I 
119TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 4916 
To expand youth access to voting, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
AUGUST 5, 2025 
Ms. WILLIAMS of Georgia (for herself, Ms. ANSARI, Ms. BROWN, Mr. CARSON, 
Mrs. CHERFILUS-MCCORMICK, Ms. CLARKE of New York, Ms. CROCK-
ETT, Ms. DELBENE, Mr. DELUZIO, Mr. DOGGETT, Ms. ELFRETH, Mr. 
EVANS of Pennsylvania, Mr. FIELDS, Mr. FIGURES, Mr. GARCI´A of Illi-
nois, Mr. GREEN of Texas, Mr. JACKSON of Illinois, Mr. JOHNSON of 
Georgia, 
Ms. 
KAMLAGER-DOVE, 
Ms. 
KELLY
of 
Illinois, 
Mr. 
KRISHNAMOORTHI, Ms. LEE of Pennsylvania, Mr. LYNCH, Ms. MCCLEL-
LAN, Mrs. MCIVER, Mr. MFUME, Mr. MOULTON, Mr. MULLIN, Ms. NOR-
TON, Ms. PRESSLEY, Mrs. RAMIREZ, Ms. SALINAS, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, 
Mr. SCOTT of Virginia, Ms. SEWELL, Ms. SIMON, Ms. STRICKLAND, Mr. 
THANEDAR, Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi, Ms. TITUS, Ms. TLAIB, and 
Mr. TONKO) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee 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 jurisdic-
tion of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To expand youth access to voting, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 
‘‘Youth Voting Rights Act’’. 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
00:19 Aug 09, 2025
Jkt 059200
PO 00000
Frm 00001
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H4916.IH
H4916
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB
(b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents of 
this Act is as follows: 
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. 
Sec. 2. Sense of Congress. 
Sec. 3. Findings. 
Sec. 4. Enforcement of the 26th Amendment. 
Sec. 5. Treatment of public institutions of higher education as voter registra-
tion agencies under National Voter Registration Act of 1993. 
Sec. 6. Pre-registration of minors for voting in Federal elections. 
Sec. 7. On-campus polling locations. 
Sec. 8. Prohibition of residency requirements. 
Sec. 9. Requirements for voter identification. 
Sec. 10. Grants to States for activities to encourage involvement of youth in 
election activities. 
Sec. 11. Absentee voting. 
Sec. 12. Studies and data collection. 
SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 
It is the sense of Congress that— 
(1) 50 years ago, our Nation came together 
unanimously to expand the franchise to those 18 
years of age and older and to outlaw age-based dis-
crimination in accessing the franchise; 
(2) 50 years later, the promises of the 26th 
Amendment to the Constitution of the United States 
(referred to in this Act as the ‘‘26th Amendment’’) 
remain unfulfilled although the reasons that moti-
vated its ratification endure; and 
(3) pursuant to section 2 of the 26th Amend-
ment, Congress is empowered to enforce the article 
by appropriate legislation and acts accordingly in 
this Act. 
SEC. 3. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
00:19 Aug 09, 2025
Jkt 059200
PO 00000
Frm 00002
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H4916.IH
H4916
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB
(1) Over 50 years ago, on July 1, 1971, this 
Nation ratified into the Constitution of the United 
States the 26th Amendment, lowering the voting age 
from 21 to 18 years of age and outlawing the denial 
or abridgement of the right to vote on account of 
age. 
(2) Support for the 26th Amendment was near-
ly unanimous. The proposed constitutional amend-
ment passed with bipartisan supermajorities, passing 
in the Senate with a vote of 94–0, and passing in 
the House of Representatives with a vote of 401–19. 
The 26th Amendment was approved by the requisite 
38 States in less than 100 days, making it the 
quickest constitutional amendment to be ratified in 
United States history. 
(3) Support for lowering the voting age to 18 
was championed across the aisle. President Dwight 
Eisenhower, former Commander of the Allied 
Forces, included the issue in his 1954 State of the 
Union Address. Moreover, President Richard Nixon 
emphasized his support for the 26th Amendment 
during its certification ceremony, describing that 
young people serve a critical role by infusing the 
practice of democracy with ‘‘some idealism, some 
courage, some stamina, some high moral purpose 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
00:19 Aug 09, 2025
Jkt 059200
PO 00000
Frm 00003
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H4916.IH
H4916
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB
that this Nation always needs, because a country, 
throughout history, we find, goes through ebbs and 
flows of idealism.’’. Similarly, Senate majority leader 
Michael Mansfield and Senator Ted Kennedy were 
key advocates of the measure, having first proposed 
a statutory route for lowering the voting age in the 
Voting Rights Act Amendments of 1970 (Public 
Law 91–285), in addition to supporting a path 
through constitutional ratification. 
