H. R. 14

118

CONGRESS

ESSION

H. R. 14

To amend the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to revise the criteria for determining

which States and political subdivisions are subject to section 4 of the

Act, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

EPTEMBER

19, 2023

Ms. S

EWELL

(for herself, Mr. J

EFFRIES

, Ms. C

LARK

of Massachusetts, Mr.

GUILAR

, Mr. C

LYBURN

, Mr. H

ORSFORD

, Ms. B

ARRAGA

, Ms. C

, Mr.

ADLER

, Mr. M

ORELLE

, Mr. V

EASEY

, Mr. S

COTT

of Virginia, Ms. W

LIAMS

of Georgia, Ms. J

ACKSON

, Mr. L

ARSEN

of Washington, Ms.

DAMS

, Mrs. B

EATTY

, Mr. C

ARTWRIGHT

, Mr. C

ASTRO

of Texas, Mr.

ISHOP

of Georgia, Mr. G

REEN

of Texas, Mr. G

RIJALVA

, Mr. J

OHNSON

of Georgia, Ms. L

of California, Ms. B

ONAMICI

, Mr. C

ARBAJAL

, Mr.

ARSON

, Ms. C

ASTOR

of Florida, Ms. C

LARKE

of New York, Mrs. D

GELL

, Mr. F

OSTER

, Mr. G

ALLEGO

, Mr. H

IGGINS

of New York, Ms.

ATERS

, Mr. L

ARSON

of Connecticut, Mr. L

IEU

, Mr. M

OVERN

, Mr.

EEKS

, Ms. M

OORE

of Wisconsin, Ms. N

ORTON

, Mr. P

ALLONE

, Mr.

AYNE

, Mr. P

OCAN

, Mr. R

ASKIN

, Mr. S

MITH

of Washington, Mr.

AKANO

, Mr. T

HOMPSON

of Mississippi, Mr. T

ONKO

, Mr. V

ARGAS

, Ms.

ELA

ZQUEZ

, Ms. W

ASSERMAN

CHULTZ

, Mrs. W

ATSON

OLEMAN

, Ms.

ILSON

of Florida, Mr. A

LLRED

, Mr. A

UCHINCLOSS

, Ms. B

ALINT

, Mr.

ERA

, Mr. B

EYER

, Mr. B

LUMENAUER

, Ms. B

LUNT

OCHESTER

, Mr.

OWMAN

, Mr. B

OYLE

of Pennsylvania, Ms. B

ROWN

, Ms. B

ROWNLEY

, Ms.

UDZINSKI

, Ms. B

USH

, Ms. C

ARAVEO

, Mr. C

RDENAS

, Mr. C

ARTER

Louisiana, Mr. C

ASAR

, Mr. C

ASE

, Mr. C

ASTEN

, Mrs. C

HERFILUS

ORMICK

, Mr. C

LEAVER

, Mr. C

OHEN

, Mr. C

ONNOLLY

, Mr. C

ORREA

Mr. C

OSTA

, Mr. C

OURTNEY

, Ms. C

RAIG

, Ms. C

ROCKETT

, Mr. C

ROW

, Mr.

UELLAR

, Ms. D

AVIDS

of Kansas, Mr. D

AVIS

of Illinois, Mr. D

AVIS

North Carolina, Ms. D

EAN

of Pennsylvania, Ms. D

ETTE

, Ms.

AURO

, Ms. D

ENE

, Mr. D

ELUZIO

, Mr. D

AULNIER

, Mr. D

GETT

, Ms. E

SCOBAR

, Ms. E

SHOO

, Mr. E

SPAILLAT

, Mr. E

VANS

, Mrs.

LETCHER

, Mrs. F

OUSHEE

, Ms. L

OIS

RANKEL

of Florida, Mr. F

ROST

Mr. G

ARAMENDI

, Mr. R

OBERT

ARCIA

of California, Ms. G

ARCIA

Texas, Mr. G

ARCI

of Illinois, Mr. G

OLDEN

of Maine, Mr. G

OLDMAN

New York, Mr. G

OMEZ

, Mr. V

ICENTE

ONZALEZ

of Texas, Mr.

OTTHEIMER

, Mrs. H

AYES

, Ms. H

OULAHAN

, Mr. H

OYER

, Ms. H

OYLE

Oregon, Mr. I

VEY

, Mr. J

ACKSON

of North Carolina, Mr. J

ACKSON

of Illi-

nois, Ms. J

ACOBS

, Ms. J

AYAPAL

, Ms. K

AMLAGER

-D

OVE

, Ms. K

APTUR

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•HR 14 IH

Mr. K

EATING

, Ms. K

ELLY

of Illinois, Mr. K

ILDEE

, Mr. K

ILMER

, Mr. K

of New Jersey, Ms. K

USTER

, Mr. L

ANDSMAN

, Ms. L

of Pennsylvania,

Ms. L

of Nevada, Ms. L

EGER

ERNANDEZ

, Mr. L

EVIN

, Ms. L

OFGREN

Mr. L

YNCH

, Mr. M

AGAZINER

, Ms. M

ANNING

, Mrs. M

ATH

, Ms.

LELLAN

, Ms. M

OLLUM

, Mr. M

ARVEY

, Mr. M

ENENDEZ

, Ms.

ENG

, Mr. M

FUME

, Mr. M

OSKOWITZ

, Mr. M

RVAN

, Mr. M

ULLIN

, Mr.

ARDER

of California, Mr. H

UFFMAN

, Mr. K

HANNA

, Mr.

RISHNAMOORTHI

, Mrs. N

APOLITANO

, Mr. N

EAL

, Mr. N

EGUSE

, Mr.

ICKEL

, Mr. N

ORCROSS

, Ms. O

MAR

, Mr. P

ANETTA

, Mr. P

APPAS

, Mr.

ASCRELL

, Ms. P

ELOSI

, Mrs. P

ELTOLA

, Ms. P

EREZ

, Mr. P

ETERS

, Ms.

ETTERSEN

, Mr. P

HILLIPS

, Ms. P

INGREE

, Ms. P

LASKETT

, Ms. P

ORTER

Ms. P

RESSLEY

, Mr. Q

UIGLEY

, Mrs. R

AMIREZ

, Ms. R

OSS

, Mr. R

UPPERS

BERGER

, Mr. R

YAN

, Mr. S

ABLAN

, Ms. S

ALINAS

, Ms. S

NCHEZ

, Mr. S

BANES

, Ms. S

CANLON

, Ms. S

CHAKOWSKY

, Mr. S

CHIFF

, Mr. S

CHNEIDER

Ms. S

CHOLTEN

, Ms. S

CHRIER

, Mr. D

AVID

COTT

of Georgia, Mr. S

HER

MAN

, Ms. S

HERRILL

, Ms. S

LOTKIN

, Mr. S

ORENSEN

, Mr. S

OTO

, Ms.

PANBERGER

, Ms. S

TANSBURY

, Mr. S

TANTON

, Ms. S

TEVENS

, Ms.

TRICKLAND

, Mr. S

WALWELL

, Mrs. S

YKES

, Mr. T

HOMPSON

of California,

Ms. T

ITUS

, Ms. T

LAIB

, Ms. T

OKUDA

, Mrs. T

ORRES

of California, Mr.

ORRES

of New York, Mrs. T

RAHAN

, Mr. T

RONE

, Ms. U

NDERWOOD

, Mr.

ASQUEZ

, Ms. W

EXTON

, Ms. W

ILD

, Mr. H

IMES

, Ms. M

ATSUI

, Mr.

OULTON

, Mr. R

UIZ

, Mr. T

HANEDAR

, and Ms. O

CASIO

-C

ORTEZ

) intro-

duced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Ju-

diciary

A BILL

To amend the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to revise the

criteria for determining which States and political sub-

divisions are subject to section 4 of the Act, and for

other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1

tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3

This Act may be cited as the ‘‘John R. Lewis Voting 4

Rights Advancement Act of 2023’’. 5

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SEC. 2. VOTE DILUTION, DENIAL, AND ABRIDGMENT 1

CLAIMS. 2

(a) I

ENERAL

.—Section 2(a) of the Voting Rights 3

Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 10301(a)) is amended— 4

(1) by inserting after ‘‘applied by any State or 5

political subdivision’’ the following: ‘‘for the purpose 6

of, or’’; and 7

(2) by striking ‘‘as provided in subsection (b)’’ 8

and inserting ‘‘as provided in subsection (b), (c), (d), 9

or (f)’’. 10

(b) V

OTE

ILUTION

.—Section 2(b) of such Act (52 11

U.S.C. 10301(b)) is amended— 12

(1) by inserting after ‘‘A violation of subsection 13

(a)’’ the following: ‘‘for vote dilution’’; 14

(2) by inserting after the period at the end the 15

following: ‘‘For the purposes of this subsection:’’; 16

(3) by adding at the end the following new 17

paragraphs: 18

‘‘(1) To prevail in demonstrating that a rep-19

resentational, districting, or apportionment scheme 20

results in vote dilution, a plaintiff shall, as a thresh-21

old matter, establish that— 22

‘‘(A) the members of the protected class 23

are sufficiently numerous and geographically 24

compact to constitute a majority in a single- 25

member district; 26

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‘‘(B) the members of the protected class 1

are politically cohesive; and 2

‘‘(C) the residents of that district who are 3

not the members of the protected class usually 4

vote sufficiently as a bloc to enable them to de-5

feat the preferred candidates of the members of 6

the protected class. 7

‘‘(2) Upon a plaintiff establishing the required 8

threshold showing under paragraph (1), a court shall 9

conduct a totality of the circumstances analysis with 10

respect to a claim of vote dilution to determine 11

whether there was a violation of subsection (a), 12

which shall include the following factors: 13

‘‘(A) The extent of any history of official 14

voting discrimination in the State or political 15

subdivision that affected the right of members 16

of the protected class to register, to vote, or 17

otherwise to participate in the political process. 18

‘‘(B) The extent to which voting in the 19

elections of the State or political subdivision is 20

racially polarized. 21

‘‘(C) The extent to which the State or po-22

litical subdivision has used voting practices or 23

procedures that tend to enhance the oppor-24

tunity for discrimination against the members 25

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of the protected class, such as unusually large 1

election districts, majority vote requirements, 2

anti-single shot provisions, or other qualifica-3

tions, prerequisites, standards, practices, or 4

procedures that may enhance the opportunity 5

for discrimination against the members of the 6

protected class. 7

‘‘(D) If there is a candidate slating proc-8

ess, whether the members of the protected class 9

have been denied access to that process. 10

‘‘(E) The extent to which members of the 11

protected class in the State or political subdivi-12

sion bear the effects of discrimination, both 13

public or private, in such areas as education, 14

employment, health, housing, and transpor-15

tation, which hinder their ability to participate 16

effectively in the political process. 17

‘‘(F) Whether political campaigns have 18

been characterized by overt or subtle racial ap-19

peals. 20

‘‘(G) The extent to which members of the 21

protected class have been elected to public office 22

in the jurisdiction. 23

‘‘(3) In conducting a totality of the cir-24

cumstances analysis under paragraph (2), a court 25

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may consider such other factors as the court may 1

