I 
117TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 8341 
To expand youth access to voting, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 12, 2022 
Ms. WILLIAMS of Georgia (for herself, Ms. NORTON, Mr. BLUMENAUER, Mr. 
BOWMAN, Mr. GARCI´A of Illinois, Mr. LIEU, Mr. EVANS, Mr. JONES, Ms. 
SCANLON, Mr. VARGAS, Mr. TORRES of New York, Ms. JACOBS of Cali-
fornia, Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York, Mrs. WATSON COLE-
MAN, Mr. SARBANES, and Ms. ROSS) 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 deter-
mined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions 
as fall within the jurisdiction 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’’. 
(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. 
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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. 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: 
(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 
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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 
that this Nation always needs, because a country, 
throughout history, we find, goes through ebbs and 
flows of idealism.’’. Similarly, Senate Majority Lead-
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er Michael Mansfield and Senator Ted Kennedy 
were key advocates of the measure, having first pro-
posed 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.’’. 
(5) The age-based expansion of the franchise 
via the Voting Rights Act Amendments of 1970 was 
ultimately found by a strongly divided Supreme 
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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 
(E) the stemming of unrest by encouraging 
institutionalized 
mechanisms 
to 
advance 
change. 
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race is available) race in accordance with paragraph 
(2), including— 
(A) an examination of the reliance on ab-
sentee and provisional ballots by age; 
(B) an examination of the availability of 
polling places on the campuses of institutions of 
higher education as defined in section 7 of this 
Act, including consideration of the characteris-
tics of those institutions and the populations 
they serve; 
(C) the rejection rates for voter registra-
tion applications and absentee ballot applica-
tions; 
(D) the rejection rates for absentee ballots 
and provisional ballots; and 
(E) the reasons for those rejections. 
(2) DISAGGREGATION.—The information de-
scribed in paragraph (1) shall be disaggregated ac-
cording to (where information on race is available) 
race and according to the following age cohorts: 
(A) 16 to 17. 
(B) 18 to 21. 
(C) 22 to 24. 
(D) 25 to 29. 
(E) 30 to 34. 
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