Sponsors (14)
Introduced September 16, 2025 by Amy Klobuchar · Last progress September 16, 2025
The bill would substantially expand automatic and electronic voter registration and fund modernization to increase registration and accessibility—particularly for young and underrepresented voters—but does so at the cost of significant implementation spending, added administrative and legal compliance burdens, and heightened cybersecurity and privacy risks, with some states able to delay or limit rollout.
Millions of eligible citizens—especially young adults, people with disabilities, low-income individuals, and racial/ethnic minorities—will be more likely to be registered automatically (at age 18), pre-registered (age 16–17), or registered through motor-vehicle interactions, increasing registration rates and likely voter participation in federal elections.
State and local election offices will receive substantial federal funding and grants (including a $3.0 billion initial appropriation) to implement or expand automatic voter registration (AVR), online systems, and public education, reducing state budget pressure for rollout.
Modernizing registration with electronic/internet capability and adopting NIST standards will streamline registration processes, improve list maintenance accuracy, and make registration more accessible (including for people with disabilities and younger voters).
State and local governments and taxpayers will face significant upfront implementation, IT, staffing, and ongoing maintenance costs to build secure AVR systems and meet new deadlines and reporting requirements.
Expanding electronic and internet-based registration and publishing voter-change logs increases cybersecurity and data-privacy risks for registrants and election systems if security and redaction are inadequate.
Federal prescriptive requirements, grant conditions, certification deadlines, and compliance rules may create administrative burdens, legal conflicts over state election authority, and risk loss of federal payments for noncompliance.
Based on analysis of 9 sections of legislative text.
Requires automatic voter registration at state motor vehicle agencies, sets data/security standards, adds privacy protections, and funds implementation with federal grants.
Requires each State to set up automatic voter registration (AVR) at motor vehicle agencies so eligible people are registered for federal elections when they turn 18 (with optional pre-registration for 16–17-year-olds). Sets data transmission, privacy, notice, and accessibility rules; directs NIST to create database management and security standards; provides federal grants to states (authorizes $3 billion for FY2026 and such sums as necessary thereafter) to implement the program; and takes effect January 1, 2026 (with a possible two-year waiver to January 1, 2028). The law also protects individuals from prosecution or immigration consequences for AVR errors and maintains civil enforcement rights under existing voter-registration law.