I 
116TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 645 
To amend the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 to require each 
State to ensure that each individual who provides identifying information 
to the State motor vehicle authority is automatically registered to vote 
in elections for Federal office held in the State unless the individual 
does not meet the eligibility requirements for registering to vote in 
such elections or declines to be registered to vote in such elections, 
and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JANUARY 17, 2019 
Mr. CICILLINE (for himself, Mr. AGUILAR, Ms. BASS, Mrs. BEATTY, Mr. BLU-
MENAUER, Ms. BONAMICI, Mr. BRENDAN F. BOYLE of Pennsylvania, Ms. 
BROWNLEY of California, Mr. CASTEN of Illinois, Ms. CASTOR of Florida, 
Ms. JUDY CHU of California, Mr. CISNEROS, Ms. CLARKE of New York, 
Mr. CLEAVER, Mr. COHEN, Mr. CONNOLLY, Mr. COOPER, Mr. COURT-
NEY, Mr. COX of California, Mrs. CRAIG, Mr. CROW, Mr. CUMMINGS, Mr. 
CUNNINGHAM, Mrs. DAVIS of California, Mr. DEFAZIO, Ms. DEGETTE, 
Ms. DELAURO, Ms. DELBENE, Mr. DESAULNIER, Mr. ENGEL, Ms. 
ESCOBAR, Ms. ESHOO, Mr. ESPAILLAT, Mr. EVANS, Ms. FRANKEL, Ms. 
GABBARD, Mr. GARAMENDI, Ms. GARCIA of Texas, Mr. GOLDEN, Mr. 
GOMEZ, Mr. HASTINGS, Mrs. HAYES, Mr. HIGGINS of New York, Ms. 
HILL of California, Mr. HIMES, Ms. JACKSON LEE, Ms. JAYAPAL, Ms. 
KAPTUR, Mr. KENNEDY, Mr. KHANNA, Mr. KRISHNAMOORTHI, Mr. LAN-
GEVIN, Mrs. LAWRENCE, Mr. TED LIEU of California, Mr. LIPINSKI, Mr. 
LOEBSACK, 
Mr. 
LOWENTHAL, 
Mrs. 
LOWEY, 
Mr. 
LUJA´N, 
Mr. 
MALINOWSKI, Mr. SEAN PATRICK MALONEY of New York, Ms. MCCOL-
LUM, Mr. MCEACHIN, Mr. MCGOVERN, Mr. MCNERNEY, Mr. MEEKS, 
Ms. MENG, Ms. MOORE, Ms. MUCARSEL-POWELL, Mr. NADLER, Mr. 
NEGUSE, Ms. NORTON, Ms. OCASIO-CORTEZ, Ms. OMAR, Mr. PALLONE, 
Mr. PANETTA, Mr. POCAN, Ms. PRESSLEY, Mr. PRICE of North Carolina, 
Mr. RASKIN, Mr. RICHMOND, Mr. ROUDA, Ms. ROYBAL-ALLARD, Mr. 
RYAN, Mr. SARBANES, Ms. SCANLON, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. SCHIFF, 
Mr. SCHNEIDER, Mr. SCOTT of Virginia, Ms. SEWELL of Alabama, Ms. 
SHALALA, Mr. SIRES, Mr. SMITH of Washington, Mr. SOTO, Mr. SUOZZI, 
Mr. SWALWELL of California, Mr. TAKANO, Mr. THOMPSON of California, 
Ms. TITUS, Mr. TONKO, Mrs. TORRES of California, Mrs. TRAHAN, Ms. 
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN, Mr. WELCH, Ms. WIL-
SON of Florida, Mr. YARMUTH, Ms. HAALAND, and Mr. CARTWRIGHT) 
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introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
House Administration 
A BILL 
To amend the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 to 
require each State to ensure that each individual who 
provides identifying information to the State motor vehi-
cle authority is automatically registered to vote in elec-
tions for Federal office held in the State unless the 
individual does not meet the eligibility requirements for 
registering to vote in such elections or declines to be 
registered to vote in such elections, and for other pur-
poses. 
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 ‘‘Automatic Voter Reg-
istration Act’’. 
SEC. 2. AUTOMATIC VOTER REGISTRATION THROUGH 
STATE MOTOR VEHICLE AUTHORITIES. 
(a) AUTOMATIC VOTER REGISTRATION.—Section 5 
of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (52 U.S.C. 
20504) is amended to read as follows: 
‘‘SEC. 5. AUTOMATIC VOTER REGISTRATION THROUGH 
MOTOR VEHICLE AUTHORITY. 
