I 
119TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 4911 
To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to ensure that voters in 
elections for Federal office do not wait in long lines in order to vote, 
and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
AUGUST 5, 2025 
Ms. WILLIAMS of Georgia (for herself, Ms. CROCKETT, Ms. ANSARI, Ms. 
BROWN, Mr. CARSON, Mrs. CHERFILUS-MCCORMICK, Ms. CLARKE of 
New York, Ms. DELBENE, Mr. DELUZIO, Mr. DOGGETT, Mr. EVANS of 
Pennsylvania, Mr. FIELDS, Mr. FIGURES, Mr. GARCI´A of Illinois, Mr. 
GREEN of Texas, Mr. JACKSON of Illinois, Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia, Ms. 
KAMLAGER-DOVE, Mr. KRISHNAMOORTHI, Ms. LEE of Pennsylvania, Mr. 
LYNCH, Ms. MCCLELLAN, Mrs. MCIVER, Mr. MEEKS, Mr. MFUME, Mr. 
MULLIN, Ms. NORTON, Mrs. RAMIREZ, Ms. SALINAS, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, 
Mr. SCOTT of Virginia, Ms. SEWELL, Ms. SIMON, Ms. STRICKLAND, Mrs. 
SYKES, Mr. THANEDAR, Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi, Ms. TLAIB, and 
Mr. TONKO) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on House Administration 
A BILL 
To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to ensure 
that voters in elections for Federal office do not wait 
in long lines in order to vote, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘People Over Long 
Lines Act’’ or the ‘‘POLL Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress makes the following findings: 
(1) The right to vote for all Americans is fun-
damental and rules for voting and election adminis-
tration should protect the right to vote and promote 
voter participation. 
(2) It is the responsibility of the State and Fed-
eral Governments to ensure that every eligible cit-
izen is able to register to vote and to cast a ballot. 
(3) There continues to be an alarming move-
ment to erect barriers to make it more difficult for 
Americans to participate in our Nation’s democratic 
process. The Nation has witnessed unprecedented ef-
forts to turn back the clock and erect barriers to 
voting for communities of color, which have faced 
historic and continuing discrimination, as well as 
disabled, young, elderly, and low-income Americans. 
(4) One way voting in communities of color has 
been suppressed is through long waits at polling lo-
cations. Studies have shown a number of contrib-
uting factors, including the drastic reduction of early 
voting days, poor allocation of resources to certain 
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communities, cuts to election funding, and a reduc-
tion of polling locations. 
(5) A 2019 study led by economist Keith Chen 
of the University of California, Los Angeles, 
matched anonymous location data from 10,000,000 
smart phones to 93,000 polling places to create the 
most extensive map to date of voter wait times 
across the United States. The results showed one 
very clear disparity: voters in predominantly Black 
neighborhoods waited 29 percent longer, on average, 
than those in White neighborhoods. They were also 
about 74 percent more likely to wait for more than 
half an hour. 
(6) Waiting in long lines discourages people 
from voting, undermines confidence in the electoral 
system, and imposes economic costs on voters. 
(7) Long lines are estimated to have deterred 
between 500,000 and 700,000 people from casting 
their ballot in 2012. 
(8) These problems led to the creation of the bi-
partisan Presidential Commission on Election Ad-
ministration, which issued a 2014 report that set 
forth a standard: ‘‘No citizen should have to wait 
more than 30 minutes to vote.’’. 
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(9) Despite the work of the Presidential Com-
mission on Election Administration, long lines con-
tinue, particularly in communities of color where ra-
cial discrimination in voting is a clear and persistent 
problem. 
(10) In the Arizona 2016 Presidential primary, 
in one Maricopa County polling place for mostly 
Latino voters, some waited for 4 hours or more in 
the 80-degree heat to cast their ballots. For the 
2016 general election, 3 people collapsed while wait-
ing to vote in an hours-long line in Georgia, and a 
line to vote in Ohio was a half-mile long. 
(11) According to a nationwide study, in 2016, 
roughly 3 percent of people standing in line at vot-
ing locations left before they could vote as a result 
of long lines. 
(12) The disenfranchisement that long lines 
create for voters is not limited to that one election. 
Research suggests that for each hour would-be vot-
ers wait, their probability of voting in the next elec-
tion drops by 1 percentage point. 
(13) Congress has the authority under article I, 
section 4 of the Constitution of the United States to 
enact laws governing the time, place, and manner of 
Federal elections. 
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(14) Congress also has authority under section 
2 of the 15th Amendment to enforce the right of 
citizens of the United States to vote, which shall not 
be denied or abridged by the United States, by legis-
lation. 
SEC. 3. PREVENTING UNREASONABLE VOTER WAITING 
TIMES. 
(a) STATE PLANS REQUIRED.—Title III of the Help 
America Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 20901 et seq.), as 
amended by section 2(a) of the COCOA Act of 2024, is 
amended— 
(1) by redesignating sections 305 and 306 as 
sections 306 and 307; and 
(2) by inserting after section 304 the following 
new section: 
‘‘SEC. 305. UNREASONABLE VOTER WAITING TIMES. 
‘‘(a) STATE PLANS.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 60 days be-
fore each election for Federal office, each State shall 
make public (including through the website of the 
State on which election information is normally pub-
lished) and submit to the Commission a written plan 
which meets the public notice and comment require-
ments of paragraph (2) and describes the measures 
it is implementing to ensure, to the greatest extent 
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possible, an equitable waiting time for all voters in 
the State, including for voters with disabilities, and 
a waiting time of less than 30 minutes at any polling 
place in the election. 
