H. R. 4

117

CONGRESS

ESSION

H. R. 4

AN ACT

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

•HR 4 EH

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1

This Act may be cited as the ‘‘John R. Lewis Voting 2

Rights Advancement Act of 2021’’. 3

SEC. 2. VOTE DILUTION, DENIAL, AND ABRIDGMENT 4

CLAIMS. 5

(a) I

ENERAL

.—Section 2(a) of the Voting Rights 6

Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 10301(a)) is amended— 7

(1) by inserting after ‘‘applied by any State or 8

political subdivision’’ the following: ‘‘for the purpose 9

of, or’’; and 10

(2) by striking ‘‘as provided in subsection (b)’’ 11

and inserting ‘‘as provided in subsection (b), (c), (d), 12

or (f)’’. 13

(b) V

OTE

ILUTION

.—Section 2(b) of such Act (52 14

U.S.C. 10301(b)) is amended— 15

(1) by inserting after ‘‘A violation of subsection 16

(a)’’ the following: ‘‘for vote dilution’’; 17

(2) by inserting after the period at the end the 18

following: ‘‘For the purposes of this subsection:’’; 19

(3) by adding at the end the following new 20

paragraphs: 21

‘‘(1) To prevail in demonstrating that a rep-22

resentational, districting, or apportionment scheme 23

results in vote dilution, a plaintiff shall, as a thresh-24

old matter, establish that— 25

•HR 4 EH

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

are sufficiently numerous and geographically 2

compact to constitute a majority in a single- 3

member district; 4

‘‘(B) the members of the protected class 5

are politically cohesive; and 6

‘‘(C) the residents of that district who are 7

not the members of the protected class usually 8

vote sufficiently as a bloc to enable them to de-9

feat the preferred candidates of the members of 10

the protected class. 11

‘‘(2) Upon a plaintiff establishing the required 12

threshold showing under paragraph (1), a court shall 13

conduct a totality of the circumstances analysis with 14

respect to a claim of vote dilution to determine 15

whether there was a violation of subsection (a), 16

which shall include the following factors: 17

‘‘(A) The extent of any history of official 18

voting discrimination in the State or political 19

subdivision that affected the right of members 20

of the protected class to register, to vote, or 21

otherwise to participate in the political process. 22

‘‘(B) The extent to which voting in the 23

elections of the State or political subdivision is 24

racially polarized. 25

•HR 4 EH

‘‘(C) The extent to which the State or po-1

litical subdivision has used voting practices or 2

procedures that tend to enhance the oppor-3

tunity for discrimination against the members 4

of the protected class, such as unusually large 5

election districts, majority vote requirements, 6

anti-single shot provisions, or other qualifica-7

tions, prerequisites, standards, practices, or 8

procedures that may enhance the opportunity 9

for discrimination against the members of the 10

protected class. 11

‘‘(D) If there is a candidate slating proc-12

ess, whether the members of the protected class 13

have been denied access to that process. 14

‘‘(E) The extent to which members of the 15

protected class in the State or political subdivi-16

sion bear the effects of discrimination, both 17

public or private, in such areas as education, 18

employment, health, housing, and transpor-19

tation, which hinder their ability to participate 20

effectively in the political process. 21

‘‘(F) Whether political campaigns have 22

been characterized by overt or subtle racial ap-23

peals. 24

•HR 4 EH

‘‘(G) The extent to which members of the 1

protected class have been elected to public office 2

in the jurisdiction. 3

‘‘(3) In conducting a totality of the cir-4

cumstances analysis under paragraph (2), a court 5

may consider such other factors as the court may 6

determine to be relevant, including— 7

‘‘(A) whether there is a significant lack of 8

responsiveness on the part of elected officials to 9

the particularized needs of the members of the 10

protected class, including a lack of concern for 11

or responsiveness to the requests and proposals 12

of the members of the protected class, except 13

that compliance with a court order may not be 14

considered evidence of responsiveness on the 15

part of the jurisdiction; and 16

‘‘(B) whether the policy underlying the 17

State or political subdivision’s use of such vot-18

ing qualification, prerequisite to voting, or 19

standard, practice or procedure is tenuous. 20

In making this determination, a court shall consider 21

whether the qualification, prerequisite, standard, 22

practice, or procedure in question was designed to 23

advance and materially advances a valid and sub-24

stantiated State interest. 25

•HR 4 EH

‘‘(4) A class of citizens protected by subsection 1

(a) may include a cohesive coalition of members of 2

different racial or language minority groups.’’; and 3

(4) V

OTE DENIAL OR ABRIDGEMENT

.—Section 4

2 of such Act (52 U.S.C. 10301), as amended by 5

subsections (a) and (b), is further amended by add-6

ing at the end the following: 7

‘‘(c)(1) A violation of subsection (a) resulting in vote 8

denial or abridgment is established if the challenged quali-9

fication, prerequisite, standard, practice, or procedure— 10

‘‘(A) results or will result in members of a pro-11

tected class facing greater costs or burdens in par-12

ticipating in the political process than other voters; 13

and 14

‘‘(B) the greater costs or burdens are, at least 15

in part, caused by or linked to social and historical 16

conditions that have produced or produce on the 17

date of such challenge discrimination against mem-18

bers of the protected class. 19

In determining the existence of a burden for pur-20

poses of subparagraph (A), the absolute number or 21

the percent of voters affected or the presence of vot-22

ers who are not members of a protected class in the 23

affected area shall not be dispositive, and the af-24

fected area may be smaller than the jurisdiction to 25

•HR 4 EH

which the qualification, prerequisite, standard, prac-1

tice, or procedure applies. 2

‘‘(2) The challenged qualification, prerequisite, stand-3

ard, practice, or procedure need only be a but-for cause 4

of the discriminatory result described in paragraph (1) or 5

perpetuate a pre-existing burdens or costs. 6

‘‘(3)(A) The factors that are relevant to a totality of 7

the circumstances analysis with respect to a claim of vote 8

denial or abridgement pursuant to this subsection include 9

the following: 10

‘‘(i) The extent of any history of official voting- 11

related discrimination in the State or political sub-12

division that affected the right of members of the 13

protected class to register, to vote, or otherwise to 14

participate in the political process. 15

‘‘(ii) The extent to which voting in the elections 16

of the State or political subdivision is racially polar-17

ized. 18

‘‘(iii) The extent to which the State or political 19

subdivision has used photographic voter identifica-20

tion requirements, documentary proof of citizenship 21

requirements, documentary proof of residence re-22

quirements, or other voting practices or procedures, 23

beyond those required by Federal law, that impair 24

•HR 4 EH

the ability of members of the minority group to par-1

ticipate fully in the political process. 2

‘‘(iv) The extent to which minority group mem-3

bers bear the effects of discrimination, both public 4

or private, in areas such as education, employment, 5

health, housing, and transportation, which hinder 6

their ability to participate effectively in the political 7

process. 8

‘‘(v) The use of overt or subtle racial appeals ei-9

ther in political campaigns or surrounding adoption 10

or maintenance of the challenged practice. 11

‘‘(vi) The extent to which members of the mi-12

nority group have been elected to public office in the 13

jurisdiction, provided that the fact that the minority 14

group is too small to elect candidates of its choice 15

shall not defeat a claim of vote denial or abridgment. 16

‘‘(vii) Whether there is a lack of responsiveness 17

on the part of elected officials to the particularized 18

needs of minority group members, including a lack 19

of concern for or responsiveness to the requests and 20

proposals of the group, except that compliance with 21

a court order may not be considered evidence of re-22

sponsiveness on the part of the jurisdiction. 23

‘‘(viii) Whether the policy underlying the State 24

or political subdivision’s use of the challenged quali-25

•HR 4 EH

fication, prerequisite, standard, practice, or proce-1

dure is tenuous. In making a determination under 2

this clause, a court shall consider whether the quali-3

fication, prerequisite, standard, practice, or proce-4

dure in question was designed to advance and mate-5

rially advances a valid and substantiated State inter-6

est. 7

‘‘(ix) Subject to paragraph (4), such other fac-8

tors as the court may determine to be relevant. 9

‘‘(B) The factors described in subparagraph (A), indi-10

vidually and collectively, shall be considered as a means 11

of establishing that a voting practice amplifies the effects 12

of past or present discrimination in violation in subsection 13

(a). 14

‘‘(C) A plaintiff need not show any particular com-15

bination or number of factors to establish a violation of 16

subsection (a). 17

‘‘(4) The factors that are relevant to a totality of the 18

circumstances analysis with respect to a claim of vote de-19

nial or abridgement do not include the following: 20

‘‘(A) The degree to which the challenged quali-21

fication, prerequisite, standard, practice, or proce-22

dure has a long pedigree or was in widespread use 23

at some earlier date. 24

•HR 4 EH

‘‘(B) The use of an identical or similar quali-1

fication, prerequisite, standard, practice, or proce-2

dure in other States or jurisdictions. 3

‘‘(C) The availability of other forms of voting 4

unimpacted by the challenged qualification, pre-5

requisite, standard, practice, or procedure to all 6

members of the electorate, including members of the 7

