Sponsors (7)
The bill expands voter registration access and support for high-school students and schools, but does so at the cost of added administrative burden, potential gaps that could exclude some eligible youths, and increased federal spending.
High-school students and age-eligible young adults will have more opportunities to register to vote because every public high school must serve as a voter registration agency and schools must hold at least one annual school-led registration drive.
Public high schools can be reimbursed for reasonable costs of running registration drives, reducing financial barriers for schools to do outreach.
States will have clearer, more uniform duties on where to offer voter registration at schools, which can reduce uneven access across districts.
Some eligible young people could still be missed or face reduced access because the bill narrows which "public schools" are explicitly covered and limits outreach to students in specific classes with an April 10 age cutoff.
Schools, educators, and state election offices will incur added administrative burdens and implementation costs to run drives, complete applications, and operate registration processes.
The federal reimbursement program is funded by an open-ended "such sums as may be necessary" authorization, which could increase federal spending and taxpayer costs.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Requires states to designate public high schools as NVRA voter registration agencies, mandates annual high-school registration drives, authorizes reimbursements, and clarifies elementary-school designation.
Official title: To amend the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 to require States to designate public high schools as voter registration agencies, to direct such schools to conduct voter registration drives for students attending such schools, to direct the Secretary of Education to make grants to reimburse such schools for the costs of conducting such voter registration drives, and for other purposes.
Introduced August 31, 2026 by Frederica Wilson · Last progress August 31, 2026
Requires each State to designate public high schools as voter registration agencies under the National Voter Registration Act and mandates an annual voter-registration drive at each designated public high school targeted at older students in civic classes. The bill narrows an existing optional phrase for "public schools" to specifically call out public elementary schools, clarifying which school types are optional vs. required. Authorizes the Secretary of Education to run a reimbursement program to cover reasonable costs for schools that carry out the drives, permits election officials to lend voting equipment for student elections by agreement, and makes funding available by "such sums as may be necessary" for FY2026 and later years. The law takes effect 90 days after enactment.