‘‘(a) TRANSMISSION OF INFORMATION TO ELECTION 
OFFICIALS.— 
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‘‘(1) TRANSMISSION.—Each State’s motor vehi-
cle authority, upon receiving the identifying informa-
tion described in paragraph (2) with respect to any 
individual who requests services from the authority, 
shall transmit the identifying information to the ap-
propriate State election official. 
‘‘(2) IDENTIFYING INFORMATION DESCRIBED.— 
The identifying information described in this para-
graph with respect to any individual is as follows: 
‘‘(A) The individual’s legal name. 
‘‘(B) The individual’s age. 
‘‘(C) The individual’s residence. 
‘‘(D) The individual’s citizenship status. 
‘‘(E) The individual’s electronic signature. 
‘‘(3) RESTRICTION ON USE OF INFORMATION 
ON CITIZENSHIP STATUS.—A State may not use any 
identifying information regarding an individual’s 
citizenship status which is transmitted under this 
subsection for any purpose other than determining 
whether the individual is eligible to vote in elections 
for Federal office. 
‘‘(b) NOTIFICATION TO INDIVIDUALS.—Upon receiv-
ing the identifying information with respect to an indi-
vidual under subsection (a), the appropriate State election 
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official shall issue a notification to the individual con-
taining— 
‘‘(1) a statement that, unless the individual no-
tifies the election official prior to the expiration of 
the 21-calendar day period which begins on the date 
the official issued the notification that the individual 
declines to be registered to vote in elections for Fed-
eral office held in the State, the individual shall be 
considered to have completed and submitted a voter 
registration application for purposes of this Act; and 
‘‘(2) a description of the process by which the 
individual may decline to be registered to vote in 
elections for Federal office in the State. 
‘‘(c) AUTOMATIC REGISTRATION OF ELIGIBLE INDI-
VIDUALS.—Upon the expiration of the 21-calendar day pe-
riod which begins on the date the appropriate State elec-
tion official issues a notification to an individual under 
subsection (b)(1), the official shall ensure that the indi-
vidual is registered to vote in elections for Federal office 
held in the State unless— 
‘‘(1) the official determines that the individual 
does not meet the eligibility requirements for reg-
istering to vote in such elections; 
‘‘(2) prior to the expiration of such 21-calendar 
day period, the individual notifies the official that 
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the individual declines to be registered to vote in 
such elections; or 
‘‘(3) the individual is already registered to vote 
in such elections. 
‘‘(d) APPLICATION TO TERRITORIES.—This section 
shall apply with respect to the Commonwealth of Puerto 
Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the United States Virgin 
Islands, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana 
Islands in the same manner as this section applies to a 
State.’’. 
(b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT RELATING TO TIM-
ING OF REGISTRATION PRIOR TO ELECTIONS.—Section 
8(a)(1)(A) of such Act (52 U.S.C. 20507(a)(1)(A)) is 
amended to read as follows: 
‘‘(A) in the case of registration through a 
motor vehicle authority under section 5, if the 
identifying information with respect to the indi-
vidual is transmitted by the authority to the ap-
propriate State election official under section 
5(a)(1) not later than the lesser of 30 days, or 
the period provided by State law, before the 
date of the election;’’. 
(c) OTHER
CONFORMING
AMENDMENT.—Section 
4(a)(1) of such Act (52 U.S.C. 20503(a)(1)) is amended 
to read as follows: 
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‘‘(1) through the State motor vehicle authority 
pursuant to section 5;’’. 
SEC. 3. EFFECTIVE DATE. 
(a) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 
this Act shall take effect upon the expiration of the 180- 
day period which begins on the date of the enactment of 
this Act. 
(b) TIMING OF AUTOMATIC REGISTRATION OF INDI-
VIDUALS
PROVIDING
IDENTIFYING
INFORMATION
TO 
MOTOR VEHICLE AUTHORITY PRIOR
TO EFFECTIVE 
DATE.— 
(1) RETROACTIVE
AUTOMATIC
REGISTRATION 
REQUIREMENTS.—For purposes of section 5 of the 
National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (52 U.S.C. 
20504), as amended by section 2(a), if an individual 
provided identifying information (as described in sec-
tion 5(a)(2) of such Act) to a State motor vehicle 
authority at any time during the period described in 
paragraph (2), the authority shall transmit such in-
formation to the appropriate State election official 
pursuant to section 5(a)(1) of such Act not later 
than such effective date, unless the motor vehicle au-
thority determines that the information is no longer 
valid with respect to the individual. 
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(2) PERIOD DESCRIBED.—The period described 
in this paragraph is the period which begins on the 
date which is 2 years prior to the date of the enact-
ment of this Act and which ends on the effective 
date described in subsection (a). 
Æ 
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