determine to be relevant, including— 2

‘‘(A) whether there is a significant lack of 3

responsiveness on the part of elected officials to 4

the particularized needs of the members of the 5

protected class, including a lack of concern for 6

or responsiveness to the requests and proposals 7

of the members of the protected class, except 8

that compliance with a court order may not be 9

considered evidence of responsiveness on the 10

part of the jurisdiction; and 11

‘‘(B) whether the policy underlying the 12

State or political subdivision’s use of such vot-13

ing qualification, prerequisite to voting, or 14

standard, practice or procedure is tenuous. 15

In making this determination, a court shall consider 16

whether the qualification, prerequisite, standard, 17

practice, or procedure in question was designed to 18

advance and materially advances a valid and sub-19

stantiated State interest. 20

‘‘(4) A class of citizens protected by subsection 21

(a) may include a cohesive coalition of members of 22

different racial or language minority groups.’’; and 23

(4) V

OTE DENIAL OR ABRIDGEMENT

.—Section 24

2 of such Act (52 U.S.C. 10301), as amended by 25

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subsections (a) and (b), is further amended by add-1

ing at the end the following: 2

‘‘(c)(1) A violation of subsection (a) resulting in vote 3

denial or abridgment is established if the challenged quali-4

fication, prerequisite, standard, practice, or procedure— 5

‘‘(A) results or will result in members of a pro-6

tected class facing greater costs or burdens in par-7

ticipating in the political process than other voters; 8

and 9

‘‘(B) the greater costs or burdens are, at least 10

in part, caused by or linked to social and historical 11

conditions that have produced or produce on the 12

date of such challenge discrimination against mem-13

bers of the protected class. 14

In determining the existence of a burden for pur-15

poses of subparagraph (A), the absolute number or 16

the percent of voters affected or the presence of vot-17

ers who are not members of a protected class in the 18

affected area shall not be dispositive, and the af-19

fected area may be smaller than the jurisdiction to 20

which the qualification, prerequisite, standard, prac-21

tice, or procedure applies. 22

‘‘(2) The challenged qualification, prerequisite, stand-23

ard, practice, or procedure need only be a but-for cause 24

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of the discriminatory result described in paragraph (1) or 1

perpetuate a pre-existing burdens or costs. 2

‘‘(3)(A) The factors that are relevant to a totality of 3

the circumstances analysis with respect to a claim of vote 4

denial or abridgement pursuant to this subsection include 5

the following: 6

‘‘(i) The extent of any history of official voting- 7

related discrimination in the State or political sub-8

division that affected the right of members of the 9

protected class to register, to vote, or otherwise to 10

participate in the political process. 11

‘‘(ii) The extent to which voting in the elections 12

of the State or political subdivision is racially polar-13

ized. 14

‘‘(iii) The extent to which the State or political 15

subdivision has used photographic voter identifica-16

tion requirements, documentary proof of citizenship 17

requirements, documentary proof of residence re-18

quirements, or other voting practices or procedures, 19

beyond those required by Federal law, that impair 20

the ability of members of the minority group to par-21

ticipate fully in the political process. 22

‘‘(iv) The extent to which minority group mem-23

bers bear the effects of discrimination, both public 24

or private, in areas such as education, employment, 25

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health, housing, and transportation, which hinder 1

their ability to participate effectively in the political 2

process. 3

‘‘(v) The use of overt or subtle racial appeals ei-4

ther in political campaigns or surrounding adoption 5

or maintenance of the challenged practice. 6

‘‘(vi) The extent to which members of the mi-7

nority group have been elected to public office in the 8

jurisdiction, provided that the fact that the minority 9

group is too small to elect candidates of its choice 10

shall not defeat a claim of vote denial or abridgment. 11

‘‘(vii) Whether there is a lack of responsiveness 12

on the part of elected officials to the particularized 13

needs of minority group members, including a lack 14

of concern for or responsiveness to the requests and 15

proposals of the group, except that compliance with 16

a court order may not be considered evidence of re-17

sponsiveness on the part of the jurisdiction. 18

‘‘(viii) Whether the policy underlying the State 19

or political subdivision’s use of the challenged quali-20

fication, prerequisite, standard, practice, or proce-21

dure is tenuous. In making a determination under 22

this clause, a court shall consider whether the quali-23

fication, prerequisite, standard, practice, or proce-24

dure in question was designed to advance and mate-25

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rially advances a valid and substantiated State inter-1

est. 2

‘‘(ix) Subject to paragraph (4), such other fac-3

tors as the court may determine to be relevant. 4

‘‘(B) The factors described in subparagraph (A), indi-5

vidually and collectively, shall be considered as a means 6

of establishing that a voting practice amplifies the effects 7

of past or present discrimination in violation in subsection 8

(a). 9

‘‘(C) A plaintiff need not show any particular com-10

bination or number of factors to establish a violation of 11

subsection (a). 12

‘‘(4) The factors that are relevant to a totality of the 13

circumstances analysis with respect to a claim of vote de-14

nial or abridgement do not include the following: 15

‘‘(A) The degree to which the challenged quali-16

fication, prerequisite, standard, practice, or proce-17

dure has a long pedigree or was in widespread use 18

at some earlier date. 19

‘‘(B) The use of an identical or similar quali-20

fication, prerequisite, standard, practice, or proce-21

dure in other States or jurisdictions. 22

‘‘(C) The availability of other forms of voting 23

unimpacted by the challenged qualification, pre-24

requisite, standard, practice, or procedure to all 25

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members of the electorate, including members of the 1

protected class, unless the jurisdiction is simulta-2

neously expanding such other practices to eliminate 3

any disproportionate burden imposed by the chal-4

lenged qualification, prerequisite, standard, practice, 5

or procedure. 6

‘‘(D) Unsubstantiated defenses that the quali-7

fication, prerequisite, standard, practice, or proce-8

dure is necessary to address criminal activity. 9

‘‘(d)(1) A violation of subsection (a) for the purpose 10

of vote denial or abridgement is established if the chal-11

lenged qualification, prerequisite, standard, practice, or 12

procedure is intended, at least in part, to dilute minority 13

voting strength or to deny or abridge the right of any cit-14

izen of the United States to vote on account of race, color, 15

or in contravention of the guarantees set forth in section 16

4(f)(2). 17

‘‘(2) Discrimination on account of race, color, or in 18

contravention of the guarantees set forth in section 4(f)(2) 19

need only be one purpose of a qualification, prerequisite, 20

standard, practice, or procedure to demonstrate a violation 21

of subsection (a). 22

‘‘(3) A qualification, prerequisite, standard, practice, 23

or procedure intended to dilute minority voting strength 24

or to make it more difficult for minority voters to cast 25

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a ballot that will be counted violates this subsection even 1

if an additional purpose of the qualification, prerequisite, 2

standard, practice, or procedure is to benefit a particular 3

political party or group. 4

‘‘(4) The context for the adoption of the challenged 5

qualification, prerequisite, standard, practice, or proce-6

dure, including actions by official decisionmakers before 7

the challenged qualification, prerequisite, standard, prac-8

tice, or procedure, may be relevant to a violation of this 9

subsection. 10

‘‘(5) Claims under this subsection require proof of a 11

discriminatory impact but do not require proof of a viola-12

tion pursuant to subsection (b) or (c). 13

‘‘(e) For purposes of this section, the term ‘affected 14

area’ means any geographic area, in which members of 15

a protected class are affected by a qualification, pre-16

requisite, standard, practice, or procedure allegedly in vio-17

lation of this section, within a State (including any Indian 18

lands).’’. 19

SEC. 3. RETROGRESSION. 20

Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (52 21

U.S.C. 10301 et seq.), as amended by section 2 of this 22

Act, is further amended by adding at the end the fol-23

lowing: 24

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‘‘(f) A violation of subsection (a) is established when 1

a State or political subdivision enacts or seeks to admin-2

ister any qualification or prerequisite to voting or stand-3

ard, practice, or procedure with respect to voting in any 4

election that has the purpose of or will have the effect 5

of diminishing the ability of any citizens of the United 6

States on account of race or color, or in contravention of 7

the guarantees set forth in section 4(f)(2), to participate 8

in the electoral process or elect their preferred candidates 9

of choice. This subsection applies to any action taken on 10

or after January 1, 2021, by a State or political subdivi-11

sion to enact or seek to administer any such qualification 12

or prerequisite to voting or standard, practice or proce-13

dure. 14

‘‘(g) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (f), 15

final decisions of the United States District Court of the 16

District of Columbia on applications or petitions by States 17

or political subdivisions for preclearance under section 5 18

of any changes in voting prerequisites, standards, prac-19

tices, or procedures, supersede the provisions of subsection 20

(f).’’. 21

SEC. 4. VIOLATIONS TRIGGERING AUTHORITY OF COURT 22

TO RETAIN JURISDICTION. 23

(a) T

YPES OF

IOLATIONS

.—Section 3(c) of the Vot-24

ing Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 10302(c)) is amended 25

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by striking ‘‘violations of the fourteenth or fifteenth 1