protected class, unless the jurisdiction is simulta-8

neously expanding such other practices to eliminate 9

any disproportionate burden imposed by the chal-10

lenged qualification, prerequisite, standard, practice, 11

or procedure. 12

‘‘(D) Unsubstantiated defenses that the quali-13

fication, prerequisite, standard, practice, or proce-14

dure is necessary to address criminal activity. 15

‘‘(d)(1) A violation of subsection (a) for the purpose 16

of vote denial or abridgement is established if the chal-17

lenged qualification, prerequisite, standard, practice, or 18

procedure is intended, at least in part, to dilute minority 19

voting strength or to deny or abridge the right of any cit-20

izen of the United States to vote on account of race, color, 21

or in contravention of the guarantees set forth in section 22

4(f)(2). 23

‘‘(2) Discrimination on account of race, color, or in 24

contravention of the guarantees set forth in section 4(f)(2) 25

•HR 4 EH

need only be one purpose of a qualification, prerequisite, 1

standard, practice, or procedure to demonstrate a violation 2

of subsection (a). 3

‘‘(3) A qualification, prerequisite, standard, practice, 4

or procedure intended to dilute minority voting strength 5

or to make it more difficult for minority voters to cast 6

a ballot that will be counted violates this subsection even 7

if an additional purpose of the qualification, prerequisite, 8

standard, practice, or procedure is to benefit a particular 9

political party or group. 10

‘‘(4) The context for the adoption of the challenged 11

qualification, prerequisite, standard, practice, or proce-12

dure, including actions by official decisionmakers before 13

the challenged qualification, prerequisite, standard, prac-14

tice, or procedure, may be relevant to a violation of this 15

subsection. 16

‘‘(5) Claims under this subsection require proof of a 17

discriminatory impact but do not require proof of a viola-18

tion pursuant to subsection (b) or (c). 19

‘‘(e) For purposes of this section, the term ‘affected 20

area’ means any geographic area, in which members of 21

a protected class are affected by a qualification, pre-22

requisite, standard, practice, or procedure allegedly in vio-23

lation of this section, within a State (including any Indian 24

lands).’’. 25

•HR 4 EH

SEC. 3. RETROGRESSION. 1

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

U.S.C. 10301 et seq.), as amended by section 2 of this 3

Act, is further amended by adding at the end the fol-4

lowing: 5

‘‘(f) A violation of subsection (a) is established when 6

a State or political subdivision enacts or seeks to admin-7

ister any qualification or prerequisite to voting or stand-8

ard, practice, or procedure with respect to voting in any 9

election that has the purpose of or will have the effect 10

of diminishing the ability of any citizens of the United 11

States on account of race or color, or in contravention of 12

the guarantees set forth in section 4(f)(2), to participate 13

in the electoral process or elect their preferred candidates 14

of choice. This subsection applies to any action taken on 15

or after January 1, 2021, by a State or political subdivi-16

sion to enact or seek to administer any such qualification 17

or prerequisite to voting or standard, practice or proce-18

dure. 19

‘‘(g) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (f), 20

final decisions of the United States District Court of the 21

District of Columbia on applications or petitions by States 22

or political subdivisions for preclearance under section 5 23

of any changes in voting prerequisites, standards, prac-24

tices, or procedures, supersede the provisions of subsection 25

(f).’’. 26

•HR 4 EH

SEC. 4. VIOLATIONS TRIGGERING AUTHORITY OF COURT 1

TO RETAIN JURISDICTION. 2

(a) T

YPES OF

IOLATIONS

.—Section 3(c) of the Vot-3

ing Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 10302(c)) is amended 4

by striking ‘‘violations of the fourteenth or fifteenth 5

amendment’’ and inserting ‘‘violations of the 14th or 15th 6

Amendment, violations of this Act, or violations of any 7

Federal law that prohibits discrimination in voting on the 8

basis of race, color, or membership in a language minority 9

group,’’. 10

(b) C

ONFORMING

MENDMENT

.—Section 3(a) of 11

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

‘‘violations of the fourteenth or fifteenth amendment’’ and 13

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

lations of this Act, or violations of any Federal law that 15

prohibits discrimination in voting on the basis of race, 16

color, or membership in a language minority group,’’. 17

SEC. 5. CRITERIA FOR COVERAGE OF STATES AND POLIT-18

ICAL SUBDIVISIONS. 19

(a) D

ETERMINATION OF

TATES AND

OLITICAL

UBDIVISIONS

UBJECT TO

ECTION

4(a).— 21

(1) I

N GENERAL

.—Section 4(b) of the Voting 22

Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 10303(b)) is amend-23

ed to read as follows: 24

‘‘(b) D

ETERMINATION OF

TATES AND

OLITICAL

UBDIVISIONS

UBJECT TO

EQUIREMENTS

.— 26

•HR 4 EH

‘‘(1) E

XISTENCE OF VOTING RIGHTS VIOLA

-1

TIONS DURING PREVIOUS 25 YEARS

.— 2

‘‘(A) S

TATEWIDE APPLICATION

.—Sub-3

section (a) applies with respect to a State and 4

all political subdivisions within the State during 5

a calendar year if— 6

‘‘(i) fifteen or more voting rights vio-7

lations occurred in the State during the 8

previous 25 calendar years; 9

‘‘(ii) ten or more voting rights viola-10

tions occurred in the State during the pre-11

vious 25 calendar years, at least one of 12

which was committed by the State itself 13

(as opposed to a political subdivision with-14

in the State); or 15

‘‘(iii) three or more voting rights vio-16

lations occurred in the State during the 17

previous 25 calendar years and the State 18

itself administers the elections in the State 19

or political subdivisions in which the voting 20

rights violations occurred. 21

‘‘(B) A

PPLICATION TO SPECIFIC POLITICAL

SUBDIVISIONS

.—Subsection (a) applies with re-23

spect to a political subdivision as a separate 24

unit during a calendar year if three or more 25

•HR 4 EH

voting rights violations occurred in the subdivi-1

sion during the previous 25 calendar years. 2

‘‘(2) P

ERIOD OF APPLICATION

.— 3

‘‘(A) I

N GENERAL

.—Except as provided in 4

subparagraph (B), if, pursuant to paragraph 5

(1), subsection (a) applies with respect to a 6

State or political subdivision during a calendar 7

year, subsection (a) shall apply with respect to 8

such State or political subdivision for the pe-9

riod— 10

‘‘(i) that begins on January 1 of the 11

year in which subsection (a) applies; and 12

‘‘(ii) that ends on the date which is 10 13

years after the date described in clause (i). 14

‘‘(B) N

O FURTHER APPLICATION AFTER

DECLARATORY JUDGMENT

.— 16

‘‘(i) S

TATES

.—If a State obtains a de-17

claratory judgment under subsection (a), 18

and the judgment remains in effect, sub-19

section (a) shall no longer apply to such 20

State pursuant to paragraph (1)(A) unless, 21

after the issuance of the declaratory judg-22

ment, paragraph (1)(A) applies to the 23

State solely on the basis of voting rights 24

•HR 4 EH

violations occurring after the issuance of 1

the declaratory judgment. 2

‘‘(ii) P

OLITICAL SUBDIVISIONS

.—If a 3

political subdivision obtains a declaratory 4

judgment under subsection (a), and the 5

judgment remains in effect, subsection (a) 6

shall no longer apply to such political sub-7

division pursuant to paragraph (1), includ-8

ing pursuant to paragraph (1)(A) (relating 9

to the statewide application of subsection 10

(a)), unless, after the issuance of the de-11

claratory judgment, paragraph (1)(B) ap-12

plies to the political subdivision solely on 13

the basis of voting rights violations occur-14

ring after the issuance of the declaratory 15

judgment. 16

‘‘(3) D

ETERMINATION OF VOTING RIGHTS VIO

-17

LATION

.—For purposes of paragraph (1), a voting 18

rights violation occurred in a State or political sub-19

division if any of the following applies: 20

‘‘(A) J

UDICIAL RELIEF

;

VIOLATION OF

THE 14TH OR 15TH AMENDMENT

.—Any final 22

judgment, or any preliminary, temporary, or de-23

claratory relief (that was not reversed on ap-24

peal), in which the plaintiff prevailed or a court 25

•HR 4 EH

of the United States found that the plaintiff 1

demonstrated a likelihood of success on the 2

merits or raised a serious question with regard 3

to race discrimination, in which any court of 4

the United States determined that a denial or 5

abridgement of the right of any citizen of the 6

United States to vote on account of race, color, 7

or membership in a language minority group 8

occurred, or that a voting qualification or pre-9

requisite to voting or standard, practice, or pro-10

cedure with respect to voting created an undue 11

burden on the right to vote in connection with 12

a claim that the law unduly burdened voters of 13

a particular race, color, or language minority 14

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

ment, anywhere within the State or subdivision. 16

‘‘(B) J

UDICIAL RELIEF

;

VIOLATIONS OF

THIS ACT

.—Any final judgment, or any prelimi-18

nary, temporary, or declaratory relief (that was 19

not reversed on appeal) in which the plaintiff 20

prevailed or a court of the United States found 21

that the plaintiff demonstrated a likelihood of 22

success on the merits or raised a serious ques-23

tion with regard to race discrimination, in 24

which any court of the United States deter-25

•HR 4 EH

mined that a voting qualification or prerequisite 1

to voting or standard, practice, or procedure 2

with respect to voting was imposed or applied 3

or would have been imposed or applied any-4

where within the State or subdivision in a man-5

ner that resulted or would have resulted in a 6

denial or abridgement of the right of any citizen 7

of the United States to vote on account of race, 8

color, or membership in a language minority 9

group, in violation of subsection 4(e) or 4(f) or 10

section 2, 201, or 203 of this Act. 11

‘‘(C) F

INAL JUDGMENT

;

