installations in the United States and to and 

13 from overseas locations. As a result, military voters 

14 are typically absent from their home voting jurisdic15 tions on election day and, if military voters wish to 

16 exercise their right to vote, they must do so by ab17 sentee ballot. 

18 (3) In 1986, Congress enacted the Uniformed 

19 and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (42 

20 U.S.C. 1973ff et seq.) in an attempt to permit mili21 tary voters to register to vote and vote by absentee 

22 ballot in all elections for Federal office. Neverthe23 less, the absentee voting system, as created under 

24 such Act, has consistently failed to ensure that mili25 tary voters actually receive their unmarked absentee 

26 ballots prior to election day. Military voters continue 


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1 to experience substantial difficulty in registering to 

2 vote, updating their voting addresses, and obtaining 

3 absentee ballots prior to election day. 

4 (4) In 1993, Congress enacted the National 

5 Voter Registration Act of 1993 (42 U.S.C. 1973gg 

6 et seq.) to create a national voter registration sys7 tem, as well as to provide citizens with increased op8 portunities to register to vote and receive voting as9 sistance. Such Act, however, failed to ensure that 

10 military voters have the same access to voter reg11 istration assistance as the civilian population, be12 cause their military service typically takes them out 

13 of their home voting jurisdictions, where they would 

14 otherwise be able to receive such assistance, as re15 quired under such Act. 

16 (5) The Inspector General of the Department of 

17 Defense has found that military voters do not re18 ceive adequate information and assistance to register 

19 to vote and request an absentee ballot. In a survey 

20 following the 2004 election, the Inspector General 

21 found that only 40 to 50 percent of members of the 

22 Armed Forces, and a lesser percentage of their de23 pendents, received voting information or assistance 

24 prior to the election. The Inspector General reached 

25 a similar conclusion after the 2006 election, finding 


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1 that less than 40 percent of military voters received 

2 voting information and assistance. 

3 (6) Millions of military voters have been 

4 disenfranchised as a result of the current system’s 

5 inability to provide them with voting information 

6 and assistance. A Department of Defense study con7 ducted by the Defense Manpower Data Center found 

8 that, in the 2006 election for Federal office, only 22 

9 percent of military voters were able to successfully 

10 vote, by either casting an absentee ballot or voting 

11 in person, which represents approximately one-half 

12 of the percentage of the overall national population 

13 that voted in such election. A separate study by the 

14 Election Assistance Commission found that, in such 

15 election, only a small fraction of military voters were 

16 able to request an absentee ballot. The Election As17 sistance Commission study further showed that, even 

18 when military voters were able to request a ballot, 

19 a significant percentage of the ballots requested 

20 never reached the military voters who requested 

21 them, having been sent to outdated addresses from 

22 which the military voters had since moved. 

23 (7) Preliminary data from the 2008 Presi24 dential election shows little or no improvement. Ac25 cording to statistics collected from 5 of the 6 States 


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1 with the largest number of military voters, only 21.9 

2 percent of all eligible military voters in those States 

3 were able to request absentee ballots. Once again, 

4 many ballots were sent to outdated addresses and 

5 did not reach the intended military voters. 

6 (8) The ability of military voters to participate 

7 in the democratic process would be significantly im8 proved through more robust efforts by the Armed 

9 Forces to provide such voters with pertinent voting 

10 information and effective assistance when they need 

11 it most; namely, when their address changes as a re12 sult of reassignment to a new duty station or over13 seas deployment. The Armed Forces, in so doing, 

14 would dramatically increase the ability of military 

15 voters to request and obtain absentee ballots, and 

16 would also help ensure that local election officials 

17 have the most current address of military voters in 

18 order to send absentee ballots to such voters. 

19 SEC. 3. TREATMENT OF ACTIVE DUTY MILITARY INSTALLA20 TIONS. 

21 Section 7 of the National Voter Registration Act of 

22 1993 (42 U.S.C. 1973gg–5) is amended— 

23 (1) by redesignating subsection (d) as sub24 section (e); and 


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1 (2) by inserting after subsection (c) the fol2 lowing new subsection: 

3 ‘‘(d) ACTIVE DUTY MILITARY INSTALLATIONS.— 

4 ‘‘(1) Not later than 180 days after the date of 

5 enactment of this subsection, each Secretary of a 

6 military department shall take appropriate actions to 

7 designate an office on each installation of the Armed 

8 Forces under the jurisdiction of such Secretary to 

9 ensure that each individual described in paragraph 

10 (2) is provided the opportunity to register to vote in 

11 an election for Federal office, update the individual’s 

12 voter registration information, and request an absen13 tee ballot under the Uniformed and Overseas Citi14 zens Absentee Voting Act. 