amendment’’ and inserting ‘‘violations of the 14th or 15th 2

Amendment, violations of this Act, or violations of any 3

Federal law that prohibits discrimination in voting on the 4

basis of race, color, or membership in a language minority 5

group,’’. 6

(b) C

ONFORMING

MENDMENT

.—Section 3(a) of 7

such Act (52 U.S.C. 10302(a)) is amended by striking 8

‘‘violations of the fourteenth or fifteenth amendment’’ and 9

inserting ‘‘violations of the 14th or 15th Amendment, vio-10

lations of this Act, or violations of any Federal law that 11

prohibits discrimination in voting on the basis of race, 12

color, or membership in a language minority group,’’. 13

SEC. 5. CRITERIA FOR COVERAGE OF STATES AND POLIT-14

ICAL SUBDIVISIONS. 15

(a) D

ETERMINATION OF

TATES AND

OLITICAL

UBDIVISIONS

UBJECT TO

ECTION

4(a).— 17

(1) I

N GENERAL

.—Section 4(b) of the Voting 18

Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 10303(b)) is amend-19

ed to read as follows: 20

‘‘(b) D

ETERMINATION OF

TATES AND

OLITICAL

UBDIVISIONS

UBJECT TO

EQUIREMENTS

.— 22

‘‘(1) E

XISTENCE OF VOTING RIGHTS VIOLA

-23

TIONS DURING PREVIOUS 25 YEARS

.— 24

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‘‘(A) S

TATEWIDE APPLICATION

.—Sub-1

section (a) applies with respect to a State and 2

all political subdivisions within the State during 3

a calendar year if— 4

‘‘(i) fifteen or more voting rights vio-5

lations occurred in the State during the 6

previous 25 calendar years; 7

‘‘(ii) ten or more voting rights viola-8

tions occurred in the State during the pre-9

vious 25 calendar years, at least one of 10

which was committed by the State itself 11

(as opposed to a political subdivision with-12

in the State); or 13

‘‘(iii) three or more voting rights vio-14

lations occurred in the State during the 15

previous 25 calendar years and the State 16

itself administers the elections in the State 17

or political subdivisions in which the voting 18

rights violations occurred. 19

‘‘(B) A

PPLICATION TO SPECIFIC POLITICAL

SUBDIVISIONS

.—Subsection (a) applies with re-21

spect to a political subdivision as a separate 22

unit during a calendar year if three or more 23

voting rights violations occurred in the subdivi-24

sion during the previous 25 calendar years. 25

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‘‘(2) P

ERIOD OF APPLICATION

.— 1

‘‘(A) I

N GENERAL

.—Except as provided in 2

subparagraph (B), if, pursuant to paragraph 3

(1), subsection (a) applies with respect to a 4

State or political subdivision during a calendar 5

year, subsection (a) shall apply with respect to 6

such State or political subdivision for the pe-7

riod— 8

‘‘(i) that begins on January 1 of the 9

year in which subsection (a) applies; and 10

‘‘(ii) that ends on the date which is 10 11

years after the date described in clause (i). 12

‘‘(B) N

O FURTHER APPLICATION AFTER

DECLARATORY JUDGMENT

.— 14

‘‘(i) S

TATES

.—If a State obtains a de-15

claratory judgment under subsection (a), 16

and the judgment remains in effect, sub-17

section (a) shall no longer apply to such 18

State pursuant to paragraph (1)(A) unless, 19

after the issuance of the declaratory judg-20

ment, paragraph (1)(A) applies to the 21

State solely on the basis of voting rights 22

violations occurring after the issuance of 23

the declaratory judgment. 24

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‘‘(ii) P

OLITICAL SUBDIVISIONS

.—If a 1

political subdivision obtains a declaratory 2

judgment under subsection (a), and the 3

judgment remains in effect, subsection (a) 4

shall no longer apply to such political sub-5

division pursuant to paragraph (1), includ-6

ing pursuant to paragraph (1)(A) (relating 7

to the statewide application of subsection 8

(a)), unless, after the issuance of the de-9

claratory judgment, paragraph (1)(B) ap-10

plies to the political subdivision solely on 11

the basis of voting rights violations occur-12

ring after the issuance of the declaratory 13

judgment. 14

‘‘(3) D

ETERMINATION OF VOTING RIGHTS VIO

-15

LATION

.—For purposes of paragraph (1), a voting 16

rights violation occurred in a State or political sub-17

division if any of the following applies: 18

‘‘(A) J

UDICIAL RELIEF

;

VIOLATION OF

THE 14TH OR 15TH AMENDMENT

.—Any final 20

judgment, or any preliminary, temporary, or de-21

claratory relief (that was not reversed on ap-22

peal), in which the plaintiff prevailed or a court 23

of the United States found that the plaintiff 24

demonstrated a likelihood of success on the 25

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•HR 14 IH

merits or raised a serious question with regard 1

to race discrimination, in which any court of 2

the United States determined that a denial or 3

abridgement of the right of any citizen of the 4

United States to vote on account of race, color, 5

or membership in a language minority group 6

occurred, or that a voting qualification or pre-7

requisite to voting or standard, practice, or pro-8

cedure with respect to voting created an undue 9

burden on the right to vote in connection with 10

a claim that the law unduly burdened voters of 11

a particular race, color, or language minority 12

group, in violation of the 14th or 15th Amend-13

ment, anywhere within the State or subdivision. 14

‘‘(B) J

UDICIAL RELIEF

;

VIOLATIONS OF

THIS ACT

.—Any final judgment, or any prelimi-16

nary, temporary, or declaratory relief (that was 17

not reversed on appeal) in which the plaintiff 18

prevailed or a court of the United States found 19

that the plaintiff demonstrated a likelihood of 20

success on the merits or raised a serious ques-21

tion with regard to race discrimination, in 22

which any court of the United States deter-23

mined that a voting qualification or prerequisite 24

to voting or standard, practice, or procedure 25

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with respect to voting was imposed or applied 1

or would have been imposed or applied any-2

where within the State or subdivision in a man-3

ner that resulted or would have resulted in a 4

denial or abridgement of the right of any citizen 5

of the United States to vote on account of race, 6

color, or membership in a language minority 7

group, in violation of subsection 4(e) or 4(f) or 8

section 2, 201, or 203 of this Act. 9

‘‘(C) F

INAL JUDGMENT

;

DENIAL OF DE

-10

CLARATORY JUDGMENT

.—In a final judgment 11

(that was not been reversed on appeal), any 12

court of the United States has denied the re-13

quest of the State or subdivision for a declara-14

tory judgment under section 3(c) or section 5, 15

and thereby prevented a voting qualification or 16

prerequisite to voting or standard, practice, or 17

procedure with respect to voting from being en-18

forced anywhere within the State or subdivision. 19

‘‘(D) O

BJECTION BY THE ATTORNEY GEN

-20

ERAL

.—The Attorney General has interposed 21

an objection under section 3(c) or section 5, 22

and thereby prevented a voting qualification or 23

prerequisite to voting or standard, practice, or 24

procedure with respect to voting from being en-25

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forced anywhere within the State or subdivision. 1

A violation per this subsection has not occurred 2

where an objection has been withdrawn by the 3

Attorney General, unless the withdrawal was in 4

response to a change in the law or practice that 5

served as the basis of the objection. A violation 6

under this subsection has not occurred where 7

the objection is based solely on a State or polit-8

ical subdivision’s failure to comply with a proce-9

dural process that would not otherwise con-10

stitute an independent violation of this act. 11

‘‘(E) C

ONSENT DECREE

SETTLEMENT

OTHER AGREEMENT

.—A consent decree, settle-13

ment, or other agreement was adopted or en-14

tered by a court of the United States or con-15

tained an admission of liability by the defend-16

ants, which resulted in the alteration or aban-17

donment of a voting practice anywhere in the 18

territory of such State or subdivision that was 19

challenged on the ground that the practice de-20

nied or abridged the right of any citizen of the 21

United States to vote on account of race, color, 22

or membership in a language minority group in 23

violation of subsection 4(e) or 4(f) or section 2, 24

201, or 203 of this Act, or the 14th or 15th 25

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Amendment. An extension or modification of an 1

agreement as defined by this subsection that 2

has been in place for ten years or longer shall 3

count as an independent violation. If a court of 4

the United States finds that an agreement itself 5

as defined by this subsection denied or abridged 6

the right of any citizen of the United States to 7

vote on account of race, color, or membership in 8

a language minority group, violated subsection 9

4(e) or 4(f) or section 2, 201, or 203 of this 10

Act, or created an undue burden on the right 11

to vote in connection with a claim that the con-12

sent decree, settlement, or other agreement un-13

duly burdened voters of a particular race, color, 14

or language minority group, that finding shall 15

count as an independent violation. 16

‘‘(F) M

ULTIPLE VIOLATIONS

.—Each vot-17

ing qualification or prerequisite to voting or 18

standard, practice, or procedure with respect to 19

voting, including each redistricting plan, found 20

to be a violation by a court of the United States 21

pursuant to subsection (a) or (b), or prevented 22

from enforcement pursuant to subsection (c) or 23

(d), or altered or abandoned pursuant to sub-24

section (e) shall count as an independent viola-25

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•HR 14 IH

tion. Within a redistricting plan, each violation 1

found to discriminate against any group of vot-2

ers based on race, color, or language minority 3

group shall count as an independent violation. 4

‘‘(4) T

IMING OF DETERMINATIONS

.— 5

‘‘(A) D

ETERMINATIONS OF VOTING RIGHTS

VIOLATIONS

.—As early as practicable during 7

each calendar year, the Attorney General shall 8

make the determinations required by this sub-9

section, including updating the list of voting 10

rights violations occurring in each State and po-11

litical subdivision for the previous calendar 12

year. 13

‘‘(B) E

FFECTIVE UPON PUBLICATION IN

FEDERAL REGISTER

.—A determination or cer-15

tification of the Attorney General under this 16

section or under section 8 or 13 shall be effec-17

tive upon publication in the Federal Register.’’. 18

(2) C

ONFORMING AMENDMENTS

.—Section 4(a) 19

of such Act (52 U.S.C. 10303(a)) is amended— 20

(A) in paragraph (1), in the first sentence 21

of the matter preceding subparagraph (A), by 22

striking ‘‘any State with respect to which’’ and 23

all that follows through ‘‘unless’’ and inserting 24

‘‘any State to which this subsection applies dur-25

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ing a calendar year pursuant to determinations 1

made under subsection (b), or in any political 2

subdivision of such State (as such subdivision 3

existed on the date such determinations were 4

made with respect to such State), though such 5

determinations were not made with respect to 6

such subdivision as a separate unit, or in any 7

political subdivision with respect to which this 8

subsection applies during a calendar year pur-9

suant to determinations made with respect to 10

such subdivision as a separate unit under sub-11

section (b), unless’’; 12

(B) in paragraph (1) in the matter pre-13

ceding subparagraph (A), by striking the second 14

sentence; 15

the case of a State or subdivision seeking a de-17

claratory judgment under the second sentence 18

of this subsection)’’; 19

(D) in paragraph (1)(B), by striking ‘‘(in 20

the case of a State or subdivision seeking a de-21

claratory judgment under the second sentence 22

of this subsection)’’; 23

(E) in paragraph (3), by striking ‘‘(in the 24

case of a State or subdivision seeking a declara-25

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•HR 14 IH

tory judgment under the second sentence of this 1

subsection)’’; 2

(F) in paragraph (5), by striking ‘‘(in the 3

case of a State or subdivision which sought a 4

declaratory judgment under the second sentence 5

of this subsection)’’; 6

(G) by striking paragraphs (7) and (8); 7

and 8

(H) by redesignating paragraph (9) as 9

paragraph (7). 10

(b) C

LARIFICATION OF

REATMENT OF

EMBERS OF

ANGUAGE

INORITY

ROUPS

.—Section 4(a)(1) of such 12

Act (52 U.S.C. 10303(a)(1)) is amended by striking ‘‘race 13

or color,’’ and inserting ‘‘race, color, or in contravention 14

of the guarantees of subsection (f)(2),’’. 15

DMINISTRATIVE

AILOUT

.— 16

(1) I

N GENERAL

.—Section 4 of the Voting 17

Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 10303) is amended 18

by adding at the end the following: 19

‘‘(g) A

DMINISTRATIVE

AILOUT

.— 20

‘‘(1) D

ETERMINATION OF ELIGIBILITY

.— 21

‘‘(A) I

N GENERAL

.—After making a deter-22

mination under subsection (b)(1)(A) that the 23

provisions of subsection (a) apply with respect 24

to a State and all political subdivisions within 25

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•HR 14 IH

the State, the Attorney General shall determine 1

if any political subdivision of the State is eligi-2

ble for an exemption under this subsection, and 3

shall publish, in the Federal Register, a list of 4

all such political subdivisions. Any political sub-5

division included on such list is not subject to 6

any requirement under section 5 until the date 7

on which any application under this section has 8

been finally disposed of or no such application 9

may be made. 10

‘‘(B) R

ULE OF CONSTRUCTION

.—Nothing 11

in this subsection may be construed to pro-12

vide— 13

‘‘(i) that the determinations made 14

pursuant to the creation of the list shall 15

have any binding or preclusive effect; or 16

‘‘(ii) that inclusion on the list— 17

‘‘(I) constitutes a final deter-18

mination by the Attorney General that 19

the listee is eligible for an exemption 20

pursuant to this subsection or that, in 21

the case of the listee, the provisions of 22

subparagraphs (A) through (F) of 23

subsection (a)(1) are satisfied; or 24

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‘‘(II) entitles the listee to any ex-1