DENIAL OF DE

-12

CLARATORY JUDGMENT

.—In a final judgment 13

(that was not been reversed on appeal), any 14

court of the United States has denied the re-15

quest of the State or subdivision for a declara-16

tory judgment under section 3(c) or section 5, 17

and thereby prevented a voting qualification or 18

prerequisite to voting or standard, practice, or 19

procedure with respect to voting from being en-20

forced anywhere within the State or subdivision. 21

‘‘(D) O

BJECTION BY THE ATTORNEY GEN

-22

ERAL

.—The Attorney General has interposed 23

an objection under section 3(c) or section 5, 24

and thereby prevented a voting qualification or 25

•HR 4 EH

prerequisite to voting or standard, practice, or 1

procedure with respect to voting from being en-2

forced anywhere within the State or subdivision. 3

A violation per this subsection has not occurred 4

where an objection has been withdrawn by the 5

Attorney General, unless the withdrawal was in 6

response to a change in the law or practice that 7

served as the basis of the objection. A violation 8

under this subsection has not occurred where 9

the objection is based solely on a State or polit-10

ical subdivision’s failure to comply with a proce-11

dural process that would not otherwise con-12

stitute an independent violation of this act. 13

‘‘(E) C

ONSENT DECREE

SETTLEMENT

OTHER AGREEMENT

.—A consent decree, settle-15

ment, or other agreement was adopted or en-16

tered by a court of the United States or con-17

tained an admission of liability by the defend-18

ants, which resulted in the alteration or aban-19

donment of a voting practice anywhere in the 20

territory of such State or subdivision that was 21

challenged on the ground that the practice de-22

nied or abridged the right of any citizen of the 23

United States to vote on account of race, color, 24

or membership in a language minority group in 25

•HR 4 EH

violation of subsection 4(e) or 4(f) or section 2, 1

201, or 203 of this Act, or the 14th or 15th 2

Amendment. An extension or modification of an 3

agreement as defined by this subsection that 4

has been in place for ten years or longer shall 5

count as an independent violation. If a court of 6

the United States finds that an agreement itself 7

as defined by this subsection denied or abridged 8

the right of any citizen of the United States to 9

vote on account of race, color, or membership in 10

a language minority group, violated subsection 11

4(e) or 4(f) or section 2, 201, or 203 of this 12

Act, or created an undue burden on the right 13

to vote in connection with a claim that the con-14

sent decree, settlement, or other agreement un-15

duly burdened voters of a particular race, color, 16

or language minority group, that finding shall 17

count as an independent violation. 18

‘‘(F) M

ULTIPLE VIOLATIONS

.—Each vot-19

ing qualification or prerequisite to voting or 20

standard, practice, or procedure with respect to 21

voting, including each redistricting plan, found 22

to be a violation by a court of the United States 23

pursuant to subsection (a) or (b), or prevented 24

from enforcement pursuant to subsection (c) or 25

•HR 4 EH

(d), or altered or abandoned pursuant to sub-1

section (e) shall count as an independent viola-2

tion. Within a redistricting plan, each violation 3

found to discriminate against any group of vot-4

ers based on race, color, or language minority 5

group shall count as an independent violation.6

‘‘(4) T

IMING OF DETERMINATIONS

.— 7

‘‘(A) D

ETERMINATIONS OF VOTING RIGHTS

VIOLATIONS

.—As early as practicable during 9

each calendar year, the Attorney General shall 10

make the determinations required by this sub-11

section, including updating the list of voting 12

rights violations occurring in each State and po-13

litical subdivision for the previous calendar 14

year. 15

‘‘(B) E

FFECTIVE UPON PUBLICATION IN

FEDERAL REGISTER

.—A determination or cer-17

tification of the Attorney General under this 18

section or under section 8 or 13 shall be effec-19

tive upon publication in the Federal Register.’’. 20

(2) C

ONFORMING AMENDMENTS

.—Section 4(a) 21

of such Act (52 U.S.C. 10303(a)) is amended— 22

(A) in paragraph (1), in the first sentence 23

of the matter preceding subparagraph (A), by 24

striking ‘‘any State with respect to which’’ and 25

•HR 4 EH

all that follows through ‘‘unless’’ and inserting 1

‘‘any State to which this subsection applies dur-2

ing a calendar year pursuant to determinations 3

made under subsection (b), or in any political 4

subdivision of such State (as such subdivision 5

existed on the date such determinations were 6

made with respect to such State), though such 7

determinations were not made with respect to 8

such subdivision as a separate unit, or in any 9

political subdivision with respect to which this 10

subsection applies during a calendar year pur-11

suant to determinations made with respect to 12

such subdivision as a separate unit under sub-13

section (b), unless’’; 14

(B) in paragraph (1) in the matter pre-15

ceding subparagraph (A), by striking the second 16

sentence; 17

the case of a State or subdivision seeking a de-19

claratory judgment under the second sentence 20

of this subsection)’’; 21

(D) in paragraph (1)(B), by striking ‘‘(in 22

the case of a State or subdivision seeking a de-23

claratory judgment under the second sentence 24

of this subsection)’’; 25

•HR 4 EH

(E) in paragraph (3), by striking ‘‘(in the 1

case of a State or subdivision seeking a declara-2

tory judgment under the second sentence of this 3

subsection)’’; 4

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

case of a State or subdivision which sought a 6

declaratory judgment under the second sentence 7

of this subsection)’’; 8

(G) by striking paragraphs (7) and (8); 9

and 10

(H) by redesignating paragraph (9) as 11

paragraph (7). 12

(b) C

LARIFICATION OF

REATMENT OF

EMBERS OF

ANGUAGE

INORITY

ROUPS

.—Section 4(a)(1) of such 14

Act (52 U.S.C. 10303(a)(1)) is amended by striking ‘‘race 15

or color,’’ and inserting ‘‘race, color, or in contravention 16

of the guarantees of subsection (f)(2),’’. 17

DMINISTRATIVE

AILOUT

.— 18

(1) I

N GENERAL

.—Section 4 of the Voting 19

Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 10303) is amended 20

by adding at the end the following: 21

‘‘(g) A

DMINISTRATIVE

AILOUT

.— 22

‘‘(1) D

ETERMINATION OF ELIGIBILITY

.— 23

‘‘(A) I

N GENERAL

.—After making a deter-24

mination under subsection (b)(1)(A) that the 25

•HR 4 EH

provisions of subsection (a) apply with respect 1

to a State and all political subdivisions within 2

the State, the Attorney General shall determine 3

if any political subdivision of the State is eligi-4

ble for an exemption under this subsection, and 5

shall publish, in the Federal Register, a list of 6

all such political subdivisions. Any political sub-7

division included on such list is not subject to 8

any requirement under section 5 until the date 9

on which any application under this section has 10

been finally disposed of or no such application 11

may be made. 12

‘‘(B) R

ULE OF CONSTRUCTION

.—Nothing 13

in this subsection may be construed to pro-14

vide— 15

‘‘(i) that the determinations made 16

pursuant to the creation of the list shall 17

have any binding or preclusive effect; or 18

‘‘(ii) that inclusion on the list— 19

‘‘(I) constitutes a final deter-20

mination by the Attorney General that 21

the listee is eligible for an exemption 22

pursuant to this subsection or that, in 23

the case of the listee, the provisions of 24

•HR 4 EH

subparagraphs (A) through (F) of 1

subsection (a)(1) are satisfied; or 2

‘‘(II) entitles the listee to any ex-3

emption pursuant to this subsection. 4

‘‘(2) E

LIGIBILITY

.—A political subdivision that 5

submits an application under paragraph (3) shall be 6

eligible for an exemption under this subsection only 7

if, during the ten years preceding the filing of the 8

application, and during the pendency of such appli-9

cation— 10

‘‘(A) no test or device referred to in sub-11

section (a)(1) has been used within such polit-12

ical subdivision for the purpose or with the ef-13

fect of denying or abridging the right to vote on 14

account of race or color or in contravention of 15

the guarantees of subsection (f)(2); 16

‘‘(B) no final judgment of any court of the 17

United States, other than the denial of declara-18

tory judgment under this section, has deter-19

mined that denials or abridgements of the right 20

to vote on account of race or color have oc-21

curred anywhere in the territory of such polit-22

ical subdivision or that denials or abridgements 23

of the right to vote in contravention of the 24

guarantees of subsection (f)(2) have occurred 25

•HR 4 EH

anywhere in the territory of such subdivision 1

and no consent decree, settlement, or agreement 2

has been entered into resulting in any abandon-3

ment of a voting practice challenged on such 4

grounds; and no declaratory judgment under 5

this section shall be entered during the pend-6

ency of an action commenced before the filing 7

of an action under this section and alleging 8

such denials or abridgements of the right to 9

vote; 10

‘‘(C) no Federal examiners or observers 11

under this Act have been assigned to such polit-12

ical subdivision; 13

‘‘(D) such political subdivision and all gov-14

ernmental units within its territory have com-15

plied with section 5 of this Act, including com-16

pliance with the requirement that no change 17

covered by section 5 has been enforced without 18

preclearance under section 5, and have repealed 19

all changes covered by section 5 to which the 20

Attorney General has successfully objected or as 21

to which the United States District Court for 22

the District of Columbia has denied a declara-23

tory judgment; 24

•HR 4 EH

‘‘(E) the Attorney General has not inter-1

posed any objection (that has not been over-2

turned by a final judgment of a court) and no 3

declaratory judgment has been denied under 4

section 5, with respect to any submission by or 5

on behalf of the plaintiff or any governmental 6

unit within its territory under section 5, and no 7

such submissions or declaratory judgment ac-8

tions are pending; and 9

‘‘(F) such political subdivision and all gov-10

ernmental units within its territory— 11

‘‘(i) have eliminated voting procedures 12

and methods of election which inhibit or 13

dilute equal access to the electoral process; 14

‘‘(ii) have engaged in constructive ef-15

forts to eliminate intimidation and harass-16

ment of persons exercising rights protected 17

under this Act; and 18

‘‘(iii) have engaged in other construc-19

tive efforts, such as expanded opportunity 20

for convenient registration and voting for 21

every person of voting age and the appoint-22

ment of minority persons as election offi-23

cials throughout the jurisdiction and at all 24

•HR 4 EH

stages of the election and registration 1

process. 2

‘‘(3) A

PPLICATION PERIOD

.—Not later than 90 3

days after the publication of the list under para-4

graph (1), a political subdivision included on such 5

list may submit an application, containing such in-6

formation as the Attorney General may require, for 7

an exemption under this subsection. The Attorney 8

General shall provide notice in the Federal Register 9

of such application. 10

‘‘(4) C

OMMENT PERIOD

.—During the 90-day 11

period beginning on the date that notice is published 12

under paragraph (3), the Attorney General shall give 13

interested persons an opportunity to submit objec-14

tions to the issuance of an exemption under this 15

subsection to a political subdivision on the basis that 16

the political subdivision is not eligible under para-17

graph (2) to the Attorney General. During the 1 18

year period beginning on the effective date of this 19

subsection, such 90-day period shall be extended by 20

an additional 30 days. The Attorney General shall 21

notify the political subdivision of each objection sub-22

mitted and afford the political subdivision an oppor-23

tunity to respond. 24

•HR 4 EH

‘‘(5) D

ETERMINATION AS TO OBJECTIONS

.—In 1

the case of a political subdivision with respect to 2

which an objection has been submitted under para-3

graph (4), the following shall apply: 4

‘‘(A) C

ONSIDERATION OF OBJECTIONS

.— 5

The Attorney General shall consider and re-6

spond to each such objection (and any response 7

of the political subdivision thereto) during the 8

60 day period beginning on the day after the 9

comment period under paragraph (4) concludes. 10

‘‘(B) J

USTIFIED OBJECTIONS

.—If the At-11

torney General determines that any such objec-12

tion is justified, the Attorney General shall pub-13

lish notice in the Federal Register denying the 14

application for an exemption under this sub-15

section. 16

‘‘(C) U

NJUSTIFIED OBJECTIONS

.—If the 17

Attorney General determines that no objection 18

submitted is justified, each person that sub-19

mitted such an objection may, not later than 90 20

days after the end of the period established 21

under subparagraph (A), file, in the District 22

Court of the District of Columbia, an action for 23

judicial review of such determination in accord-24

•HR 4 EH

ance with chapter 7 of title 5, United States 1

Code. 2

‘‘(6) E

XEMPTION

.—The Attorney General may 3

issue an exemption, by publication in the Federal 4

subsection (a) with respect to a political subdivision 6

that— 7

‘‘(A) is eligible under paragraph (2); and 8

