I 
110TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 281 
To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to allow all eligible voters 
to vote by mail in Federal elections. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JANUARY 5, 2007 
Mrs. DAVIS of California (for herself, Mrs. JONES of Ohio, Mr. LARSEN of 
Washington, Mr. SCHIFF, Mrs. CAPPS, Ms. HOOLEY, Ms. WOOLSEY, and 
Mr. MCDERMOTT) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on House Administration 
A BILL 
To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to allow 
all eligible voters to vote by mail in Federal elections. 
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 ‘‘Universal Right to 
Vote by Mail Act of 2007’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) An inequity of voting rights exists in the 
United States because voters in some States have 
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the universal right to vote by mail while voters in 
other States do not. 
(2) Many voters often have work, family, or 
other commitments that make getting to polls on the 
date of an election difficult or impossible. 
(3) Allowing voters to vote by mail can lead to 
increased voter participation. 
(4) Voting by mail is more convenient for many 
voters. 
(5) Voting by mail gives voters more time to 
consider their choices. 
(6) Studies show that an overwhelming majority 
of voters prefer voting by mail as an alternative to 
going to the polls. 
(7) No evidence exists suggesting the potential 
for fraud in absentee balloting is greater than the 
potential for fraud by any other method of voting. 
(8) 28 States currently allow universal absentee 
voting, which permits any voter to request a mail- 
in ballot without providing a reason for the request. 
SEC. 3. PROMOTING ABILITY OF VOTERS TO VOTE BY MAIL 
IN FEDERAL ELECTIONS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Subtitle A of title III of the Help 
America Vote Act of 2002 (42 U.S.C. 15481 et seq.) is 
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amended by inserting after section 303 the following new 
section: 
‘‘SEC. 303A. PROMOTING ABILITY OF VOTERS TO VOTE BY 
MAIL. 
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—If an individual in a State is eli-
gible to cast a vote in an election for Federal office, the 
State may not impose any additional conditions or require-
ments on the eligibility of the individual to cast the vote 
in such election by mail, except to the extent that the 
State imposes a deadline for requesting the ballot and re-
lated voting materials from the appropriate State or local 
election official and for returning the ballot to the appro-
priate State or local election official. 
‘‘(b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—A State shall be required 
to comply with the requirements of subsection (a) with re-
spect to elections for Federal office held in years beginning 
with 2008.’’. 
(b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT RELATING TO EN-
FORCEMENT.—Section 401 of such Act (42 U.S.C. 15511) 
is amended by striking ‘‘and 303’’ and inserting ‘‘303, and 
303A’’. 
(c) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of contents 
for such Act is amended by inserting after the item relat-
ing to section 303 the following new item: 
‘‘Sec. 303A. Promoting ability of voters to vote by mail.’’. 
Æ 
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