emption pursuant to this subsection. 2

‘‘(2) E

LIGIBILITY

.—A political subdivision that 3

submits an application under paragraph (3) shall be 4

eligible for an exemption under this subsection only 5

if, during the ten years preceding the filing of the 6

application, and during the pendency of such appli-7

cation— 8

‘‘(A) no test or device referred to in sub-9

section (a)(1) has been used within such polit-10

ical subdivision for the purpose or with the ef-11

fect of denying or abridging the right to vote on 12

account of race or color or in contravention of 13

the guarantees of subsection (f)(2); 14

‘‘(B) no final judgment of any court of the 15

United States, other than the denial of declara-16

tory judgment under this section, has deter-17

mined that denials or abridgements of the right 18

to vote on account of race or color have oc-19

curred anywhere in the territory of such polit-20

ical subdivision or that denials or abridgements 21

of the right to vote in contravention of the 22

guarantees of subsection (f)(2) have occurred 23

anywhere in the territory of such subdivision 24

and no consent decree, settlement, or agreement 25

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•HR 14 IH

has been entered into resulting in any abandon-1

ment of a voting practice challenged on such 2

grounds; and no declaratory judgment under 3

this section shall be entered during the pend-4

ency of an action commenced before the filing 5

of an action under this section and alleging 6

such denials or abridgements of the right to 7

vote; 8

‘‘(C) no Federal examiners or observers 9

under this Act have been assigned to such polit-10

ical subdivision; 11

‘‘(D) such political subdivision and all gov-12

ernmental units within its territory have com-13

plied with section 5 of this Act, including com-14

pliance with the requirement that no change 15

covered by section 5 has been enforced without 16

preclearance under section 5, and have repealed 17

all changes covered by section 5 to which the 18

Attorney General has successfully objected or as 19

to which the United States District Court for 20

the District of Columbia has denied a declara-21

tory judgment; 22

‘‘(E) the Attorney General has not inter-23

posed any objection (that has not been over-24

turned by a final judgment of a court) and no 25

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declaratory judgment has been denied under 1

section 5, with respect to any submission by or 2

on behalf of the plaintiff or any governmental 3

unit within its territory under section 5, and no 4

such submissions or declaratory judgment ac-5

tions are pending; and 6

‘‘(F) such political subdivision and all gov-7

ernmental units within its territory— 8

‘‘(i) have eliminated voting procedures 9

and methods of election which inhibit or 10

dilute equal access to the electoral process; 11

‘‘(ii) have engaged in constructive ef-12

forts to eliminate intimidation and harass-13

ment of persons exercising rights protected 14

under this Act; and 15

‘‘(iii) have engaged in other construc-16

tive efforts, such as expanded opportunity 17

for convenient registration and voting for 18

every person of voting age and the appoint-19

ment of minority persons as election offi-20

cials throughout the jurisdiction and at all 21

stages of the election and registration 22

process. 23

‘‘(3) A

PPLICATION PERIOD

.—Not later than 90 24

days after the publication of the list under para-25

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•HR 14 IH

graph (1), a political subdivision included on such 1

list may submit an application, containing such in-2

formation as the Attorney General may require, for 3

an exemption under this subsection. The Attorney 4

General shall provide notice in the Federal Register 5

of such application. 6

‘‘(4) C

OMMENT PERIOD

.—During the 90-day 7

period beginning on the date that notice is published 8

under paragraph (3), the Attorney General shall give 9

interested persons an opportunity to submit objec-10

tions to the issuance of an exemption under this 11

subsection to a political subdivision on the basis that 12

the political subdivision is not eligible under para-13

graph (2) to the Attorney General. During the 1 14

year period beginning on the effective date of this 15

subsection, such 90-day period shall be extended by 16

an additional 30 days. The Attorney General shall 17

notify the political subdivision of each objection sub-18

mitted and afford the political subdivision an oppor-19

tunity to respond. 20

‘‘(5) D

ETERMINATION AS TO OBJECTIONS

.—In 21

the case of a political subdivision with respect to 22

which an objection has been submitted under para-23

graph (4), the following shall apply: 24

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‘‘(A) C

ONSIDERATION OF OBJECTIONS

.— 1

The Attorney General shall consider and re-2

spond to each such objection (and any response 3

of the political subdivision thereto) during the 4

60-day period beginning on the day after the 5

comment period under paragraph (4) concludes. 6

‘‘(B) J

USTIFIED OBJECTIONS

.—If the At-7

torney General determines that any such objec-8

tion is justified, the Attorney General shall pub-9

lish notice in the Federal Register denying the 10

application for an exemption under this sub-11

section. 12

‘‘(C) U

NJUSTIFIED OBJECTIONS

.—If the 13

Attorney General determines that no objection 14

submitted is justified, each person that sub-15

mitted such an objection may, not later than 90 16

days after the end of the period established 17

under subparagraph (A), file, in the District 18

Court of the District of Columbia, an action for 19

judicial review of such determination in accord-20

ance with chapter 7 of title 5, United States 21

Code. 22

‘‘(6) E

XEMPTION

.—The Attorney General may 23

issue an exemption, by publication in the Federal 24

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subsection (a) with respect to a political subdivision 1

that— 2

‘‘(A) is eligible under paragraph (2); and 3

‘‘(B) with respect to which no objection 4

under was submitted under paragraph (4) or 5

determined to be justified under paragraph (5). 6

‘‘(7) J

UDICIAL REVIEW

.—Except as otherwise 7

explicitly provided in this subsection, no determina-8

tion under this subsection shall be subject to review 9

by any court, and all determinations under this sub-10

section are committed to the discretion of the Attor-11

ney General. 12

‘‘(8) S

AVINGS CLAUSE

.—If a political subdivi-13

sion was not subject to the application of the provi-14

sions of subsection (a) by reason of a declaratory 15

judgment entered prior to the effective date of this 16

subsection, and such political subdivision has not 17

violated any eligibility requirement set forth in para-18

graph (2) at any time thereafter, then that political 19

subdivision shall not be subject to the requirements 20

of subsection (a).’’. 21

(2) C

ONFORMING AMENDMENT

.— 22

(A) I

N GENERAL

.—Section 4(a)(1) of the 23

Voting Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 24

10303(a)(1)), as amended by this Act, is fur-25

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•HR 14 IH

ther amended by inserting after ‘‘the United 1

States District Court for the District of Colum-2

bia issues a declaratory judgment under this 3

section’’ the following: ‘‘, or, in the case of a 4

political subdivision, the Attorney General 5

issues an exemption under subsection (g)’’. 6

(B) E

XPIRATION OF TIME LIMIT

.—On the 7

date that is 1 year after the effective date of 8

this subsection, section 4(g)(3) of the Voting 9

Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 10303(g)(3)) is 10

amended by striking ‘‘During the 1 year period 11

beginning on the effective date of this sub-12

section, such 90-day period shall be extended by 13

an additional 30 days.’’. For purposes of any 14

periods under such section commenced as of 15

such date, the 90-day period shall remain ex-16

tended by an additional 30 days. 17

SEC. 6. DETERMINATION OF STATES AND POLITICAL SUB-18

DIVISIONS SUBJECT TO PRECLEARANCE FOR 19

COVERED PRACTICES. 20

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 10301 et 21

seq.) is further amended by inserting after section 4 the 22

following: 23

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‘‘SEC. 4A. DETERMINATION OF STATES AND POLITICAL 1

SUBDIVISIONS SUBJECT TO PRECLEARANCE 2

FOR COVERED PRACTICES. 3

‘‘(a) P

RACTICE

-B

ASED

RECLEARANCE

.— 4

‘‘(1) I

N GENERAL

.—Each State and each polit-5

ical subdivision shall— 6

‘‘(A) identify any newly enacted or adopted 7

law, regulation, or policy that includes a voting 8

qualification or prerequisite to voting, or a 9

standard, practice, or procedure with respect to 10

voting, that is a covered practice described in 11

subsection (b); and 12

‘‘(B) ensure that no such covered practice 13

is implemented unless or until the State or po-14

litical subdivision, as the case may be, complies 15

with subsection (c). 16

‘‘(2) D

ETERMINATIONS OF CHARACTERISTICS

OF VOTING

AGE POPULATION

.— 18

‘‘(A) I

N GENERAL

.—As early as prac-19

ticable during each calendar year, the Attorney 20

General, in consultation with the Director of 21

the Bureau of the Census and the heads of 22

other relevant offices of the government, shall 23

make the determinations required by this sec-24

tion regarding voting-age populations and the 25

characteristics of such populations, and shall 26

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•HR 14 IH

publish a list of the States and political subdivi-1

sions to which a voting-age population char-2

acteristic described in subsection (b) applies. 3

‘‘(B) P

UBLICATION IN THE FEDERAL REG

-4

ISTER

.—A determination or certification of the 5

Attorney General under this paragraph shall be 6

effective upon publication in the Federal Reg-7

ister. 8

‘‘(b) C

OVERED

RACTICES

.—To assure that the right 9

of citizens of the United States to vote is not denied or 10

abridged on account of race, color, or membership in a 11

language minority group as a result of the implementation 12

of certain qualifications or prerequisites to voting, or 13

standards, practices, or procedures with respect to voting 14

newly adopted in a State or political subdivision, the fol-15

lowing shall be covered practices subject to the require-16

ments described in subsection (a): 17

‘‘(1) C

HANGES TO METHOD OF ELECTION

.— 18

Any change to the method of election— 19

‘‘(A) to add seats elected at-large in a 20

State or political subdivision where— 21

‘‘(i) two or more racial groups or lan-22

guage minority groups each represent 20 23

percent or more of the political subdivi-24

sion’s voting-age population; or 25

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‘‘(ii) a single language minority group 1

represents 20 percent or more of the vot-2

ing-age population on Indian lands located 3

in whole or in part in the political subdivi-4

sion; or 5

‘‘(B) to convert one or more seats elected 6

from a single-member district to one or more 7

at-large seats or seats from a multi-member 8

district in a State or political subdivision 9

where— 10

‘‘(i) two or more racial groups or lan-11

guage minority groups each represent 20 12

percent or more of the political subdivi-13

sion’s voting-age population; or 14

‘‘(ii) a single language minority group 15

represents 20 percent or more of the vot-16

ing-age population on Indian lands located 17

in whole or in part in the political subdivi-18

sion. 19

‘‘(2) C

HANGES TO JURISDICTION BOUND

-20

ARIES

.—Any change or series of changes within a 21

year to the boundaries of a jurisdiction that reduces 22

by 3 or more percentage points the proportion of the 23

jurisdiction’s voting-age population that is comprised 24

of members of a single racial group or language mi-25

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•HR 14 IH

nority group in a State or political subdivision 1

where— 2

‘‘(A) two or more racial groups or lan-3

guage minority groups each represent 20 per-4

cent or more of the political subdivision’s vot-5

ing-age population; or 6

‘‘(B) a single language minority group rep-7

resents 20 percent or more of the voting-age 8

population on Indian lands located in whole or 9

in part in the political subdivision. 10

‘‘(3) C

HANGES THROUGH REDISTRICTING

.— 11

Any change to the boundaries of election districts in 12

a State or political subdivision where any racial 13

group or language minority group that is not the 14

largest racial group or language minority group in 15

the jurisdiction and that represents 15 percent or 16

more of the State or political subdivision’s voting- 17

age population experiences a population increase of 18

at least 20 percent of its voting-age population, over 19

the preceding decade (as calculated by the Bureau 20

of the Census under the most recent decennial cen-21

sus), in the jurisdiction. 22

‘‘(4) C

HANGES IN DOCUMENTATION OR QUALI

-23

FICATIONS TO VOTE

.—Any change to requirements 24

for documentation or proof of identity to vote or reg-25

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•HR 14 IH

ister to vote that will exceed or be more stringent 1

than such requirements under State law on the day 2

before the date of enactment of the John R. Lewis 3

Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2023; and fur-4

ther, if a State has in effect a requirement that an 5

individual present identification as a condition of re-6

ceiving and casting a ballot in an election for Fed-7

eral office, if the State does not permit the indi-8

vidual to meet the requirement and cast a ballot in 9

the election in the same manner as an individual 10

who presents identification— 11

‘‘(A) in the case of an individual who de-12

sires to vote in person, by presenting the appro-13

priate State or local election official with a 14

sworn written statement, signed by the indi-15

vidual under penalty of perjury, attesting to the 16

individual’s identity and attesting that the indi-17

vidual is eligible to vote in the election; and 18

‘‘(B) in the case of an individual who de-19

sires to vote by mail, by submitting with the 20

ballot the statement described in subparagraph 21

(A). 22

‘‘(5) C

HANGES TO MULTILINGUAL VOTING MA

-23

TERIALS

.—Any change that reduces multilingual 24

voting materials or alters the manner in which such 25

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•HR 14 IH

materials are provided or distributed, where no simi-1

lar reduction or alteration occurs in materials pro-2

vided in English for such election. 3

‘‘(6) C

HANGES THAT REDUCE

CONSOLIDATE

, 4

OR RELOCATE VOTING LOCATIONS

OR REDUCE VOT

-5

ING OPPORTUNITIES

.—Any change that reduces, 6

consolidates, or relocates voting locations, including 7

early, absentee, and election-day voting locations, or 8

reduces days or hours of in-person voting on any 9

Sunday during a period occurring prior to the date 10

of an election during which voters may cast ballots 11

in such election, or prohibits the provision of food or 12

non-alcoholic drink to persons waiting to vote in an 13

election except where the provision would violate 14

prohibitions on expenditures to influence voting— 15

‘‘(A) in one or more census tracts wherein 16

two or more language minority groups or racial 17

groups each represent 20 percent or more of 18

the voting-age population of the political sub-19

division; or 20

‘‘(B) on Indian lands wherein at least 20 21

percent of the voting-age population belongs to 22

a single language minority group. 23

‘‘(7) N

EW LIST MAINTENANCE PROCESS

.—Any 24

change to the maintenance of voter registration lists 25

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•HR 14 IH

that adds a new basis for removal from the list of 1

active registered voters or that incorporates new 2

sources of information in determining a voter’s eligi-3

bility to vote, wherein such a change would have a 4

statistically significant disparate impact on the re-5

moval from voter rolls of members of racial groups 6

or language minority groups that constitute greater 7

than 5 percent of the voting-age population— 8

‘‘(A) in the case of a political subdivision 9

imposing such change if— 10

‘‘(i) two or more racial groups or lan-11

guage minority groups each represent 20 12

percent or more of the voting-age popu-13

lation of the political subdivision; or 14

‘‘(ii) a single language minority group 15

represents 20 percent or more of the vot-16

ing-age population on Indian lands located 17

in whole or in part in the political subdivi-18

sion; or 19

‘‘(B) in the case of a State imposing such 20

change, if two or more racial groups or lan-21

guage minority groups each represent 20 per-22

cent or more of the voting-age population of— 23

‘‘(i) the State; or 24

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•HR 14 IH

‘‘(ii) a political subdivision in the 1

State, except that the requirements under 2

subsections (a) and (c) shall apply only 3

with respect to each such political subdivi-4

sion. 5

‘‘(c) P

RECLEARANCE

.— 6

‘‘(1) I

N GENERAL

.—Whenever a State or polit-7

ical subdivision with respect to which the require-8

ments set forth in subsection (a) are in effect shall 9

enact, adopt, or seek to implement any covered prac-10

tice described under subsection (b), such State or 11

subdivision may institute an action in the United 12

States District Court for the District of Columbia 13

for a declaratory judgment that such covered prac-14

tice neither has the purpose nor will have the effect 15

of denying or abridging the right to vote on account 16

of race, color, or membership in a language minority 17

group, and unless and until the court enters such 18

judgment such covered practice shall not be imple-19

mented. Notwithstanding the previous sentence, such 20

covered practice may be implemented without such 21

proceeding if the covered practice has been sub-22

mitted by the chief legal officer or other appropriate 23

official of such State or subdivision to the Attorney 24

General and the Attorney General has not inter-25

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•HR 14 IH

posed an objection within 60 days after such submis-1

sion, or upon good cause shown, to facilitate an ex-2

pedited approval within 60 days after such submis-3

sion, the Attorney General has affirmatively indi-4

cated that such objection will not be made. Neither 5

an affirmative indication by the Attorney General 6

that no objection will be made, nor the Attorney 7

General’s failure to object, nor a declaratory judg-8

ment entered under this section shall bar a subse-9

quent action to enjoin implementation of such cov-10

ered practice. In the event the Attorney General af-11

firmatively indicates that no objection will be made 12

within the 60-day period following receipt of a sub-13

mission, the Attorney General may reserve the right 14

to reexamine the submission if additional informa-15

tion comes to the Attorney General’s attention dur-16

ing the remainder of the 60-day period which would 17

otherwise require objection in accordance with this 18

section. Any action under this section shall be heard 19

and determined by a court of three judges in accord-20

ance with the provisions of section 2284 of title 28, 21

United States Code, and any appeal shall lie to the 22

Supreme Court. 23

‘‘(2) D

ENYING OR ABRIDGING THE RIGHT TO

VOTE

.—Any covered practice described in subsection 25

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•HR 14 IH

(b) that has the purpose of or will have the effect 1

of diminishing the ability of any citizens of the 2

United States on account of race, color, or member-3

ship in a language minority group, to elect their pre-4

ferred candidates of choice denies or abridges the 5

right to vote within the meaning of paragraph (1) of 6

this subsection. 7

‘‘(3) P

URPOSE DEFINED

.—The term ‘purpose’ 8

in paragraphs (1) and (2) of this subsection shall in-9

clude any discriminatory purpose. 10

‘‘(4) P

URPOSE OF PARAGRAPH (2)

.—The pur-11

pose of paragraph (2) of this subsection is to protect 12

the ability of such citizens to elect their preferred 13

candidates of choice. 14

‘‘(d) E

NFORCEMENT

.—The Attorney General or any 15

aggrieved citizen may file an action in a Federal district 16

court to compel any State or political subdivision to satisfy 17

the obligations set forth in this section. Such actions shall 18

be heard and determined by a court of three judges under 19

section 2284 of title 28, United States Code. In any such 20

action, the court shall provide as a remedy that any voting 21

qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, prac-22

tice, or procedure with respect to voting, that is the sub-23

ject of the action under this subsection be enjoined unless 24

the court determines that— 25

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•HR 14 IH

‘‘(1) the voting qualification or prerequisite to 1

voting, or standard, practice, or procedure with re-2

spect to voting, is not a covered practice described 3

in subsection (b); or 4

‘‘(2) the State or political subdivision has com-5

plied with subsection (c) with respect to the covered 6

practice at issue. 7

‘‘(e) C

OUNTING OF

ACIAL

ROUPS AND

ANGUAGE

INORITY

ROUPS

.—For purposes of this section, the cal-9

culation of the population of a racial group or a language 10

minority group shall be carried out using the methodology 11

in the guidance promulgated in the Federal Register on 12

February 9, 2011 (76 Fed. Reg. 7470). 13

‘‘(f) S

PECIAL

ULE

.—For purposes of determina-14

tions under this section, any data provided by the Bureau 15

of the Census, whether based on estimation from sample 16

or actual enumeration, shall not be subject to challenge 17

or review in any court. 18

‘‘(g) M

ULTILINGUAL

OTING

ATERIALS

.—In this 19

section, the term ‘multilingual voting materials’ means 20

registration or voting notices, forms, instructions, assist-21

ance, or other materials or information relating to the 22

electoral process, including ballots, provided in the lan-23

guage or languages of one or more language minority 24

groups.’’. 25

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SEC. 7. PROMOTING TRANSPARENCY TO ENFORCE THE 1

VOTING RIGHTS ACT. 2

(a) T

RANSPARENCY

.— 3

(1) I

N GENERAL

.—The Voting Rights Act of 4

1965 (52 U.S.C. 10301 et seq.) is amended by in-5

serting after section 5 the following new section: 6

‘‘SEC. 6. TRANSPARENCY REGARDING CHANGES TO PRO-7

TECT VOTING RIGHTS. 8

‘‘(a) N

OTICE OF

NACTED

HANGES

.— 9

‘‘(1) N

OTICE OF CHANGES

.—If a State or polit-10

ical subdivision makes any change in any qualifica-11

tion or prerequisite to voting or standard, practice, 12

or procedure with respect to voting in any election 13

for Federal office that will result in the qualification 14

or prerequisite, standard, practice, or procedure 15

being different from that which was in effect as of 16

180 days before the date of the election for Federal 17

office, the State or political subdivision shall provide 18

reasonable public notice in such State or political 19

subdivision and on the website of the State or polit-20

ical subdivision, of a concise description of the 21

change, including the difference between the 22

changed qualification or prerequisite, standard, prac-23

tice, or procedure and the prerequisite, standard, 24

practice, or procedure which was previously in effect. 25

The public notice described in this paragraph, in 26

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•HR 14 IH

such State or political subdivision and on the website 1

of a State or political subdivision, shall be in a for-2

mat that is reasonably convenient and accessible to 3

persons with disabilities who are eligible to vote, in-4

cluding persons who have low vision or are blind. 5

‘‘(2) D

EADLINE FOR NOTICE

.—A State or polit-6

ical subdivision shall provide the public notice re-7

quired under paragraph (1) not later than 48 hours 8

after making the change involved. 9

‘‘(b) T

RANSPARENCY

EGARDING

OLLING

LACE

ESOURCES

.— 11

‘‘(1) I

N GENERAL

.—In order to identify any 12

changes that may impact the right to vote of any 13

person, prior to the 30th day before the date of an 14

election for Federal office, each State or political 15

subdivision with responsibility for allocating reg-16

istered voters, voting machines, and official poll 17

workers to particular precincts and polling places 18

shall provide reasonable public notice in such State 19

or political subdivision and on the website of a State 20

or political subdivision, of the information described 21

in paragraph (2) for precincts and polling places 22

within such State or political subdivision. The public 23

notice described in this paragraph, in such State or 24

political subdivision and on the website of a State or 25

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•HR 14 IH

political subdivision, shall be in a format that is rea-1

sonably convenient and accessible to persons with 2

disabilities who are eligible to vote, including persons 3

who have low vision or are blind. 4

‘‘(2) I

NFORMATION DESCRIBED

.—The informa-5

tion described in this paragraph with respect to a 6

precinct or polling place is each of the following: 7

‘‘(A) The name or number. 8

‘‘(B) In the case of a polling place, the lo-9

cation, including the street address, and wheth-10

er such polling place is accessible to persons 11

with disabilities. 12

‘‘(C) The voting-age population of the area 13

served by the precinct or polling place, broken 14

down by demographic group if such breakdown 15

is reasonably available to such State or political 16

subdivision. 17

‘‘(D) The number of registered voters as-18

signed to the precinct or polling place, broken 19

down by demographic group if such breakdown 20

is reasonably available to such State or political 21

subdivision. 22

‘‘(E) The number of voting machines as-23

signed, including the number of voting ma-24

chines accessible to persons with disabilities 25

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who are eligible to vote, including persons who 1