‘‘(B) with respect to which no objection 9

under was submitted under paragraph (4) or 10

determined to be justified under paragraph (5). 11

‘‘(7) J

UDICIAL REVIEW

.—Except as otherwise 12

explicitly provided in this subsection, no determina-13

tion under this subsection shall be subject to review 14

by any court, and all determinations under this sub-15

section are committed to the discretion of the Attor-16

ney General. 17

‘‘(8) S

AVINGS CLAUSE

.—If a political subdivi-18

sion was not subject to the application of the provi-19

sions of subsection (a) by reason of a declaratory 20

judgment entered prior to the effective date of this 21

subsection, and such political subdivision has not 22

violated any eligibility requirement set forth in para-23

graph (2) at any time thereafter, then that political 24

•HR 4 EH

subdivision shall not be subject to the requirements 1

of subsection (a).’’. 2

(2) C

ONFORMING AMENDMENT

.— 3

(A) I

N GENERAL

.—Section 4(a)(1) of the 4

Voting Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 5

10303(a)(1)), as amended by this Act, is fur-6

ther amended by inserting after ‘‘the United 7

States District Court for the District of Colum-8

bia issues a declaratory judgment under this 9

section’’ the following: ‘‘, or, in the case of a 10

political subdivision, the Attorney General 11

issues an exemption under subsection (g)’’. 12

(B) E

XPIRATION OF TIME LIMIT

.—On the 13

date that is 1 year after the effective date of 14

this subsection, section 4(g)(3) of the Voting 15

Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 10303(g)(3)) is 16

amended by striking ‘‘During the 1 year period 17

beginning on the effective date of this sub-18

section, such 90-day period shall be extended by 19

an additional 30 days.’’. For purposes of any 20

periods under such section commenced as of 21

such date, the 90-day period shall remain ex-22

tended by an additional 30 days. 23

•HR 4 EH

SEC. 6. DETERMINATION OF STATES AND POLITICAL SUB-1

DIVISIONS SUBJECT TO PRECLEARANCE FOR 2

COVERED PRACTICES. 3

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 10301 et 4

seq.) is further amended by inserting after section 4 the 5

following: 6

‘‘SEC. 4A. DETERMINATION OF STATES AND POLITICAL 7

SUBDIVISIONS SUBJECT TO PRECLEARANCE 8

FOR COVERED PRACTICES. 9

‘‘(a) P

RACTICE

-B

ASED

RECLEARANCE

.— 10

‘‘(1) I

N GENERAL

.—Each State and each polit-11

ical subdivision shall— 12

‘‘(A) identify any newly enacted or adopted 13

law, regulation, or policy that includes a voting 14

qualification or prerequisite to voting, or a 15

standard, practice, or procedure with respect to 16

voting, that is a covered practice described in 17

subsection (b); and 18

‘‘(B) ensure that no such covered practice 19

is implemented unless or until the State or po-20

litical subdivision, as the case may be, complies 21

with subsection (c). 22

‘‘(2) D

ETERMINATIONS OF CHARACTERISTICS

OF VOTING

AGE POPULATION

.— 24

‘‘(A) I

N GENERAL

.—As early as prac-25

ticable during each calendar year, the Attorney 26

•HR 4 EH

General, in consultation with the Director of 1

the Bureau of the Census and the heads of 2

other relevant offices of the government, shall 3

make the determinations required by this sec-4

tion regarding voting-age populations and the 5

characteristics of such populations, and shall 6

publish a list of the States and political subdivi-7

sions to which a voting-age population char-8

acteristic described in subsection (b) applies. 9

‘‘(B) P

UBLICATION IN THE FEDERAL REG

-10

ISTER

.—A determination or certification of the 11

Attorney General under this paragraph shall be 12

effective upon publication in the Federal Reg-13

ister. 14

‘‘(b) C

OVERED

RACTICES

.—To assure that the right 15

of citizens of the United States to vote is not denied or 16

abridged on account of race, color, or membership in a 17

language minority group as a result of the implementation 18

of certain qualifications or prerequisites to voting, or 19

standards, practices, or procedures with respect to voting 20

newly adopted in a State or political subdivision, the fol-21

lowing shall be covered practices subject to the require-22

ments described in subsection (a): 23

‘‘(1) C

HANGES TO METHOD OF ELECTION

.— 24

Any change to the method of election— 25

•HR 4 EH

‘‘(A) to add seats elected at-large in a 1

State or political subdivision where— 2

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

guage minority groups each represent 20 4

percent or more of the political subdivi-5

sion’s voting-age population; or 6

‘‘(ii) a single language minority group 7

represents 20 percent or more of the vot-8

ing-age population on Indian lands located 9

in whole or in part in the political subdivi-10

sion; or 11

‘‘(B) to convert one or more seats elected 12

from a single-member district to one or more 13

at-large seats or seats from a multi-member 14

district in a State or political subdivision 15

where— 16

‘‘(i) two or more racial groups or lan-17

guage minority groups each represent 20 18

percent or more of the political subdivi-19

sion’s voting-age population; or 20

‘‘(ii) a single language minority group 21

represents 20 percent or more of the vot-22

ing-age population on Indian lands located 23

in whole or in part in the political subdivi-24

sion. 25

•HR 4 EH

‘‘(2) C

HANGES TO JURISDICTION BOUND

-1

ARIES

.—Any change or series of changes within a 2

year to the boundaries of a jurisdiction that reduces 3

by 3 or more percentage points the proportion of the 4

jurisdiction’s voting-age population that is comprised 5

of members of a single racial group or language mi-6

nority group in a State or political subdivision 7

where— 8

‘‘(A) two or more racial groups or lan-9

guage minority groups each represent 20 per-10

cent or more of the political subdivision’s vot-11

ing-age population; or 12

‘‘(B) a single language minority group rep-13

resents 20 percent or more of the voting-age 14

population on Indian lands located in whole or 15

in part in the political subdivision. 16

‘‘(3) C

HANGES THROUGH REDISTRICTING

.— 17

Any change to the boundaries of election districts in 18

a State or political subdivision where any racial 19

group or language minority group that is not the 20

largest racial group or language minority group in 21

the jurisdiction and that represents 15 percent or 22

more of the State or political subdivision’s voting- 23

age population experiences a population increase of 24

at least 20 percent of its voting-age population, over 25

•HR 4 EH

the preceding decade (as calculated by the Bureau 1

of the Census under the most recent decennial cen-2

sus), in the jurisdiction. 3

‘‘(4) C

HANGES IN DOCUMENTATION OR QUALI

-4

FICATIONS TO VOTE

.—Any change to requirements 5

for documentation or proof of identity to vote or reg-6

ister to vote that will exceed or be more stringent 7

than such requirements under State law on the day 8

before the date of enactment of the John R. Lewis 9

Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021; and fur-10

ther, if a State has in effect a requirement that an 11

individual present identification as a condition of re-12

ceiving and casting a ballot in an election for Fed-13

eral office, if the State does not permit the indi-14

vidual to meet the requirement and cast a ballot in 15

the election in the same manner as an individual 16

who presents identification— 17

‘‘(A) in the case of an individual who de-18

sires to vote in person, by presenting the appro-19

priate State or local election official with a 20

sworn written statement, signed by the indi-21

vidual under penalty of perjury, attesting to the 22

individual’s identity and attesting that the indi-23

vidual is eligible to vote in the election; and 24

•HR 4 EH

‘‘(B) in the case of an individual who de-1

sires to vote by mail, by submitting with the 2

ballot the statement described in subparagraph 3

(A). 4

‘‘(5) C

HANGES TO MULTILINGUAL VOTING MA

-5

TERIALS

.—Any change that reduces multilingual 6

voting materials or alters the manner in which such 7

materials are provided or distributed, where no simi-8

lar reduction or alteration occurs in materials pro-9

vided in English for such election. 10

‘‘(6) C

HANGES THAT REDUCE

CONSOLIDATE

, 11

OR RELOCATE VOTING LOCATIONS

OR REDUCE VOT

-12

ING OPPORTUNITIES

.—Any change that reduces, 13

consolidates, or relocates voting locations, including 14

early, absentee, and election-day voting locations, or 15

reduces days or hours of in-person voting on any 16

Sunday during a period occurring prior to the date 17

of an election during which voters may cast ballots 18

in such election, or prohibits the provision of food or 19

non-alcoholic drink to persons waiting to vote in an 20

election except where the provision would violate 21

prohibitions on expenditures to influence voting— 22

‘‘(A) in one or more census tracts wherein 23

two or more language minority groups or racial 24

groups each represent 20 percent or more of 25

•HR 4 EH

the voting-age population of the political sub-1

division; or 2

‘‘(B) on Indian lands wherein at least 20 3

percent of the voting-age population belongs to 4

a single language minority group. 5

‘‘(7) N

EW LIST MAINTENANCE PROCESS

.—Any 6

change to the maintenance of voter registration lists 7

that adds a new basis for removal from the list of 8

active registered voters or that incorporates new 9

sources of information in determining a voter’s eligi-10

bility to vote, wherein such a change would have a 11

statistically significant disparate impact on the re-12

moval from voter rolls of members of racial groups 13

or language minority groups that constitute greater 14

than 5 percent of the voting-age population— 15

‘‘(A) in the case of a political subdivision 16

imposing such change if— 17

‘‘(i) two or more racial groups or lan-18

guage minority groups each represent 20 19

percent or more of the voting-age popu-20

lation of the political subdivision; or 21

‘‘(ii) a single language minority group 22

represents 20 percent or more of the vot-23

ing-age population on Indian lands located 24

•HR 4 EH

in whole or in part in the political subdivi-1

sion; or 2

‘‘(B) in the case of a State imposing such 3

change, if two or more racial groups or lan-4

guage minority groups each represent 20 per-5

cent or more of the voting-age population of— 6

‘‘(i) the State; or 7

‘‘(ii) a political subdivision in the 8

State, except that the requirements under 9

subsections (a) and (c) shall apply only 10

with respect to each such political subdivi-11

sion. 12

‘‘(c) P

RECLEARANCE

.— 13

‘‘(1) I

N GENERAL

.—Whenever a State or polit-14

ical subdivision with respect to which the require-15

ments set forth in subsection (a) are in effect shall 16

enact, adopt, or seek to implement any covered prac-17

tice described under subsection (b), such State or 18

subdivision may institute an action in the United 19

States District Court for the District of Columbia 20

for a declaratory judgment that such covered prac-21

tice neither has the purpose nor will have the effect 22

of denying or abridging the right to vote on account 23

of race, color, or membership in a language minority 24

group, and unless and until the court enters such 25

•HR 4 EH

judgment such covered practice shall not be imple-1

mented. Notwithstanding the previous sentence, such 2

covered practice may be implemented without such 3

proceeding if the covered practice has been sub-4

mitted by the chief legal officer or other appropriate 5

official of such State or subdivision to the Attorney 6

General and the Attorney General has not inter-7

posed an objection within 60 days after such submis-8

sion, or upon good cause shown, to facilitate an ex-9

pedited approval within 60 days after such submis-10

sion, the Attorney General has affirmatively indi-11

cated that such objection will not be made. Neither 12

an affirmative indication by the Attorney General 13

that no objection will be made, nor the Attorney 14

General’s failure to object, nor a declaratory judg-15

ment entered under this section shall bar a subse-16

quent action to enjoin implementation of such cov-17

ered practice. In the event the Attorney General af-18

firmatively indicates that no objection will be made 19

within the 60-day period following receipt of a sub-20

mission, the Attorney General may reserve the right 21

to reexamine the submission if additional informa-22

tion comes to the Attorney General’s attention dur-23

ing the remainder of the 60-day period which would 24

otherwise require objection in accordance with this 25

•HR 4 EH

section. Any action under this section shall be heard 1

and determined by a court of three judges in accord-2

ance with the provisions of section 2284 of title 28, 3

United States Code, and any appeal shall lie to the 4

Supreme Court. 5

‘‘(2) D

ENYING OR ABRIDGING THE RIGHT TO

VOTE

.—Any covered practice described in subsection 7

(b) that has the purpose of or will have the effect 8

of diminishing the ability of any citizens of the 9

United States on account of race, color, or member-10

ship in a language minority group, to elect their pre-11

ferred candidates of choice denies or abridges the 12

right to vote within the meaning of paragraph (1) of 13

this subsection. 14

‘‘(3) P

URPOSE DEFINED

.—The term ‘purpose’ 15

in paragraphs (1) and (2) of this subsection shall in-16

clude any discriminatory purpose. 17

‘‘(4) P

URPOSE OF PARAGRAPH (2)