‘‘(2) PUBLIC
NOTICE
COMMENT
REQUIRE-
MENT.—The public notice and comment require-
ments of this paragraph are met if— 
‘‘(A) not later than 30 days prior to the 
submission of the plan to the Commission, the 
State made a preliminary version of the plan 
available for public inspection and comment; 
‘‘(B) the State publishes notice that the 
preliminary version of the plan is so available; 
and 
‘‘(C) the State took the public comments 
made regarding the preliminary version of the 
plan into account in preparing the plan which 
was submitted to the Commission under para-
graph (1). 
‘‘(b) PROHIBITION ON UNREASONABLE VOTER WAIT-
ING TIMES.—Each State shall ensure that no person vot-
ing in an election for Federal office shall wait for more 
than 30 minutes at any polling place for purposes of cast-
ing a vote in such election. 
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‘‘(c) REMEDIAL PLANS FOR STATES WITH EXCES-
SIVE VOTER WAIT TIMES.— 
‘‘(1) REVIEW
OF
VOTER
WAIT
TIMES.—After 
each election for Federal office, the Commission 
shall review voter waiting times for each jurisdiction 
for which voting in such election took place and 
make publicly available a report on its findings. 
‘‘(2) STATE REMEDIAL PLANS.— 
‘‘(A) REMEDIAL PLANS.—Notwithstanding 
section 209, each jurisdiction for which the 
Commission, after the review conducted under 
paragraph (1), determines that a substantial 
number of voters, including voters with disabil-
ities, waited more than 60 minutes to cast a 
vote, or in which there were substantial viola-
tions of the standards established under section 
299, shall comply with a State remedial plan 
established by the Attorney General to provide 
for the effective allocation of resources to ad-
minister elections for Federal office held in the 
State and to reduce the waiting time of voters. 
‘‘(B) COORDINATION.—Each remedial plan 
established by the Attorney General shall pro-
vide for coordination between the Commission, 
the Attorney General, and the State involved to 
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monitor the compliance of the State with the 
remedial plan during the period leading up to 
the election and on the date of the election and 
to respond to serious delays in the ability of 
voters, including voters with disabilities, to cast 
their ballots at polling places. 
‘‘(C) TERMINATION.—A jurisdiction shall 
not be required to comply with a State remedial 
plan required under subparagraph (A) if the 
Commission determines that the voter waiting 
times were less than 60 minutes for 2 consecu-
tive regularly scheduled general elections for 
Federal office. 
‘‘(3) JURISDICTION DEFINED.—For purposes of 
this subsection, the term ‘jurisdiction’ has the mean-
ing given the term ‘registrar’s jurisdiction’ in section 
8(j) of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 
(42 U.S.C. 1973gg–6(j)). 
‘‘(4) STANDARDS.—Not later than 180 days 
after the date of the enactment of this section, the 
Attorney General shall establish standards for con-
ducting the review under paragraph (1) and for es-
tablishing remedial plans under paragraph (2)(A). 
‘‘(5) ROLE OF OFFICE OF CIVIL RIGHTS AND 
COMMISSION.—The Attorney General shall carry out 
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this section acting through the Assistant Attorney 
General for the Civil Rights Division of the Depart-
ment of Justice and in consultation with the Com-
mission. 
‘‘(6) APPROPRIATIONS.—In addition to other 
amounts authorized to be appropriated to the Com-
mission, there are authorized to be appropriated for 
each of the fiscal years 2025 through 2034, 
$5,000,000 for each such year for the Commission 
to carry out this subsection. 
‘‘(d) EMERGENCY BALLOTS.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—In the event of a failure of 
voting equipment or other circumstance at a polling 
place that causes an unreasonable delay, any indi-
vidual who is waiting at the polling place to cast a 
ballot in an election for Federal office at the time 
of the failure shall be advised immediately of the in-
dividual’s right to use an emergency paper ballot, 
and upon request shall be provided with such an 
emergency paper ballot for the election and the sup-
plies necessary to mark the ballot. 
‘‘(2) BALLOT REQUIREMENTS.—Any emergency 
paper ballot provided under paragraph (1) shall— 
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‘‘(A) include the names of each candidate 
for each Federal office for which voting occurs 
at such polling place; and 
‘‘(B) be available in each language for 
which other ballots provided at the polling place 
are available. 
‘‘(3) DISPOSITION OF BALLOT.—Any emergency 
paper ballot which is cast by an individual under 
this subsection shall be counted in the same manner 
as a regular ballot, unless the individual casting the 
ballot would have otherwise been required to cast a 
provisional ballot in the absence of the delay, in 
which case that ballot shall be treated in the same 
manner as a provisional ballot.’’. 
(b) PRIVATE RIGHT OF ACTION.—Title IV of the 
Help America Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21111 et seq.) 
is amended by adding at the end the following new section: 
‘‘SEC. 403. PRIVATE RIGHT OF ACTION FOR UNREASON-
ABLE VOTER WAITING TIME. 
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—In the case of a violation of sec-
tion 305(b), section 402 shall not apply and any person 
who is aggrieved by such violation may commence a civil 
action in any appropriate district court of the United 
States for relief. 
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