have low vision or are blind. 2

‘‘(F) The number of official paid poll 3

workers assigned. 4

‘‘(G) The number of official volunteer poll 5

workers assigned. 6

‘‘(H) In the case of a polling place, the 7

dates and hours of operation. 8

‘‘(3) U

PDATES IN INFORMATION REPORTED

.— 9

If a State or political subdivision makes any change 10

in any of the information described in paragraph 11

(2), the State or political subdivision shall provide 12

reasonable public notice in such State or political 13

subdivision and on the website of a State or political 14

subdivision, of the change in the information not 15

later than 48 hours after the change occurs or, if 16

the change occurs fewer than 48 hours before the 17

date of the election for Federal office, as soon as 18

practicable after the change occurs. The public no-19

tice described in this paragraph and published on 20

the website of a State or political subdivision shall 21

be in a format that is reasonably convenient and ac-22

cessible to persons with disabilities who are eligible 23

to vote, including persons who have low vision or are 24

blind. 25

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‘‘(c) T

RANSPARENCY OF

HANGES

ELATING TO

-1

MOGRAPHICS AND

LECTORAL

ISTRICTS

.— 2

‘‘(1) R

EQUIRING PUBLIC NOTICE OF

CHANGES

.—Not later than 10 days after making 4

any change in the constituency that will participate 5

in an election for Federal, State, or local office or 6

the boundaries of a voting unit or electoral district 7

in an election for Federal, State, or local office (in-8

cluding through redistricting, reapportionment, 9

changing from at-large elections to district-based 10

elections, or changing from district-based elections 11

to at-large elections), a State or political subdivision 12

shall provide reasonable public notice in such State 13

or political subdivision and on the website of a State 14

or political subdivision, of the demographic and elec-15

toral data described in paragraph (3) for each of the 16

geographic areas described in paragraph (2). 17

‘‘(2) G

EOGRAPHIC AREAS DESCRIBED

.—The ge-18

ographic areas described in this paragraph are as 19

follows: 20

‘‘(A) The State as a whole, if the change 21

applies statewide, or the political subdivision as 22

a whole, if the change applies across the entire 23

political subdivision. 24

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‘‘(B) If the change includes a plan to re-1

place or eliminate voting units or electoral dis-2

tricts, each voting unit or electoral district that 3

will be replaced or eliminated. 4

‘‘(C) If the change includes a plan to es-5

tablish new voting units or electoral districts, 6

each such new voting unit or electoral district. 7

‘‘(3) D

EMOGRAPHIC AND ELECTORAL DATA

.— 8

The demographic and electoral data described in this 9

paragraph with respect to a geographic area de-10

scribed in paragraph (2) are each of the following: 11

‘‘(A) The voting-age population, broken 12

down by demographic group. 13

‘‘(B) If it is reasonably available to the 14

State or political subdivision involved, an esti-15

mate of the population of the area which con-16

sists of citizens of the United States who are 18 17

years of age or older, broken down by demo-18

graphic group. 19

‘‘(C) The number of registered voters, bro-20

ken down by demographic group if such break-21

down is reasonably available to the State or po-22

litical subdivision involved. 23

‘‘(D)(i) If the change applies to a State, 24

the actual number of votes, or (if it is not rea-25

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•HR 14 IH

sonably practicable for the State to ascertain 1

the actual number of votes) the estimated num-2

ber of votes received by each candidate in each 3

statewide election held during the 5-year period 4

which ends on the date the change involved is 5

made; and 6

‘‘(ii) if the change applies to only one polit-7

ical subdivision, the actual number of votes, or 8

(if it is not reasonably practicable for the polit-9

ical subdivision to ascertain the actual number 10

of votes) in each subdivision-wide election held 11

during the 5-year period which ends on the date 12

the change involved is made. 13

‘‘(4) V

OLUNTARY COMPLIANCE BY SMALLER JU

-14

RISDICTIONS

.—Compliance with this subsection shall 15

be voluntary for a political subdivision of a State un-16

less the subdivision is one of the following: 17

‘‘(A) A county or parish. 18

‘‘(B) A municipality with a population 19

greater than 10,000, as determined by the Bu-20

reau of the Census under the most recent de-21

cennial census. 22

‘‘(C) A school district with a population 23

greater than 10,000, as determined by the Bu-24

reau of the Census under the most recent de-25

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cennial census. For purposes of this subpara-1

graph, the term ‘school district’ means the geo-2

graphic area under the jurisdiction of a local 3

educational agency (as defined in section 9101 4

of the Elementary and Secondary Education 5

Act of 1965). 6

‘‘(d) R

ULES

EGARDING

ORMAT OF

NFORMA

-7

TION

.—The Attorney General may issue rules specifying 8

a reasonably convenient and accessible format that States 9

and political subdivisions shall use to provide public notice 10

of information under this section. 11

‘‘(e) N

ENIAL OF

IGHT

OTE

.—The right to 12

vote of any person shall not be denied or abridged because 13

the person failed to comply with any change made by a 14

State or political subdivision to a voting qualification, pre-15

requisite, standard, practice, or procedure if the State or 16

political subdivision involved did not meet the applicable 17

requirements of this section with respect to the change. 18

‘‘(f) D

EFINITIONS

.—In this section— 19

‘‘(1) the term ‘demographic group’ means each 20

group which section 2 protects from the denial or 21

abridgement of the right to vote on account of race 22

or color, or in contravention of the guarantees set 23

forth in section 4(f)(2); 24

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‘‘(2) the term ‘election for Federal office’ means 1

any general, special, primary, or runoff election held 2

solely or in part for the purpose of electing any can-3

didate for the office of President, Vice President, 4

Presidential elector, Senator, Member of the House 5

of Representatives, or Delegate or Resident Commis-6

sioner to the Congress; and 7

‘‘(3) the term ‘persons with disabilities’, means 8

individuals with a disability, as defined in section 3 9

of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.’’. 10

(2) C

ONFORMING AMENDMENT

.—Section 3(a) 11

of such Act (52 U.S.C. 10302(a)) is amended by 12

striking ‘‘in accordance with section 6’’. 13

(b) E

FFECTIVE

ATE

.—The amendment made by 14

subsection (a)(1) shall apply with respect to changes which 15

are made on or after the expiration of the 60-day period 16

which begins on the date of the enactment of this Act. 17

SEC. 8. AUTHORITY TO ASSIGN OBSERVERS. 18

(a) C

LARIFICATION OF

UTHORITY IN

OLITICAL

UBDIVISIONS

UBJECT TO

RECLEARANCE

.—Section 20

8(a)(2)(B) of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 21

10305(a)(2)(B)) is amended to read as follows: 22

‘‘(B) in the Attorney General’s judgment, 23

the assignment of observers is otherwise nec-24

essary to enforce the guarantees of the 14th or 25

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•HR 14 IH

15th Amendment or any provision of this Act 1

or any other Federal law protecting the right of 2

citizens of the United States to vote; or’’. 3

(b) A

SSIGNMENT OF

BSERVERS

NFORCE

-4

LINGUAL

LECTION

EQUIREMENTS

.—Section 8(a) of 5

such Act (52 U.S.C. 10305(a)) is amended— 6

(1) by striking ‘‘or’’ at the end of paragraph 7

(1); 8

(2) by inserting after paragraph (2) the fol-9

lowing: 10

‘‘(3) the Attorney General certifies with respect 11

to a political subdivision that— 12

‘‘(A) the Attorney General has received 13

written meritorious complaints from residents, 14

elected officials, or civic participation organiza-15

tions that efforts to violate section 203 are like-16

ly to occur; or 17

‘‘(B) in the Attorney General’s judgment, 18

the assignment of observers is necessary to en-19

force the guarantees of section 203;’’; and 20

(3) by moving the margin for the continuation 21

text following paragraph (3), as added by paragraph 22

(2) of this subsection, 2 ems to the left. 23

RANSFERRAL OF

UTHORITY

VER

BSERVERS

TO THE

TTORNEY

ENERAL

.— 25

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(1) E

NFORCEMENT PROCEEDINGS

.—Section 1

3(a) of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 2

10302(a)) is amended by striking ‘‘United States 3

Civil Service Commission in accordance with section 4

6’’ and inserting ‘‘Attorney General in accordance 5

with section 8’’. 6

(2) O

BSERVERS

;

APPOINTMENT AND COM

-7

PENSATION

.—Section 8 of the Voting Rights Act of 8

1965 (52 U.S.C. 10305) is amended— 9

(A) in subsection (a)(2), in the matter fol-10

lowing subparagraph (B), by striking ‘‘Director 11

of the Office of Personnel Management shall as-12

sign as many observers for such subdivision as 13

the Director’’ and inserting ‘‘Attorney General 14

shall assign as many observers for such subdivi-15

sion as the Attorney General’’; and 16

(B) in subsection (c), by striking ‘‘Director 17

of the Office of Personnel Management’’ and 18

inserting ‘‘Attorney General’’. 19

(3) T

ERMINATION OF CERTAIN APPOINTMENTS

OF OBSERVERS

.—Section 13(a)(1) of the Voting 21

Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 10309(a)(1)) is 22

amended by striking ‘‘notifies the Director of the Of-23

fice of Personnel Management,’’ and inserting ‘‘de-24

termines,’’. 25

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SEC. 9. CLARIFICATION OF AUTHORITY TO SEEK RELIEF. 1

(a) P

OLL

.—Section 10(b) of the Voting Rights 2

Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 10306(b)) is amended by striking 3

