I 
115TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 607 
To prohibit election officials from requiring individuals to provide photo identi-
fication as a condition of obtaining or casting a ballot in an election 
for Federal office or registering to vote in elections for Federal office, 
and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JANUARY 23, 2017 
Mr. ELLISON (for himself and Mr. BLUMENAUER) introduced the following 
bill; which was referred to the Committee on House Administration 
A BILL 
To prohibit election officials from requiring individuals to 
provide photo identification as a condition of obtaining 
or casting a ballot in an election for Federal office or 
registering to vote in elections for Federal office, 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. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Voter Access Protec-
tion Act of 2017’’. 
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SEC. 2. PROHIBITING STATES FROM IMPOSING PHOTO 
IDENTIFICATION REQUIREMENT FOR VOTING 
OR REGISTERING TO VOTE IN FEDERAL 
ELECTIONS. 
(a) PROHIBITION.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—Title III of the Help Amer-
ica Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21081 et seq.) is 
amended by inserting after section 303 the following 
new section: 
‘‘SEC. 303A. PROHIBITING ELECTION OFFICIALS FROM RE-
QUIRING INDIVIDUALS TO PRESENT PHOTO 
IDENTIFICATION. 
‘‘(a) PHOTO IDENTIFICATION AS A CONDITION OF 
VOTING.—Except to the extent permitted under section 
303(b), a State or local election official may not— 
‘‘(1) require an individual to present a photo 
identification (or, in the case of an individual who 
desires to vote by mail, a copy of a photo identifica-
tion) as a condition of obtaining or casting a ballot 
in an election for Federal office; or 
‘‘(2) require an individual to cast a provisional 
ballot under section 302 solely on the grounds that 
the individual does not present a photo identification 
at the polling place. 
‘‘(b) PHOTO IDENTIFICATION AS A CONDITION OF 
REGISTERING TO VOTE.—A State or local election official 
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may not require an individual to provide a photo identi-
fication (or, in the case of an individual who desires to 
register to vote by mail or online, a copy or electronic copy 
of a photo identification) as a condition of registering to 
vote in an election for Federal office.’’. 
(2) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of con-
tents of such Act is amended by inserting after the 
item relating to section 303 the following new item: 
‘‘Sec. 303A. Prohibiting election officials from requiring individuals to present 
photo identification.’’. 
(b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT RELATING TO EN-
FORCEMENT.—Section 401 of such Act (52 U.S.C. 21111) 
is amended by striking ‘‘and 303’’ and inserting ‘‘303, and 
303A’’. 
SEC. 3. EFFECTIVE DATE. 
The amendments made by this Act shall apply with 
respect to elections occurring after the date of the enact-
ment of this Act. 
Æ 
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