.—The pur-18

pose of paragraph (2) of this subsection is to protect 19

the ability of such citizens to elect their preferred 20

candidates of choice. 21

‘‘(d) E

NFORCEMENT

.—The Attorney General or any 22

aggrieved citizen may file an action in a Federal district 23

court to compel any State or political subdivision to satisfy 24

the obligations set forth in this section. Such actions shall 25

•HR 4 EH

be heard and determined by a court of three judges under 1

section 2284 of title 28, United States Code. In any such 2

action, the court shall provide as a remedy that any voting 3

qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, prac-4

tice, or procedure with respect to voting, that is the sub-5

ject of the action under this subsection be enjoined unless 6

the court determines that— 7

‘‘(1) the voting qualification or prerequisite to 8

voting, or standard, practice, or procedure with re-9

spect to voting, is not a covered practice described 10

in subsection (b); or 11

‘‘(2) the State or political subdivision has com-12

plied with subsection (c) with respect to the covered 13

practice at issue. 14

‘‘(e) C

OUNTING OF

ACIAL

ROUPS AND

ANGUAGE

INORITY

ROUPS

.—For purposes of this section, the cal-16

culation of the population of a racial group or a language 17

minority group shall be carried out using the methodology 18

in the guidance promulgated in the Federal Register on 19

February 9, 2011 (76 Fed. Reg. 7470). 20

‘‘(f) S

PECIAL

ULE

.—For purposes of determina-21

tions under this section, any data provided by the Bureau 22

of the Census, whether based on estimation from sample 23

or actual enumeration, shall not be subject to challenge 24

or review in any court. 25

•HR 4 EH

‘‘(g) M

ULTILINGUAL

OTING

ATERIALS

.—In this 1

section, the term ‘multilingual voting materials’ means 2

registration or voting notices, forms, instructions, assist-3

ance, or other materials or information relating to the 4

electoral process, including ballots, provided in the lan-5

guage or languages of one or more language minority 6

groups.’’. 7

SEC. 7. PROMOTING TRANSPARENCY TO ENFORCE THE 8

VOTING RIGHTS ACT. 9

(a) T

RANSPARENCY

.— 10

(1) I

N GENERAL

.—The Voting Rights Act of 11

1965 (52 U.S.C. 10301 et seq.) is amended by in-12

serting after section 5 the following new section: 13

‘‘SEC. 6. TRANSPARENCY REGARDING CHANGES TO PRO-14

TECT VOTING RIGHTS. 15

‘‘(a) N

OTICE OF

NACTED

HANGES

.— 16

‘‘(1) N

OTICE OF CHANGES

.—If a State or polit-17

ical subdivision makes any change in any qualifica-18

tion or prerequisite to voting or standard, practice, 19

or procedure with respect to voting in any election 20

for Federal office that will result in the qualification 21

or prerequisite, standard, practice, or procedure 22

being different from that which was in effect as of 23

180 days before the date of the election for Federal 24

office, the State or political subdivision shall provide 25

•HR 4 EH

reasonable public notice in such State or political 1

subdivision and on the website of the State or polit-2

ical subdivision, of a concise description of the 3

change, including the difference between the 4

changed qualification or prerequisite, standard, prac-5

tice, or procedure and the prerequisite, standard, 6

practice, or procedure which was previously in effect. 7

The public notice described in this paragraph, in 8

such State or political subdivision and on the website 9

of a State or political subdivision, shall be in a for-10

mat that is reasonably convenient and accessible to 11

persons with disabilities who are eligible to vote, in-12

cluding persons who have low vision or are blind. 13

‘‘(2) D

EADLINE FOR NOTICE

.—A State or polit-14

ical subdivision shall provide the public notice re-15

quired under paragraph (1) not later than 48 hours 16

after making the change involved. 17

‘‘(b) T

RANSPARENCY

EGARDING

OLLING

LACE

ESOURCES

.— 19

‘‘(1) I

N GENERAL

.—In order to identify any 20

changes that may impact the right to vote of any 21

person, prior to the 30th day before the date of an 22

election for Federal office, each State or political 23

subdivision with responsibility for allocating reg-24

istered voters, voting machines, and official poll 25

•HR 4 EH

workers to particular precincts and polling places 1

shall provide reasonable public notice in such State 2

or political subdivision and on the website of a State 3

or political subdivision, of the information described 4

in paragraph (2) for precincts and polling places 5

within such State or political subdivision. The public 6

notice described in this paragraph, in such State or 7

political subdivision and on the website of a State or 8

political subdivision, shall be in a format that is rea-9

sonably convenient and accessible to persons with 10

disabilities who are eligible to vote, including persons 11

who have low vision or are blind. 12

‘‘(2) I

NFORMATION DESCRIBED

.—The informa-13

tion described in this paragraph with respect to a 14

precinct or polling place is each of the following: 15

‘‘(A) The name or number. 16

‘‘(B) In the case of a polling place, the lo-17

cation, including the street address, and wheth-18

er such polling place is accessible to persons 19

with disabilities. 20

‘‘(C) The voting-age population of the area 21

served by the precinct or polling place, broken 22

down by demographic group if such breakdown 23

is reasonably available to such State or political 24

subdivision. 25

•HR 4 EH

‘‘(D) The number of registered voters as-1

signed to the precinct or polling place, broken 2

down by demographic group if such breakdown 3

is reasonably available to such State or political 4

subdivision. 5

‘‘(E) The number of voting machines as-6

signed, including the number of voting ma-7

chines accessible to persons with disabilities 8

who are eligible to vote, including persons who 9

have low vision or are blind. 10

‘‘(F) The number of official paid poll 11

workers assigned. 12

‘‘(G) The number of official volunteer poll 13

workers assigned. 14

‘‘(H) In the case of a polling place, the 15

dates and hours of operation. 16

‘‘(3) U

PDATES IN INFORMATION REPORTED

.— 17

If a State or political subdivision makes any change 18

in any of the information described in paragraph 19

(2), the State or political subdivision shall provide 20

reasonable public notice in such State or political 21

subdivision and on the website of a State or political 22

subdivision, of the change in the information not 23

later than 48 hours after the change occurs or, if 24

the change occurs fewer than 48 hours before the 25

•HR 4 EH

date of the election for Federal office, as soon as 1

practicable after the change occurs. The public no-2

tice described in this paragraph and published on 3

the website of a State or political subdivision shall 4

be in a format that is reasonably convenient and ac-5

cessible to persons with disabilities who are eligible 6

to vote, including persons who have low vision or are 7

blind. 8

‘‘(c) T

RANSPARENCY OF

HANGES

ELATING TO

-9

MOGRAPHICS AND

LECTORAL

ISTRICTS

.— 10

‘‘(1) R

EQUIRING PUBLIC NOTICE OF

CHANGES

.—Not later than 10 days after making 12

any change in the constituency that will participate 13

in an election for Federal, State, or local office or 14

the boundaries of a voting unit or electoral district 15

in an election for Federal, State, or local office (in-16

cluding through redistricting, reapportionment, 17

changing from at-large elections to district-based 18

elections, or changing from district-based elections 19

to at-large elections), a State or political subdivision 20

shall provide reasonable public notice in such State 21

or political subdivision and on the website of a State 22

or political subdivision, of the demographic and elec-23

toral data described in paragraph (3) for each of the 24

geographic areas described in paragraph (2). 25

•HR 4 EH

‘‘(2) G

EOGRAPHIC AREAS DESCRIBED

.—The ge-1

ographic areas described in this paragraph are as 2

follows: 3

‘‘(A) The State as a whole, if the change 4

applies statewide, or the political subdivision as 5

a whole, if the change applies across the entire 6

political subdivision. 7

‘‘(B) If the change includes a plan to re-8

place or eliminate voting units or electoral dis-9

tricts, each voting unit or electoral district that 10

will be replaced or eliminated. 11

‘‘(C) If the change includes a plan to es-12

tablish new voting units or electoral districts, 13

each such new voting unit or electoral district. 14

‘‘(3) D

EMOGRAPHIC AND ELECTORAL DATA

.— 15

The demographic and electoral data described in this 16

paragraph with respect to a geographic area de-17

scribed in paragraph (2) are each of the following: 18

‘‘(A) The voting-age population, broken 19

down by demographic group. 20

‘‘(B) If it is reasonably available to the 21

State or political subdivision involved, an esti-22

mate of the population of the area which con-23

sists of citizens of the United States who are 18 24

•HR 4 EH

years of age or older, broken down by demo-1

graphic group. 2

‘‘(C) The number of registered voters, bro-3

ken down by demographic group if such break-4

down is reasonably available to the State or po-5

litical subdivision involved. 6

‘‘(D)(i) If the change applies to a State, 7

the actual number of votes, or (if it is not rea-8

sonably practicable for the State to ascertain 9

the actual number of votes) the estimated num-10

ber of votes received by each candidate in each 11

statewide election held during the 5-year period 12

which ends on the date the change involved is 13

made; and 14

‘‘(ii) if the change applies to only one polit-15

ical subdivision, the actual number of votes, or 16

(if it is not reasonably practicable for the polit-17

ical subdivision to ascertain the actual number 18

of votes) in each subdivision-wide election held 19

during the 5-year period which ends on the date 20

the change involved is made. 21

‘‘(4) V

OLUNTARY COMPLIANCE BY SMALLER JU

-22

RISDICTIONS

.—Compliance with this subsection shall 23

be voluntary for a political subdivision of a State un-24

less the subdivision is one of the following: 25

•HR 4 EH

‘‘(A) A county or parish. 1

‘‘(B) A municipality with a population 2

greater than 10,000, as determined by the Bu-3

reau of the Census under the most recent de-4

cennial census. 5

‘‘(C) A school district with a population 6

greater than 10,000, as determined by the Bu-7

reau of the Census under the most recent de-8

cennial census. For purposes of this subpara-9

graph, the term ‘school district’ means the geo-10

graphic area under the jurisdiction of a local 11

educational agency (as defined in section 9101 12

of the Elementary and Secondary Education 13

Act of 1965). 14

‘‘(d) R

ULES

EGARDING

ORMAT OF

NFORMA

-15

TION

.—The Attorney General may issue rules specifying 16

a reasonably convenient and accessible format that States 17

and political subdivisions shall use to provide public notice 18

of information under this section. 19

‘‘(e) N

ENIAL OF

IGHT

OTE

.—The right to 20

vote of any person shall not be denied or abridged because 21

the person failed to comply with any change made by a 22

State or political subdivision to a voting qualification, pre-23

requisite, standard, practice, or procedure if the State or 24

•HR 4 EH

political subdivision involved did not meet the applicable 1

requirements of this section with respect to the change. 2

‘‘(f) D

EFINITIONS

.—In this section— 3

‘‘(1) the term ‘demographic group’ means each 4

group which section 2 protects from the denial or 5

abridgement of the right to vote on account of race 6

or color, or in contravention of the guarantees set 7

forth in section 4(f)(2); 8

‘‘(2) the term ‘election for Federal office’ means 9

any general, special, primary, or runoff election held 10

solely or in part for the purpose of electing any can-11

didate for the office of President, Vice President, 12

Presidential elector, Senator, Member of the House 13

of Representatives, or Delegate or Resident Commis-14

sioner to the Congress; and 15

‘‘(3) the term ‘persons with disabilities’, means 16

individuals with a disability, as defined in section 3 17

of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.’’. 18

(2) C

ONFORMING AMENDMENT

.—Section 3(a) 19

of such Act (52 U.S.C. 10302(a)) is amended by 20

striking ‘‘in accordance with section 6’’. 21

(b) E

FFECTIVE

ATE

.—The amendment made by 22

subsection (a)(1) shall apply with respect to changes which 23

are made on or after the expiration of the 60-day period 24

which begins on the date of the enactment of this Act. 25

•HR 4 EH

SEC. 8. AUTHORITY TO ASSIGN OBSERVERS. 1

(a) C

LARIFICATION OF

UTHORITY IN

OLITICAL

UBDIVISIONS

UBJECT TO

RECLEARANCE

.—Section 3

8(a)(2)(B) of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 4

10305(a)(2)(B)) is amended to read as follows: 5

‘‘(B) in the Attorney General’s judgment, 6

the assignment of observers is otherwise nec-7

essary to enforce the guarantees of the 14th or 8

15th Amendment or any provision of this Act 9

or any other Federal law protecting the right of 10

citizens of the United States to vote; or’’. 11

(b) A

SSIGNMENT OF

BSERVERS

NFORCE

-12

LINGUAL

LECTION

EQUIREMENTS

.—Section 8(a) of 13

such Act (52 U.S.C. 10305(a)) is amended— 14

(1) by striking ‘‘or’’ at the end of paragraph 15

(1); 16

(2) by inserting after paragraph (2) the fol-17

lowing: 18

‘‘(3) the Attorney General certifies with respect 19

to a political subdivision that— 20

‘‘(A) the Attorney General has received 21

written meritorious complaints from residents, 22

elected officials, or civic participation organiza-23

tions that efforts to violate section 203 are like-24

ly to occur; or 25

•HR 4 EH

‘‘(B) in the Attorney General’s judgment, 1

the assignment of observers is necessary to en-2

force the guarantees of section 203;’’; and 3

(3) by moving the margin for the continuation 4

text following paragraph (3), as added by paragraph 5

(2) of this subsection, 2 ems to the left. 6

RANSFERRAL OF

UTHORITY

VER

BSERVERS

TO THE

TTORNEY

ENERAL

.— 8

(1) E

NFORCEMENT PROCEEDINGS

.—Section 9

3(a) of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 10

10302(a)) is amended by striking ‘‘United States 11

Civil Service Commission in accordance with section 12

6’’ and inserting ‘‘Attorney General in accordance 13

with section 8’’. 14

(2) O

BSERVERS

;

APPOINTMENT AND COM

-15

PENSATION

.—Section 8 of the Voting Rights Act of 16

1965 (52 U.S.C. 10305) is amended— 17

(A) in subsection (a)(2), in the matter fol-18

lowing subparagraph (B), by striking ‘‘Director 19

of the Office of Personnel Management shall as-20

sign as many observers for such subdivision as 21

the Director’’ and inserting ‘‘Attorney General 22

shall assign as many observers for such subdivi-23

sion as the Attorney General’’; and 24

•HR 4 EH

(B) in subsection (c), by striking ‘‘Director 1

of the Office of Personnel Management’’ and 2

inserting ‘‘Attorney General’’. 3

(3) T

ERMINATION OF CERTAIN APPOINTMENTS

OF OBSERVERS

.—Section 13(a)(1) of the Voting 5

Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 10309(a)(1)) is 6

amended by striking ‘‘notifies the Director of the Of-7

fice of Personnel Management,’’ and inserting ‘‘de-8

termines,’’. 9

SEC. 9. CLARIFICATION OF AUTHORITY TO SEEK RELIEF. 10

(a) P

OLL

.—Section 10(b) of the Voting Rights 11

Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 10306(b)) is amended by striking 12

