Sponsor
Brian K. Fitzpatrick
Representative · R-PA
Representative · R-PA
Official title: To ensure election integrity and security and enhance Americans' access to the ballot box by establishing consistent standards and procedures for voter registration and voting in elections for Federal office, and for other purposes.
Introduced January 3, 2025 by Brian K. Fitzpatrick · Last progress January 3, 2025
The bill expands and standardizes access to federal voting—boosting automatic registration, consistency, and roll maintenance—but centralizes voter data, enforces strict technical and timing rules, and imposes implementation costs that raise privacy, disenfranchisement, and administrative-risk trade-offs for vulnerable voters and local election officials.
All eligible citizens (especially young adults, people with disabilities, and low-income individuals) are more likely to be registered automatically because the bill requires automatic registration and institution-based registration opportunities, increasing access to federal elections.
Voters statewide will face more consistent treatment and faster transparency because the bill sets uniform standards for ballot forms/signature/timeliness, consistent provisional-ballot rules across counties, and faster precinct reporting (interim reporting one hour after close, counts and remaining ballots within 24 hours).
State and local election officials will have better tools and earlier data (a federal clearinghouse plus USPS/SSA change-of-address and death feeds) to identify duplicate, deceased, or out-of-state registrations, improving voter-roll accuracy and reducing last-minute administrative burden.
All registered or prospective voters (including students and immigrants) face heightened privacy and security risks because the bill requires automatic transmission of personal data between agencies and a federal clearinghouse that could be breached or misused.
Voters—particularly the elderly, people with disabilities, low-income and rural voters—risk disenfranchisement because strict requirements (ballot receipt by polls-closing time, signature-match/ink/color/attestation rules, and penalty-backed attestations) increase chances that timely or valid ballots will be rejected or arrive too late.
State and local governments and local taxpayers will face sizable upfront and implementation costs because the bill requires new systems, certifications, uniform statewide procedures by 2026, and expanded data transmissions and DMV changes.
Based on analysis of 8 sections of legislative text.
Sets federal standards for mail‑in ballots, requires automatic voter registration, parity/uniformity across voting methods, and creates a CISA deconfliction clearinghouse with pre‑election data sharing.
Creates nationwide minimum rules and new federal requirements for registering voters, using and verifying mail‑in ballots, and maintaining accurate voter rolls for Federal elections. It requires states to implement automatic voter registration from agency records (opt‑out), sets standards and timelines for mail‑in ballot requests and ballot validity, mandates parity and uniformity across voting methods, and builds a CISA‑run clearinghouse fed by USPS/SSA and state certifications to identify duplicate, deceased, or otherwise ineligible registrants. Many provisions take effect for the November 2026 regularly scheduled general Federal election; certain DMV attestation requirements apply beginning with elections in 2025. The bill imposes new operational duties on State and local election officials, motor vehicle agencies, and federal providers of address/death data (USPS, SSA, CISA).