‘‘the Attorney General is authorized and directed to insti-4

tute forthwith in the name of the United States such ac-5

tions’’ and inserting ‘‘an aggrieved person or (in the name 6

of the United States) the Attorney General may institute 7

such actions’’. 8

(b) C

AUSE OF

CTION

.—Section 12(d) of the Voting 9

Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 10308(d)) is amended— 10

(1) by striking ‘‘Whenever any person has en-11

gaged’’ and all that follows through ‘‘in the name of 12

the United States’’ and inserting ‘‘(1) Whenever 13

there are reasonable grounds to believe that any per-14

son has implemented or will implement any voting 15

qualification or prerequisite to voting or standard, 16

practice, or procedure that would (A) deny any cit-17

izen the right to vote in violation of the 14th, 15th, 18

19th, 24th, or 26th Amendments, or (B) would vio-19

late this Act (except for section 4A) or any other 20

Federal law that prohibits discrimination on the 21

basis of race, color, or membership in a language 22

minority group in the voting process, an aggrieved 23

person or (in the name of the United States) the At-24

torney General may institute’’; and 25

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(2) by striking ‘‘, and including an order di-1

rected to the State and State or local election offi-2

cials to require them (1) to permit persons listed 3

under chapters 103 to 107 of this title to vote and 4

(2) to count such votes’’. 5

UDICIAL

ELIEF

.—Section 204 of the Voting 6

Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 10504) is amended by 7

striking ‘‘Whenever the Attorney General has reason to 8

believe’’ and all that follows through ‘‘as he deems appro-9

priate’’ and inserting ‘‘Whenever there are reasonable 10

grounds to believe that a State or political subdivision has 11

engaged or is about to engage in any act or practice pro-12

hibited by a provision of title II, an aggrieved person or 13

(in the name of the United States) the Attorney General 14

may institute an action in a district court of the United 15

States, for a restraining order, a preliminary or perma-16

nent injunction, or such other order as may be appro-17

priate’’. 18

(d) E

NFORCEMENT OF

WENTY

-S

IXTH

MEND

-19

MENT

.—Section 301(a)(1) of the Voting Rights Act of 20

1965 (52 U.S.C. 10701) is amended by striking ‘‘The At-21

torney General is directed to institute’’ and all that follows 22

through ‘‘Constitution of the United States’’ and inserting 23

‘‘An aggrieved person or (in the name of the United 24

States) the Attorney General may institute an action in 25

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a district court of the United States, for a restraining 1

order, a preliminary or permanent injunction, or such 2

other order as may be appropriate to implement the twen-3

ty-sixth amendment to the Constitution of the United 4

States’’. 5

SEC. 10. PREVENTIVE RELIEF. 6

Section 12(d) of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (52 7

U.S.C. 10308(d)), as amended by section 9, is further 8

amended by adding at the end the following: 9

‘‘(2)(A) In considering any motion for preliminary re-10

lief in any action for preventive relief described in this sub-11

section, the court shall grant the relief if the court deter-12

mines that the complainant has raised a serious question 13

as to whether the challenged voting qualification or pre-14

requisite to voting or standard, practice, or procedure vio-15

lates this Act or the Constitution and, on balance, the 16

hardship imposed on the defendant by the grant of the 17

relief will be less than the hardship which would be im-18

posed on the plaintiff if the relief were not granted. 19

‘‘(B) In making its determination under this para-20

graph with respect to a change in any voting qualification, 21

prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure 22

with respect to voting, the court shall consider all relevant 23

factors and give due weight to the following factors, if they 24

are present: 25

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‘‘(i) Whether the qualification, prerequisite, 1

standard, practice, or procedure in effect prior to the 2

change was adopted as a remedy for a Federal court 3

judgment, consent decree, or admission regarding— 4

‘‘(I) discrimination on the basis of race or 5

color in violation of the 14th or 15th Amend-6

ment; 7

‘‘(II) a violation of the 19th, 24th, or 26th 8

Amendments; 9

‘‘(III) a violation of this Act; or 10

‘‘(IV) voting discrimination on the basis of 11

race, color, or membership in a language minor-12

ity group in violation of any other Federal or 13

State law. 14

‘‘(ii) Whether the qualification, prerequisite, 15

standard, practice, or procedure in effect prior to the 16

change served as a ground for the dismissal or set-17

tlement of a claim alleging— 18

‘‘(I) discrimination on the basis of race or 19

color in violation of the 14th or 15th Amend-20

ment; 21

‘‘(II) a violation of the 19th, 24th, or 26th 22

Amendment; 23

‘‘(III) a violation of this Act; or 24

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‘‘(IV) voting discrimination on the basis of 1

race, color, or membership in a language minor-2

ity group in violation of any other Federal or 3

State law. 4

‘‘(iii) Whether the change was adopted fewer 5

than 180 days before the date of the election with 6

respect to which the change is to take or takes ef-7

fect. 8

‘‘(iv) Whether the defendant has failed to pro-9

vide timely or complete notice of the adoption of the 10

change as required by applicable Federal or State 11

law. 12

‘‘(3) A jurisdiction’s inability to enforce its voting or 13

election laws, regulations, policies, or redistricting plans, 14

standing alone, shall not be deemed to constitute irrep-15

arable harm to the public interest or to the interests of 16

a defendant in an action arising under the Constitution 17

or any Federal law that prohibits discrimination on the 18

basis of race, color, or membership in a language minority 19

group in the voting process, for the purposes of deter-20

mining whether a stay of a court’s order or an interlocu-21

tory appeal under section 1253 of title 28, United States 22

Code, is warranted.’’. 23

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SEC. 11. RELIEF FOR VIOLATIONS OF VOTING RIGHTS 1

LAWS. 2

(a) I

ENERAL

.— 3

(1) R

ELIEF FOR VIOLATIONS OF VOTING

RIGHTS LAWS

.—In this section, the term ‘‘prohibited 5

act or practice’’ means— 6

(A) any act or practice— 7

(i) that creates an undue burden on 8

the fundamental right to vote in violation 9

of the 14th Amendment to the Constitu-10

tion of the United States or violates the 11

Equal Protection Clause of the 14th 12

Amendment to the Constitution of the 13

United States; or 14

(ii) that is prohibited by the 15th, 15

19th, 24th, or 26th Amendment to the 16

Constitution of the United States, section 17

2004 of the Revised Statutes (52 U.S.C. 18

10101), the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (52 19

U.S.C. 10301 et seq.), the National Voter 20

Registration Act of 1993 (52 U.S.C. 21

20501 et seq.), the Uniformed and Over-22

seas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (52 23

U.S.C. 20301 et seq.), the Help America 24

Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 20901 et 25

seq.), the Voting Accessibility for the El-26

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derly and Handicapped Act (52 U.S.C. 1

20101 et seq.), or section 2003 of the Re-2

vised Statutes (52 U.S.C. 10102); and 3

(B) any act or practice in violation of any 4

Federal law that prohibits discrimination with 5

respect to voting, including the Americans with 6

Disabilities Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 12101 et 7

seq.). 8

(2) R

ULE OF CONSTRUCTION

.—Nothing in this 9

section shall be construed to diminish the authority 10

or scope of authority of any person to bring an ac-11

tion under any Federal law. 12

(3) A

TTORNEY

’

S FEES

.—Section 722(b) of the 13

Revised Statutes (42 U.S.C. 1988(b)) is amended by 14

inserting ‘‘a provision described in section 2(a) of 15

the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act 16

of 2023,’’ after ‘‘title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 17

1964,’’. 18

(b) G

ROUNDS FOR

QUITABLE

ELIEF

.—In any ac-19

tion for equitable relief pursuant to a law listed under sub-20

section (a), proximity of the action to an election shall not 21

be a valid reason to deny such relief, or stay the operation 22

of or vacate the issuance of such relief, unless the party 23

opposing the issuance or continued operation of relief 24

meets the burden of proving by clear and convincing evi-25

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•HR 14 IH

dence that the issuance of the relief would be so close in 1

time to the election as to cause irreparable harm to the 2

public interest or that compliance with such relief would 3

impose serious burdens on the party opposing relief. 4

(1) I

N GENERAL

.—In considering whether to 5

grant, deny, stay, or vacate any order of equitable 6

relief, the court shall give substantial weight to the 7

public’s interest in expanding access to the right to 8

vote. A State’s generalized interest in enforcing its 9

enacted laws shall not be a relevant consideration in 10

determining whether equitable relief is warranted. 11

(2) P

RESUMPTIVE SAFE HARBOR

.—Where equi-12

table relief is sought either within 30 days of the 13

adoption or reasonable public notice of the chal-14

lenged policy or practice, or more than 45 days be-15

fore the date of an election to which the relief being 16

sought will apply, proximity to the election will be 17

presumed not to constitute a harm to the public in-18

terest or a burden on the party opposing relief. 19

ROUNDS FOR

TAY OR

ACATUR IN

EDERAL

LAIMS

NVOLVING

OTING

IGHTS

.— 21

(1) P

ROSPECTIVE EFFECT

.—In reviewing an 22

application for a stay or vacatur of equitable relief 23

granted pursuant to a law listed in subsection (a), 24

a court shall give substantial weight to the reliance 25

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•HR 14 IH

interests of citizens who acted pursuant to such 1

order under review. In fashioning a stay or vacatur, 2

a reviewing court shall not order relief that has the 3

effect of denying or abridging the right to vote of 4

any citizen who has acted in reliance on the order. 5

(2) W

RITTEN EXPLANATION

.—No stay or 6

vacatur under this subsection shall issue unless the 7

reviewing court makes specific findings that the pub-8

lic interest, including the public’s interest in expand-9

ing access to the ballot, will be harmed by the con-10

tinuing operation of the equitable relief or that com-11

pliance with such relief will impose serious burdens 12

on the party seeking such a stay or vacatur such 13

that those burdens substantially outweigh the bene-14

fits to the public interest. In reviewing an applica-15

tion for a stay or vacatur of equitable relief, findings 16

of fact made in issuing the order under review shall 17

not be set aside unless clearly erroneous. 18

SEC. 12. ENFORCEMENT OF VOTING RIGHTS BY ATTORNEY 19

GENERAL. 20

Section 12 of the Voting Rights Act (52 U.S.C. 21

10308), as amended by this Act, is further amended by 22

adding at the end the following: 23

‘‘(g) V

OTING

IGHTS

NFORCEMENT BY

TTORNEY

ENERAL

.— 25

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‘‘(1) I

N GENERAL

.—In order to fulfill the At-1

torney General’s responsibility to enforce the Voting 2

Rights Act and other Federal civil rights statutes 3

that protect the right to vote, the Attorney General 4

(or upon designation by the Attorney General, the 5

Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights) is au-6

thorized, before commencing a civil action, to issue 7

a demand for inspection and information in writing 8

to any State or political subdivision, or other govern-9

mental representative or agent, with respect to any 10

relevant documentary material that he has reason to 11

believe is within their possession, custody, or control. 12

A demand by the Attorney General under this sec-13

tion may require— 14

‘‘(A) the production of such documentary 15

material for inspection and copying; 16

‘‘(B) answers in writing to written ques-17

tions with respect to such documentary mate-18

rial; or 19

‘‘(C) both. 20

‘‘(2) C

ONTENTS OF AN ATTORNEY GENERAL

DEMAND

.— 22

‘‘(A) I

N GENERAL

.—Any demand issued 23

under paragraph (1), shall include a sworn cer-24

tificate to identify the voting qualification or 25

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prerequisite to voting or standard, practice, or 1