‘‘the Attorney General is authorized and directed to insti-13

tute forthwith in the name of the United States such ac-14

tions’’ and inserting ‘‘an aggrieved person or (in the name 15

of the United States) the Attorney General may institute 16

such actions’’. 17

(b) C

AUSE OF

CTION

.—Section 12(d) of the Voting 18

Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 10308(d)) is amended— 19

(1) by striking ‘‘Whenever any person has en-20

gaged’’ and all that follows through ‘‘in the name of 21

the United States’’ and inserting ‘‘(1) Whenever 22

there are reasonable grounds to believe that any per-23

son has implemented or will implement any voting 24

qualification or prerequisite to voting or standard, 25

•HR 4 EH

practice, or procedure that would (A) deny any cit-1

izen the right to vote in violation of the 14th, 15th, 2

19th, 24th, or 26th Amendments, or (B) would vio-3

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

Federal law that prohibits discrimination on the 5

basis of race, color, or membership in a language 6

minority group in the voting process, an aggrieved 7

person or (in the name of the United States) the At-8

torney General may institute’’; and 9

(2) by striking ‘‘, and including an order di-10

rected to the State and State or local election offi-11

cials to require them (1) to permit persons listed 12

under chapters 103 to 107 of this title to vote and 13

(2) to count such votes’’. 14

UDICIAL

ELIEF

.—Section 204 of the Voting 15

Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 10504) is amended by 16

striking ‘‘Whenever the Attorney General has reason to 17

believe’’ and all that follows through ‘‘as he deems appro-18

priate’’ and inserting ‘‘Whenever there are reasonable 19

grounds to believe that a State or political subdivision has 20

engaged or is about to engage in any act or practice pro-21

hibited by a provision of title II, an aggrieved person or 22

(in the name of the United States) the Attorney General 23

may institute an action in a district court of the United 24

States, for a restraining order, a preliminary or perma-25

•HR 4 EH

nent injunction, or such other order as may be appro-1

priate’’. 2

(d) E

NFORCEMENT OF

WENTY

-S

IXTH

MEND

-3

MENT

.—Section 301(a)(1) of the Voting Rights Act of 4

1965 (52 U.S.C. 10701) is amended by striking ‘‘The At-5

torney General is directed to institute’’ and all that follows 6

through ‘‘Constitution of the United States’’ and inserting 7

‘‘An aggrieved person or (in the name of the United 8

States) the Attorney General may institute an action in 9

a district court of the United States, for a restraining 10

order, a preliminary or permanent injunction, or such 11

other order as may be appropriate to implement the twen-12

ty-sixth amendment to the Constitution of the United 13

States’’. 14

SEC. 10. PREVENTIVE RELIEF. 15

Section 12(d) of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (52 16

U.S.C. 10308(d)), as amended by section 9, is further 17

amended by adding at the end the following: 18

‘‘(2)(A) In considering any motion for preliminary re-19

lief in any action for preventive relief described in this sub-20

section, the court shall grant the relief if the court deter-21

mines that the complainant has raised a serious question 22

as to whether the challenged voting qualification or pre-23

requisite to voting or standard, practice, or procedure vio-24

lates this Act or the Constitution and, on balance, the 25

•HR 4 EH

hardship imposed on the defendant by the grant of the 1

relief will be less than the hardship which would be im-2

posed on the plaintiff if the relief were not granted. 3

‘‘(B) In making its determination under this para-4

graph with respect to a change in any voting qualification, 5

prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure 6

with respect to voting, the court shall consider all relevant 7

factors and give due weight to the following factors, if they 8

are present: 9

‘‘(i) Whether the qualification, prerequisite, 10

standard, practice, or procedure in effect prior to the 11

change was adopted as a remedy for a Federal court 12

judgment, consent decree, or admission regarding— 13

‘‘(I) discrimination on the basis of race or 14

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

ment; 16

‘‘(II) a violation of the 19th, 24th, or 26th 17

Amendments; 18

‘‘(III) a violation of this Act; or 19

‘‘(IV) voting discrimination on the basis of 20

race, color, or membership in a language minor-21

ity group in violation of any other Federal or 22

State law. 23

‘‘(ii) Whether the qualification, prerequisite, 24

standard, practice, or procedure in effect prior to the 25

•HR 4 EH

change served as a ground for the dismissal or set-1

tlement of a claim alleging— 2

‘‘(I) discrimination on the basis of race or 3

color in violation of the 14th or 15th Amend-4

ment; 5

‘‘(II) a violation of the 19th, 24th, or 26th 6

Amendment; 7

‘‘(III) a violation of this Act; or 8

‘‘(IV) voting discrimination on the basis of 9

race, color, or membership in a language minor-10

ity group in violation of any other Federal or 11

State law. 12

‘‘(iii) Whether the change was adopted fewer 13

than 180 days before the date of the election with 14

respect to which the change is to take or takes ef-15

fect. 16

‘‘(iv) Whether the defendant has failed to pro-17

vide timely or complete notice of the adoption of the 18

change as required by applicable Federal or State 19

law. 20

‘‘(3) A jurisdiction’s inability to enforce its voting or 21

election laws, regulations, policies, or redistricting plans, 22

standing alone, shall not be deemed to constitute irrep-23

arable harm to the public interest or to the interests of 24

a defendant in an action arising under the Constitution 25

•HR 4 EH

or any Federal law that prohibits discrimination on the 1

basis of race, color, or membership in a language minority 2

group in the voting process, for the purposes of deter-3

mining whether a stay of a court’s order or an interlocu-4

tory appeal under section 1253 of title 28, United States 5

Code, is warranted.’’. 6

SEC. 11. RELIEF FOR VIOLATIONS OF VOTING RIGHTS 7

LAWS. 8

(a) I

ENERAL

.— 9

(1) R

ELIEF FOR VIOLATIONS OF VOTING

RIGHTS LAWS

.—In this section, the term ‘‘prohibited 11

act or practice’’ means— 12

(A) any act or practice— 13

(i) that creates an undue burden on 14

the fundamental right to vote in violation 15

of the 14th Amendment to the Constitu-16

tion of the United States or violates the 17

Equal Protection Clause of the 14th 18

Amendment to the Constitution of the 19

United States; or 20

(ii) that is prohibited by the 15th, 21

19th, 24th, or 26th Amendment to the 22

Constitution of the United States, section 23

2004 of the Revised Statutes (52 U.S.C. 24

10101), the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (52 25

•HR 4 EH

U.S.C. 10301 et seq.), the National Voter 1

Registration Act of 1993 (52 U.S.C. 2

20501 et seq.), the Uniformed and Over-3

seas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (52 4

U.S.C. 20301 et seq.), the Help America 5

Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 20901 et 6

seq.), the Voting Accessibility for the El-7

derly and Handicapped Act (52 U.S.C. 8

20101 et seq.), or section 2003 of the Re-9

vised Statutes (52 U.S.C. 10102); and 10

(B) any act or practice in violation of any 11

Federal law that prohibits discrimination with 12

respect to voting, including the Americans with 13

Disabilities Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 12101 et 14

seq.). 15

(2) R

ULE OF CONSTRUCTION

.—Nothing in this 16

section shall be construed to diminish the authority 17

or scope of authority of any person to bring an ac-18

tion under any Federal law. 19

(3) A

TTORNEY

’

S FEES

.—Section 722(b) of the 20

Revised Statutes (42 U.S.C. 1988(b)) is amended by 21

inserting ‘‘a provision described in section 2(a) of 22

the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act 23

of 2021,’’ after ‘‘title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 24

1964,’’. 25

•HR 4 EH

(b) G

ROUNDS FOR

QUITABLE

ELIEF

.—In any ac-1

tion for equitable relief pursuant to a law listed under sub-2

section (a), proximity of the action to an election shall not 3

be a valid reason to deny such relief, or stay the operation 4

of or vacate the issuance of such relief, unless the party 5

opposing the issuance or continued operation of relief 6

meets the burden of proving by clear and convincing evi-7

dence that the issuance of the relief would be so close in 8

time to the election as to cause irreparable harm to the 9

public interest or that compliance with such relief would 10

impose serious burdens on the party opposing relief. 11

(1) I

N GENERAL

.—In considering whether to 12

grant, deny, stay, or vacate any order of equitable 13

relief, the court shall give substantial weight to the 14

public’s interest in expanding access to the right to 15

vote. A State’s generalized interest in enforcing its 16

enacted laws shall not be a relevant consideration in 17

determining whether equitable relief is warranted. 18

(2) P

RESUMPTIVE SAFE HARBOR

.—Where equi-19

table relief is sought either within 30 days of the 20

adoption or reasonable public notice of the chal-21

lenged policy or practice, or more than 45 days be-22

fore the date of an election to which the relief being 23

sought will apply, proximity to the election will be 24

•HR 4 EH

presumed not to constitute a harm to the public in-1

terest or a burden on the party opposing relief. 2

ROUNDS FOR

TAY OR

ACATUR IN

EDERAL

LAIMS

NVOLVING

OTING

IGHTS

.— 4

(1) P

ROSPECTIVE EFFECT

.—In reviewing an 5

application for a stay or vacatur of equitable relief 6

granted pursuant to a law listed in subsection (a), 7

a court shall give substantial weight to the reliance 8

interests of citizens who acted pursuant to such 9

order under review. In fashioning a stay or vacatur, 10

a reviewing court shall not order relief that has the 11

effect of denying or abridging the right to vote of 12

any citizen who has acted in reliance on the order. 13

(2) W

RITTEN EXPLANATION

.—No stay or 14

vacatur under this subsection shall issue unless the 15

reviewing court makes specific findings that the pub-16

lic interest, including the public’s interest in expand-17

ing access to the ballot, will be harmed by the con-18

tinuing operation of the equitable relief or that com-19

pliance with such relief will impose serious burdens 20

on the party seeking such a stay or vacatur such 21

that those burdens substantially outweigh the bene-22

fits to the public interest. In reviewing an applica-23

tion for a stay or vacatur of equitable relief, findings 24

•HR 4 EH

of fact made in issuing the order under review shall 1

not be set aside unless clearly erroneous. 2

SEC. 12. ENFORCEMENT OF VOTING RIGHTS BY ATTORNEY 3

GENERAL. 4

Section 12 of the Voting Rights Act (52 U.S.C. 5

10308), as amended by this Act, is further amended by 6

adding at the end the following: 7

‘‘(g) V

OTING

IGHTS

NFORCEMENT BY

TTORNEY

ENERAL

.— 9

‘‘(1) I

N GENERAL

.—In order to fulfill the At-10

torney General’s responsibility to enforce the Voting 11

Rights Act and other Federal civil rights statutes 12

that protect the right to vote, the Attorney General 13

(or upon designation by the Attorney General, the 14

Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights) is au-15

thorized, before commencing a civil action, to issue 16

a demand for inspection and information in writing 17

to any State or political subdivision, or other govern-18

mental representative or agent, with respect to any 19

relevant documentary material that he has reason to 20

believe is within their possession, custody, or control. 21

A demand by the Attorney General under this sec-22

tion may require— 23

‘‘(A) the production of such documentary 24

material for inspection and copying; 25

•HR 4 EH

‘‘(B) answers in writing to written ques-1

tions with respect to such documentary mate-2

rial; or 3

‘‘(C) both. 4

‘‘(2) C

ONTENTS OF AN ATTORNEY GENERAL

DEMAND

.— 6

‘‘(A) I

N GENERAL

.—Any demand issued 7

under paragraph (1), shall include a sworn cer-8

tificate to identify the voting qualification or 9

prerequisite to voting or standard, practice, or 10

procedure with respect to voting, or other vot-11

ing related matter or issue, whose lawfulness 12

the Attorney General is investigating and to 13

identify the civil provisions of the Federal civil 14

rights statute that protects the right to vote 15

under which the investigation is being con-16

ducted. The demand shall be reasonably cal-17

culated to lead to the discovery of documentary 18

material and information relevant to such civil 19

rights investigation. Documentary material in-20

cludes any material upon which relevant infor-21

mation is recorded, and includes written or 22

printed materials, photographs, tapes, or mate-23

rials upon which information is electronically or 24

magnetically recorded. Such demands are aimed 25

•HR 4 EH

at the Attorney General having the ability to in-1

spect and obtain copies of relevant materials (as 2

well as obtain information) related to voting 3

and are not aimed at the Attorney General tak-4

ing possession of original records, particularly 5

those that are required to be retained by State 6

and local election officials under Federal or 7

State law. 8

‘‘(B) N

O REQUIREMENT FOR PRODUC

-9

TION

.—Any demand issued under paragraph 10

(1) may not require the production of any docu-11

mentary material or the submission of any an-12

swers in writing to written questions if such 13

material or answers would be protected from 14

disclosure under the standards applicable to 15

discovery requests under the Federal Rules of 16

Civil Procedure in an action in which the Attor-17

ney General or the United States is a party. 18

‘‘(C) D

OCUMENTARY MATERIAL

.—If the 19

demand issued under paragraph (1) requires 20

the production of documentary material, it 21

shall— 22

‘‘(i) identify the class of documentary 23

material to be produced with such definite-24

•HR 4 EH

ness and certainty as to permit such mate-1

rial to be fairly identified; and 2

‘‘(ii) prescribe a return date for pro-3

duction of the documentary material at 4

least twenty days after issuance of the de-5

mand to give the State or political subdivi-6

sion, or other governmental representative 7

or agent, a reasonable period of time for 8

assembling the documentary material and 9

making it available for inspection and 10

copying. 11

‘‘(D) A

NSWERS TO WRITTEN QUES

-12

TIONS

.—If the demand issued under paragraph 13

(1) requires answers in writing to written ques-14

tions, it shall— 15

‘‘(i) set forth with specificity the writ-16

ten question to be answered; and 17

‘‘(ii) prescribe a date at least twenty 18

days after the issuance of the demand for 19

submitting answers in writing to the writ-20

ten questions. 21

‘‘(E) S

ERVICE

.—A demand issued under 22

paragraph (1) may be served by a United 23

States marshal or a deputy marshal, or by cer-24

•HR 4 EH

tified mail, at any place within the territorial 1

jurisdiction of any court of the United States. 2

‘‘(3) R

ESPONSES TO AN ATTORNEY GENERAL

DEMAND

.—A State or political subdivision, or other 4

governmental representative or agent, must, with re-5

spect to any documentary material or any answer in 6

writing produced under this subsection, provide a 7

sworn certificate, in such form as the demand issued 8

under paragraph (1) designates, by a person having 9

knowledge of the facts and circumstances relating to 10

such production or written answer, authorized to act 11

on behalf of the State or political subdivision, or 12

other governmental representative or agent, upon 13

which the demand was served. The certificate— 14

‘‘(A) shall state that— 15

‘‘(i) all of the documentary material 16

required by the demand and in the posses-17

sion, custody, or control of the State or po-18

litical subdivision, or other governmental 19

representative or agent, has been produced; 20

‘‘(ii) that with respect to every answer 21

in writing to a written question, all infor-22

mation required by the question and in the 23

possession, custody, control, or knowledge 24

of the State or political subdivision, or 25

•HR 4 EH

other governmental representative or 1

agent, has been submitted; or 2

‘‘(iii) both; or 3

‘‘(B) provide the basis for any objection to 4

producing the documentary material or answer-5