15 ‘‘(2) The following individuals are described in 

16 this paragraph: 

17 ‘‘(A) A member of the Armed Forces— 

18 ‘‘(i) who is undergoing a permanent 

19 change of duty station; 

20 ‘‘(ii) who is deploying overseas for at 

21 least 6 months; 

22 ‘‘(iii) who is or returning from an 

23 overseas deployment of at least 6 months; 

24 or 


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1 ‘‘(iv) who requests assistance related 

2 to voter registration. 

3 ‘‘(B) A dependent of a member of the 

4 Armed Forces, if the dependent— 

5 ‘‘(i) requests assistance related to 

6 voter registration; and 

7 ‘‘(ii) is at least 18 years of age. 

8 ‘‘(3) The assistance described in paragraph (1) 

9 shall be provided to a member of the Armed 

10 Forces— 

11 ‘‘(A) described in clause (i) of paragraph 

12 (2)(A), as part of the administrative processing 

13 of the member upon arrival at the new duty 

14 station of the member; 

15 ‘‘(B) described in clause (ii) of such para16 graph, as part of the administrative processing 

17 of the member upon deployment from the home 

18 duty station of the member; 

19 ‘‘(C) described in clause (iii) of such para20 graph, as part of the administrative processing 

21 of the member upon return to the home duty 

22 station of the member; and 

23 ‘‘(D) described in clause (iv) of such para24 graph, at any time the member requests such 

25 assistance. 


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1 ‘‘(4) An office designated by the Secretary of a 

2 military department under paragraph (1) shall be 

3 considered to be a voter registration agency des4 ignated under subsection (a)(2) of this section for all 

5 purposes of this Act.’’. 

6 SEC. 4. OUTREACH FOR MEMBERS OF THE ARMED FORCES 

7 AND THEIR FAMILY MEMBERS. 

8 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of each military de9 partment, or the Presidential designee under section 

10 101(a) of the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee 

11 Voting Act (42 U.S.C. 1973ff et seq.), shall take appro12 priate actions to inform members of the Armed Forces 

13 and the dependents of such members of the assistance 

14 available under section 7(d) of the National Voter Reg15 istration Act of 1993 (42 U.S.C. 1973gg–5), as added by 

16 section 3, including— 

17 (1) the availability of voter registration assist18 ance at offices designated under paragraph (1) of 

19 such section 7(d); and 

20 (2) the time, location, and manner in which a 

21 member of the Armed Forces and a dependent of 

22 such a member may utilize such assistance. 

23 (b) REPORTS.— 

24 (1) REPORT ON STATUS OF IMPLEMENTA25 TION.— 


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1 (A) REPORT REQUIRED.—Not later than 

2 180 days after the date of the enactment of this 

3 Act, the Secretary of each military department, 

4 or the Presidential designee under section 

5 101(a) of the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens 

6 Absentee Voting Act (42 U.S.C. 1973ff), shall 

7 submit to the relevant committees of Congress 

8 a report on the status of the implementation of 

9 section 7(d) of the National Voter Registration 

10 Act of 1993 (42 U.S.C. 1973gg–5), as added by 

11 section 3. 

12 (B) ELEMENTS.—The report under sub13 paragraph (A) shall include a detailed descrip14 tion of the specific steps taken towards the im15 plementation of such section, including the des16 ignation of offices under paragraph (1) of such 

17 section 7(d). 

18 (2) REPORT ON UTILIZATION OF VOTER REG19 ISTRATION ASSISTANCE.— 

20 (A) REPORTS REQUIRED.—Not later than 

21 1 year after the date of the enactment of this 

22 Act, the Secretary of each military department, 

23 or the Presidential designee, shall submit to the 

24 relevant committees of Congress a report on the 


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1 utilization of voter registration assistance pro2 vided under such section 7(d). 

3 (B) ELEMENTS.—The report under sub4 paragraph (A) shall include— 

5 (i) a description of the specific pro6 grams implemented by each military de7 partment of the Armed Forces pursuant to 

8 such section 7(d); and 

9 (ii) the number of military 

10 servicemembers and dependents who uti11 lized voter registration assistance provided 

12 under such section 7(d). 

13 (3) RELEVANT COMMITTEES OF CONGRESS DE14 FINED.—In this subsection, the term ‘‘relevant com15 mittees of Congress’’ means— 

16 (A) the Committees on Appropriations, 

17 Armed Services, and Rules and Administration 

18 of the Senate; and 

19 (B) the Committees on Appropriations, 

20 Armed Services, and House Administration of 

21 the House of Representatives. 

Æ 


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