Save Voters Act

Bill: 116-s-507
Sponsor: full_name: Sen. Klobuchar, Amy [D-MN]
Introduced: 2019-02-14
Policy area: Government Operations and Politics
Subjects: Elections, voting, political campaign regulation

Government information and archives

Intergovernmental relations

State and local government operations

Voting rights
Latest action: action_date: 2019-02-14
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Rules and Administration.

Summaries:
action_date: 2019-02-14
action_desc: Introduced in Senate
text: <p><STRONG>Stop Automatically Voiding Eligible Voters Off Their Enlisted Rolls in States Act or the Save Voters Act</STRONG></p> <p>This bill prohibits states from removing individuals from voting rolls on the basis of a change of address unless the state has obtained objective and reliable evidence of an individual's change of residence. States may not use the failure of a registered individual to vote or respond to a notice as the basis for initiating the removal of the individual from the voting rolls due to a change of address.</p> <p>The bill revises the voting procedure for a voter who failed to report a change of address. Such a voter who moved within a state must be allowed to vote at the polling place of the voter's current address or at a central location in the jurisdiction of the local voter registration office.</p>

tv_txt: II 116th CONGRESS 1st Session S. 507 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES February 14, 2019 Ms. Klobuchar (for herself, Mr. Brown , Ms. Harris , Mr. Van Hollen , Ms. Smith , Mr. Booker , Mr. Blumenthal , Mrs. Gillibrand , Mr. Sanders , Mr. Jones , and Ms. Duckworth ) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Rules and Administration A BILL To amend the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 to clarify that a State may not use an individual’s failure to vote as the basis for initiating the procedures provided under such Act for the removal of the individual from the official list of registered voters in the State on the grounds that the individual has changed residence, and for other purposes.

1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Stop Automatically Voiding Eligible Voters Off Their Enlisted Rolls in States Act or the Save Voters Act . 2. Purpose The purposes of this Act are— (1) to prohibit States from removing individuals from an official list of registered voters due to changes in residence; and (2) to protect the right to vote by allowing voters who are automatically registered or had previously registered to vote in a State to update their address through the day of the election. 3. Clarification that States may not use failure to vote as basis for initiating procedures to remove voters from list of registered voters on grounds of changed residence (a) Criteria for confirmation of voter registration Section 8(b) of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 ( 52 U.S.C. 20507(b) ) is amended— (1) by striking and at the end of paragraph (1); (2) by striking the period at the end of paragraph (2) and inserting ; and ; and (3) by adding at the end the following new paragraph: (3) shall not use the failure of a registrant to vote or the failure of a registrant to respond to a notice from the State as the basis for sending the registrant the notice described in subsection (d). . (b) Criteria for voter removal program Section 8(d) of such Act ( 52 U.S.C. 20507(d) ) is amended— (1) by redesignating paragraph (3) as paragraph (4); and (2) by inserting after paragraph (2) the following new paragraph: (3) A State may not use the procedures described in this subsection with respect to any registrant unless the State has first obtained objective and reliable evidence of the registrant’s change of residence. For purposes of this paragraph, the objective and reliable evidence of a registrant’s change of residence shall not include the failure of the registrant to vote or the failure of the registrant to respond to a notice from the State. . (c) Effective date The amendments made by this section shall take effect on the date of the enactment of this Act. 4. State registration portability (a) In general Section 8(e) of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 ( 52 U.S.C. 20507(e) ) is amended to read as follows: (e) Procedure for voting following failure To return card Notwithstanding failure to notify the registrar of the change of address prior to the date of an election, a registrant who has moved from an address in the State to an address in the same State shall, upon oral or written affirmation by the registrant of the change of address before an election official, be permitted to vote (at the option of the voter)— (1) at the polling place of the registrant’s current address; or (2) at a central location within the same registrar’s jurisdiction. . (b) Effective date The amendment made by this section shall take effect on the date of the enactment of this Act.