(4) The Voting Rights Act Amendments of 
1970 (Public Law 91–285) marked the first Federal 
law to enfranchise youth and outlaw age discrimina-
tion in accessing the franchise. In title III of that 
Act, Congress declared, with strong bipartisan sup-
port, that the 21-year age requirement— 
(A) ‘‘denies and abridges the inherent con-
stitutional rights of citizens eighteen years of 
age but not yet twenty-one years of age to 
vote’’; 
(B) has the effect of denying those 
disenfranchised ‘‘the due process and equal pro-
tection of the laws that are guaranteed to them 
under the Fourteenth Amendment’’; and 
(C) ‘‘does not bear a reasonable relation-
ship to any compelling State interest.’’. 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
00:19 Aug 09, 2025
Jkt 059200
PO 00000
Frm 00004
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H4916.IH
H4916
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB
(5) The age-based expansion of the franchise 
via the Voting Rights Act Amendments of 1970 was 
ultimately found by a strongly divided Supreme 
Court to be unconstitutional as applied to State and 
local races and constitutional as applied to Federal 
races. Thus, to ensure uniform election administra-
tion in Federal and State races, a constitutional so-
lution was required. 
(6) A variety of reasons were advanced to sup-
port ratification of the 26th Amendment. The 
emerging themes included— 
(A) the value of idealism, courage, and 
moral purpose that youth provide in reener-
gizing the practice of democracy; 
(B) the increased political competence of 
young people compared to prior generations, 
due to greater access to information through 
standardized education and technology such as 
then-widely available television sets; 
(C) the increased responsibilities assumed 
by the group as they fought in war, assumed 
debt, and lived independently; 
(D) a general recognition of the Nation’s 
expansion toward a more inclusive suffrage; and 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
00:19 Aug 09, 2025
Jkt 059200
PO 00000
Frm 00005
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H4916.IH
H4916
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB
(E) the stemming of unrest by encouraging 
institutionalized 
mechanisms 
to 
advance 
change. 
(7) In referring the 26th Amendment to the 
States for ratification, Congress invoked the Voting 
Rights Act and the principles protected by the 14th 
Amendment to the Constitution of the United 
States, explaining that ‘‘[F]orcing young voters to 
undertake special burdens-obtaining absentee ballots, 
or traveling to one centralized location in each city, 
for example-in order to exercise their right to vote 
might well serve to dissuade them from participating 
in the election. This result, and the election proce-
dures that create it, are at least inconsistent with 
the purpose of the Voting Rights [A]ct, which 
sought to encourage greater political participation on 
the part of the young; such segregation might even 
amount to a denial of their 14th Amendment right 
to equal protection of the laws in the exercise of the 
franchise.’’. 
(8) According to the Center for Information & 
Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (re-
ferred to in this Act as ‘‘CIRCLE’’) of Tufts Uni-
versity, a record-high 28 percent of young people 
voted in the 2018 midterm elections, more than dou-
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
00:19 Aug 09, 2025
Jkt 059200
PO 00000
Frm 00006
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H4916.IH
H4916
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB
bling the record-low 13 percent youth turnout in 
2014. Still, young people vote at lower levels than 
older adults. 
(9) Lower youth voting rates are not a sign of 
generational apathy but of systemic barriers and 
issues with the culture of political engagement that 
have plagued young people of various generations for 
decades. Individuals that were part of older genera-
tions voted at similar rates as individuals in the Mil-
lennial and Gen Z generations when those older gen-
erations were youth. For the first presidential elec-
tion in which a generation’s entire 18–24 age cohort 
was eligible to vote (1972 for Boomers, 1992 for 
Gen X, and 2008 for Millennials), each participated 
at about 50 percent. 
(10) The outsized reliance by young voters on 
provisional ballots in recent years demonstrates the 
structural obstacles young voters face due to voter 
restrictions. A 2016 survey found that 1 in 4 
Millennials voted provisionally in the 2016 race, 
compared to 6 percent of Baby Boomers, and 2 per-
cent of the Greatest Generation. 
(11) In addition to voting provisionally at dis-
proportionate rates, young voters’ provisional ballots 
are also disproportionally rejected. As determined by 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
00:19 Aug 09, 2025
Jkt 059200
PO 00000
Frm 00007
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H4916.IH
H4916
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB
a recent Federal court, voters aged 18 to 21 in Flor-
ida had their provisional ballots rejected at a rate 
more than 4 times higher than the rejection rate for 
provisional ballots cast by voters between the ages of 
45 to 64. 
(12) Similarly, young voters experience a higher 
rejection rate of vote-by-mail ballots compared to 
older voters. One study found that voters aged 18 to 
21 had their vote-by-mail ballots rejected at a rate 
of over 5 times that of voters between the ages of 
45 to 64 and over 8 times those over the age of 65. 
These rejection rates trend with those of voters of 
color. For example, the study found that the rate of 
rejection of vote-by-mail ballots for Hispanic and Af-
rican American voters is over 2 times that of White 
voters. 
(13) Moreover, when special burdens are re-
moved, young people vote more frequently. Once 
polling places were finally situated on campuses dur-
ing the early voting period, pursuant to successful 
26th Amendment litigation, one study found that on 
12 campuses alone, nearly 60,000 registered voters 
participated in the 2018 general election through 
early in-person voting. Young voters, people of color, 
and those who did not cast a ballot in 2016 dis-
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
00:19 Aug 09, 2025
Jkt 059200
PO 00000
Frm 00008
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H4916.IH
H4916
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB