I 
111TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1604 
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 
MARCH 19, 2009 
Mrs. DAVIS of California (for herself, Mr. THOMPSON of California, Mr. 
HASTINGS of Florida, Mr. FARR, Mr. WILSON of Ohio, Ms. NORTON, Mr. 
LOEBSACK, Mr. YARMUTH, Mr. FILNER, Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas, 
Ms. SUTTON, Ms. WATSON, Mr. WALZ, Mr. HINCHEY, Mrs. CAPPS, Ms. 
PINGREE of Maine, Mr. ISRAEL, Mr. HOLT, Ms. WOOLSEY, Mr. AL 
GREEN
of Texas, Mr. MASSA, Mr. MURPHY
of Connecticut, Mr. 
GRIJALVA, Mr. CARNAHAN, Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California, Mr. 
MCGOVERN, Mr. STARK, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. BRALEY of Iowa, Mr. 
BOUCHER, Mr. BISHOP of New York, Mr. BERRY, and Mr. CARDOZA) in-
troduced 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 2009’’. 
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SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) An inequity of voting rights exists in the 
United States because voters in some States have 
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. Under 
current State laws, many of these voters are not per-
mitted to vote by mail. 
(3) 28 States currently allow universal absentee 
voting (also known as ‘‘no-excuse’’ absentee voting), 
which permits any voter to request a mail-in ballot 
without providing a reason for the request, and no 
State which has implemented no-excuse absentee 
voting has switched back. 
(4) Voting by mail gives voters more time to 
consider their choices, which is especially important 
as many ballots contain greater numbers of ques-
tions about complex issues than in the past due to 
the expanded use of the initiative and referendum 
process in many States. 
(5) Allowing all voters the option to vote by 
mail can lead to increased voter participation. 
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(6) Allowing all voters the option to vote by 
mail can reduce waiting times for those voters who 
choose to vote at the polls. 
(7) Voting by mail is preferable to many voters 
as an alternative to going to the polls. Voting by 
mail has become increasingly popular with voters 
who want to be certain that they are able to vote no 
matter what comes up on Election Day. 
(8) No evidence exists suggesting the potential 
for fraud in absentee balloting is greater than the 
potential for fraud by any other method of voting. 
(9) Many of the reasons which voters in many 
States are required to provide in order to vote by 
mail require the revelation of personal information 
about health, travel plans, or religious activities, 
which violate voters’ privacy while doing nothing to 
prevent voter fraud. 
(10) State laws which require voters to obtain 
a notary signature to vote by mail only add cost and 
inconvenience to voters without increasing security. 
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) RULE
OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in sub-
section (a) shall be construed to affect the authority of 
States to conduct elections for Federal office through the 
use of polling places at which individuals cast ballots on 
the date of the election. 
‘‘(c) 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 2012.’’. 
(b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT RELATING TO EN-
FORCEMENT.—Section 401 of such Act (42 U.S.C. 15511) 
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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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