procedure with respect to voting, or other vot-2

ing related matter or issue, whose lawfulness 3

the Attorney General is investigating and to 4

identify the civil provisions of the Federal civil 5

rights statute that protects the right to vote 6

under which the investigation is being con-7

ducted. The demand shall be reasonably cal-8

culated to lead to the discovery of documentary 9

material and information relevant to such civil 10

rights investigation. Documentary material in-11

cludes any material upon which relevant infor-12

mation is recorded, and includes written or 13

printed materials, photographs, tapes, or mate-14

rials upon which information is electronically or 15

magnetically recorded. Such demands are aimed 16

at the Attorney General having the ability to in-17

spect and obtain copies of relevant materials (as 18

well as obtain information) related to voting 19

and are not aimed at the Attorney General tak-20

ing possession of original records, particularly 21

those that are required to be retained by State 22

and local election officials under Federal or 23

State law. 24

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‘‘(B) N

O REQUIREMENT FOR PRODUC

-1

TION

.—Any demand issued under paragraph 2

(1) may not require the production of any docu-3

mentary material or the submission of any an-4

swers in writing to written questions if such 5

material or answers would be protected from 6

disclosure under the standards applicable to 7

discovery requests under the Federal Rules of 8

Civil Procedure in an action in which the Attor-9

ney General or the United States is a party. 10

‘‘(C) D

OCUMENTARY MATERIAL

.—If the 11

demand issued under paragraph (1) requires 12

the production of documentary material, it 13

shall— 14

‘‘(i) identify the class of documentary 15

material to be produced with such definite-16

ness and certainty as to permit such mate-17

rial to be fairly identified; and 18

‘‘(ii) prescribe a return date for pro-19

duction of the documentary material at 20

least twenty days after issuance of the de-21

mand to give the State or political subdivi-22

sion, or other governmental representative 23

or agent, a reasonable period of time for 24

assembling the documentary material and 25

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•HR 14 IH

making it available for inspection and 1

copying. 2

‘‘(D) A

NSWERS TO WRITTEN QUES

-3

TIONS

.—If the demand issued under paragraph 4

(1) requires answers in writing to written ques-5

tions, it shall— 6

‘‘(i) set forth with specificity the writ-7

ten question to be answered; and 8

‘‘(ii) prescribe a date at least twenty 9

days after the issuance of the demand for 10

submitting answers in writing to the writ-11

ten questions. 12

‘‘(E) S

ERVICE

.—A demand issued under 13

paragraph (1) may be served by a United 14

States marshal or a deputy marshal, or by cer-15

tified mail, at any place within the territorial 16

jurisdiction of any court of the United States. 17

‘‘(3) R

ESPONSES TO AN ATTORNEY GENERAL

DEMAND

.—A State or political subdivision, or other 19

governmental representative or agent, must, with re-20

spect to any documentary material or any answer in 21

writing produced under this subsection, provide a 22

sworn certificate, in such form as the demand issued 23

under paragraph (1) designates, by a person having 24

knowledge of the facts and circumstances relating to 25

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•HR 14 IH

such production or written answer, authorized to act 1

on behalf of the State or political subdivision, or 2

other governmental representative or agent, upon 3

which the demand was served. The certificate— 4

‘‘(A) shall state that— 5

‘‘(i) all of the documentary material 6

required by the demand and in the posses-7

sion, custody, or control of the State or po-8

litical subdivision, or other governmental 9

representative or agent, has been produced; 10

‘‘(ii) that with respect to every answer 11

in writing to a written question, all infor-12

mation required by the question and in the 13

possession, custody, control, or knowledge 14

of the State or political subdivision, or 15

other governmental representative or 16

agent, has been submitted; or 17

‘‘(iii) both; or 18

‘‘(B) provide the basis for any objection to 19

producing the documentary material or answer-20

ing the written question. 21

To the extent that any information is not furnished, 22

the information shall be identified and reasons set 23

forth with particularity regarding the reasons why 24

the information was not furnished. 25

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‘‘(4) J

UDICIAL PROCEEDINGS

.— 1

‘‘(A) P

ETITION FOR ENFORCEMENT

.— 2

Whenever any State or political subdivision, or 3

other governmental representative or agent, 4

fails to comply with demand issued by the At-5

torney General under paragraph (1), the Attor-6

ney General may file, in a district court of the 7

United States in which the State or political 8

subdivision, or other governmental representa-9

tive or agent, is located, a petition for a judicial 10

order enforcing the Attorney General demand 11

issued under paragraph (1). 12

‘‘(B) P

ETITION TO MODIFY

.— 13

‘‘(i) I

N GENERAL

.—Any State or po-14

litical subdivision, or other governmental 15

representative or agent, that is served with 16

a demand issued by the Attorney General 17

under paragraph (1) may file in the United 18

States District Court for the District of 19

Columbia a petition for an order of the 20

court to modify or set aside the demand of 21

the Attorney General. 22

‘‘(ii) P

ETITION TO MODIFY

.—Any pe-23

tition to modify or set aside a demand of 24

the Attorney General issued under para-25

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graph (1) must be filed within 20 days 1

after the date of service of the Attorney 2

General’s demand or at any time before 3

the return date specified in the Attorney 4

General’s demand, whichever date is ear-5

lier. 6

‘‘(iii) C

ONTENTS OF PETITION

.—The 7

petition shall specify each ground upon 8

which the petitioner relies in seeking relief 9

under clause (i), and may be based upon 10

any failure of the Attorney General’s de-11

mand to comply with the provisions of this 12

section or upon any constitutional or other 13

legal right or privilege of the State or po-14

litical subdivision, or other governmental 15

representative or agent. During the pend-16

ency of the petition in the court, the court 17

may stay, as it deems proper, the running 18

of the time allowed for compliance with the 19

Attorney General’s demand, in whole or in 20

part, except that the State or political sub-21

division, or other governmental representa-22

tive or agent, filing the petition shall com-23

ply with any portions of the Attorney Gen-24

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eral’s demand not sought to be modified or 1

set aside.’’. 2

SEC. 13. DEFINITIONS. 3

Title I of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 4

10301) is amended by adding at the end the following: 5

‘‘SEC. 21. DEFINITIONS. 6

‘‘In this Act: 7

‘‘(1) I

NDIAN

.—The term ‘Indian’ has the mean-8

ing given the term in section 4 of the Indian Self- 9

Determination and Education Assistance Act. 10

‘‘(2) I

NDIAN LANDS

.—The term ‘Indian lands’ 11

means— 12

‘‘(A) any Indian country of an Indian 13

tribe, as such term is defined in section 1151 14

of title 18, United States Code; 15

‘‘(B) any land in Alaska that is owned, 16

pursuant to the Alaska Native Claims Settle-17

ment Act, by an Indian tribe that is a Native 18

village (as such term is defined in section 3 of 19

such Act), or by a Village Corporation that is 20

associated with the Indian tribe (as such term 21

is defined in section 3 of such Act); 22

‘‘(C) any land on which the seat of govern-23

ment of the Indian tribe is located; and 24

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‘‘(D) any land that is part or all of a tribal 1

designated statistical area associated with the 2

Indian tribe, or is part or all of an Alaska Na-3

tive village statistical area associated with the 4

tribe, as defined by the Bureau of the Census 5

for the purposes of the most recent decennial 6

census. 7

‘‘(3) I

NDIAN TRIBE

.—The term ‘Indian tribe’ or 8

‘tribe’ has the meaning given the term ‘Indian tribe’ 9

in section 4 of the Indian Self-Determination and 10

Education Assistance Act. 11

‘‘(4) T

RIBAL GOVERNMENT

.—The term ‘Tribal 12

Government’ means the recognized governing body 13

of an Indian Tribe. 14

‘‘(5) V

OTING

AGE POPULATION

.—The term 15

‘voting-age population’ means the numerical size of 16

the population within a State, within a political sub-17

division, or within a political subdivision that con-18

tains Indian lands, as the case may be, that consists 19

of persons age 18 or older, as calculated by the Bu-20

reau of the Census under the most recent decennial 21

census.’’. 22

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SEC. 14. ATTORNEYS’ FEES. 1

Section 14(c) of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (52 2

U.S.C. 10310(c)) is amended by adding at the end the 3

following: 4

‘‘(4) The term ‘prevailing party’ means a party to an 5

action that receives at least some of the benefit sought 6

by such action, states a colorable claim, and can establish 7

that the action was a significant cause of a change to the 8

status quo.’’. 9

SEC. 15. OTHER TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMEND-10

MENTS. 11

(a) A

CTIONS

OVERED

NDER

ECTION

3.—Section 12

3(c) of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 13

10302(c)) is amended— 14

(1) by striking ‘‘any proceeding instituted by 15

the Attorney General or an aggrieved person under 16

any statute to enforce’’ and inserting ‘‘any action 17

under any statute in which a party (including the 18

Attorney General) seeks to enforce’’; and 19

(2) by striking ‘‘at the time the proceeding was 20

commenced’’ and inserting ‘‘at the time the action 21

was commenced’’. 22

(b) C

LARIFICATION OF

REATMENT OF

EMBERS OF

ANGUAGE

INORITY

ROUPS

.—Section 4(f) of such Act 24

(52 U.S.C. 10303(f)) is amended— 25

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(1) in paragraph (1), by striking the second 1

sentence; and 2

(2) by striking paragraphs (3) and (4). 3

ERIOD

URING

HICH

HANGES IN

OTING

RACTICES

UBJECT TO

RECLEARANCE

NDER

ECTION

5.—Section 5 of such Act (52 U.S.C. 10304) 6

is amended— 7

(1) in subsection (a), by striking ‘‘based upon 8

determinations made under the first sentence of sec-9

tion 4(b) are in effect’’ and inserting ‘‘are in effect 10

during a calendar year’’; 11

(2) in subsection (a), by striking ‘‘November 1, 12

1964’’ and all that follows through ‘‘November 1, 13

1972’’ and inserting ‘‘the applicable date of cov-14

erage’’; and 15

(3) by adding at the end the following new sub-16

section: 17

‘‘(e) The term ‘applicable date of coverage’ means, 18

with respect to a State or political subdivision— 19

‘‘(1) June 25, 2013, if the most recent deter-20

mination for such State or subdivision under section 21

4(b) was made on or before December 31, 2021; or 22

‘‘(2) the date on which the most recent deter-23

mination for such State or subdivision under section 24

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4(b) was made, if such determination was made 1

after December 31, 2021.’’. 2

SEC. 16. SEVERABILITY. 3

If any provision of this Act or any amendment made 4

by this Act, or the application of such a provision or 5

amendment to any person or circumstance, is held to be 6

unconstitutional or is otherwise enjoined or unenforceable, 7

the remainder of this Act and amendments made by this 8

Act, and the application of the provisions and amendment 9

to any person or circumstance, and any remaining provi-10

sion of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, shall not be af-11

fected by the holding. 12

SEC. 17. GRANTS TO ASSIST WITH NOTICE REQUIREMENTS 13

UNDER THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT OF 1965. 14

(a) I

ENERAL

.—The Attorney General shall make 15

grants each fiscal year to small jurisdictions who submit 16

applications under subsection (b) for purposes of assisting 17

such small jurisdictions with compliance with the require-18

ments of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to submit or pub-19

lish notice of any change to a qualification, prerequisite, 20

standard, practice or procedure affecting voting. 21

(b) A

PPLICATION

.—To be eligible for a grant under 22

this section, a small jurisdiction shall submit an applica-23

tion to the Attorney General in such form and containing 24

such information as the Attorney General may require re-25

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garding the compliance of such small jurisdiction with the 1

provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. 2

MALL

URISDICTION

EFINED

.—For purposes 3

of this section, the term ‘‘small jurisdiction’’ means any 4

political subdivision of a State with a population of 10,000 5

or less. 6

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