ing the written question. 6

To the extent that any information is not furnished, 7

the information shall be identified and reasons set 8

forth with particularity regarding the reasons why 9

the information was not furnished. 10

‘‘(4) J

UDICIAL PROCEEDINGS

.— 11

‘‘(A) P

ETITION FOR ENFORCEMENT

.— 12

Whenever any State or political subdivision, or 13

other governmental representative or agent, 14

fails to comply with demand issued by the At-15

torney General under paragraph (1), the Attor-16

ney General may file, in a district court of the 17

United States in which the State or political 18

subdivision, or other governmental representa-19

tive or agent, is located, a petition for a judicial 20

order enforcing the Attorney General demand 21

issued under paragraph (1). 22

‘‘(B) P

ETITION TO MODIFY

.— 23

‘‘(i) I

N GENERAL

.—Any State or po-24

litical subdivision, or other governmental 25

•HR 4 EH

representative or agent, that is served with 1

a demand issued by the Attorney General 2

under paragraph (1) may file in the United 3

States District Court for the District of 4

Columbia a petition for an order of the 5

court to modify or set aside the demand of 6

the Attorney General. 7

‘‘(ii) P

ETITION TO MODIFY

.—Any pe-8

tition to modify or set aside a demand of 9

the Attorney General issued under para-10

graph (1) must be filed within 20 days 11

after the date of service of the Attorney 12

General’s demand or at any time before 13

the return date specified in the Attorney 14

General’s demand, whichever date is ear-15

lier. 16

‘‘(iii) C

ONTENTS OF PETITION

.—The 17

petition shall specify each ground upon 18

which the petitioner relies in seeking relief 19

under clause (i), and may be based upon 20

any failure of the Attorney General’s de-21

mand to comply with the provisions of this 22

section or upon any constitutional or other 23

legal right or privilege of the State or po-24

litical subdivision, or other governmental 25

•HR 4 EH

representative or agent. During the pend-1

ency of the petition in the court, the court 2

may stay, as it deems proper, the running 3

of the time allowed for compliance with the 4

Attorney General’s demand, in whole or in 5

part, except that the State or political sub-6

division, or other governmental representa-7

tive or agent, filing the petition shall com-8

ply with any portions of the Attorney Gen-9

eral’s demand not sought to be modified or 10

set aside.’’. 11

SEC. 13. DEFINITIONS. 12

Title I of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 13

10301) is amended by adding at the end the following: 14

‘‘SEC. 21. DEFINITIONS. 15

‘‘In this Act: 16

‘‘(1) I

NDIAN

.—The term ‘Indian’ has the mean-17

ing given the term in section 4 of the Indian Self- 18

Determination and Education Assistance Act. 19

‘‘(2) I

NDIAN LANDS

.—The term ‘Indian lands’ 20

means— 21

‘‘(A) any Indian country of an Indian 22

tribe, as such term is defined in section 1151 23

of title 18, United States Code; 24

•HR 4 EH

‘‘(B) any land in Alaska that is owned, 1

pursuant to the Alaska Native Claims Settle-2

ment Act, by an Indian tribe that is a Native 3

village (as such term is defined in section 3 of 4

such Act), or by a Village Corporation that is 5

associated with the Indian tribe (as such term 6

is defined in section 3 of such Act); 7

‘‘(C) any land on which the seat of govern-8

ment of the Indian tribe is located; and 9

‘‘(D) any land that is part or all of a tribal 10

designated statistical area associated with the 11

Indian tribe, or is part or all of an Alaska Na-12

tive village statistical area associated with the 13

tribe, as defined by the Bureau of the Census 14

for the purposes of the most recent decennial 15

census. 16

‘‘(3) I

NDIAN TRIBE

.—The term ‘Indian tribe’ or 17

‘tribe’ has the meaning given the term ‘Indian tribe’ 18

in section 4 of the Indian Self-Determination and 19

Education Assistance Act. 20

‘‘(4) T

RIBAL GOVERNMENT

.—The term ‘Tribal 21

Government’ means the recognized governing body 22

of an Indian Tribe. 23

‘‘(5) V

OTING

AGE POPULATION

.—The term 24

‘voting-age population’ means the numerical size of 25

•HR 4 EH

the population within a State, within a political sub-1

division, or within a political subdivision that con-2

tains Indian lands, as the case may be, that consists 3

of persons age 18 or older, as calculated by the Bu-4

reau of the Census under the most recent decennial 5

census.’’. 6

SEC. 14. ATTORNEYS’ FEES. 7

Section 14(c) of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (52 8

U.S.C. 10310(c)) is amended by adding at the end the 9

following: 10

‘‘(4) The term ‘prevailing party’ means a party to an 11

action that receives at least some of the benefit sought 12

by such action, states a colorable claim, and can establish 13

that the action was a significant cause of a change to the 14

status quo.’’. 15

SEC. 15. OTHER TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMEND-16

MENTS. 17

(a) A

CTIONS

OVERED

NDER

ECTION

3.—Section 18

3(c) of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 19

10302(c)) is amended— 20

(1) by striking ‘‘any proceeding instituted by 21

the Attorney General or an aggrieved person under 22

any statute to enforce’’ and inserting ‘‘any action 23

under any statute in which a party (including the 24

Attorney General) seeks to enforce’’; and 25

•HR 4 EH

(2) by striking ‘‘at the time the proceeding was 1

commenced’’ and inserting ‘‘at the time the action 2

was commenced’’. 3

(b) C

LARIFICATION OF

REATMENT OF

EMBERS OF

ANGUAGE

INORITY

ROUPS

.—Section 4(f) of such Act 5

(52 U.S.C. 10303(f)) is amended— 6

(1) in paragraph (1), by striking the second 7

sentence; and 8

(2) by striking paragraphs (3) and (4). 9

ERIOD

URING

HICH

HANGES IN

OTING

RACTICES

UBJECT TO

RECLEARANCE

NDER

ECTION

5.—Section 5 of such Act (52 U.S.C. 10304) 12

is amended— 13

(1) in subsection (a), by striking ‘‘based upon 14

determinations made under the first sentence of sec-15

tion 4(b) are in effect’’ and inserting ‘‘are in effect 16

during a calendar year’’; 17

(2) in subsection (a), by striking ‘‘November 1, 18

1964’’ and all that follows through ‘‘November 1, 19

1972’’ and inserting ‘‘the applicable date of cov-20

erage’’; and 21

(3) by adding at the end the following new sub-22

section: 23

‘‘(e) The term ‘applicable date of coverage’ means, 24

with respect to a State or political subdivision— 25

•HR 4 EH

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

mination for such State or subdivision under section 2

4(b) was made on or before December 31, 2021; or 3

‘‘(2) the date on which the most recent deter-4

mination for such State or subdivision under section 5

4(b) was made, if such determination was made 6

after December 31, 2021.’’. 7

SEC. 16. SEVERABILITY. 8

If any provision of this Act or any amendment made 9

by this Act, or the application of such a provision or 10

amendment to any person or circumstance, is held to be 11

unconstitutional or is otherwise enjoined or unenforceable, 12

the remainder of this Act and amendments made by this 13

Act, and the application of the provisions and amendment 14

to any person or circumstance, and any remaining provi-15

sion of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, shall not be af-16

fected by the holding. 17

SEC. 17. GRANTS TO ASSIST WITH NOTICE REQUIREMENTS 18

UNDER THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT OF 1965. 19

(a) I

ENERAL

.—The Attorney General shall make 20

grants each fiscal year to small jurisdictions who submit 21

applications under subsection (b) for purposes of assisting 22

such small jurisdictions with compliance with the require-23

ments of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to submit or pub-24

•HR 4 EH

lish notice of any change to a qualification, prerequisite, 1

standard, practice or procedure affecting voting. 2

(b) A

PPLICATION

.—To be eligible for a grant under 3

this section, a small jurisdiction shall submit an applica-4

tion to the Attorney General in such form and containing 5

such information as the Attorney General may require re-6

garding the compliance of such small jurisdiction with the 7

provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. 8

MALL

URISDICTION

EFINED

.—For purposes 9

of this section, the term ‘‘small jurisdiction’’ means any 10

political subdivision of a State with a population of 10,000 11

or less. 12

Passed the House of Representatives August 24,

2021.

Attest:

Clerk.

117

CONGRESS

ESSION

H. R. 4

AN ACT

To amend the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to revise

the criteria for determining which States and po-

litical subdivisions are subject to section 4 of the

Act, and for other purposes.