Sponsors (51)
Official title: To remove barriers to the ability of unhoused individuals to register to vote and vote in elections for Federal office, and for other purposes.
Introduced August 5, 2025 by Nikema Williams · Last progress August 5, 2025
The bill substantially expands voting access and outreach for people experiencing homelessness and other nontraditional‑residence populations, while shifting new administrative, oversight, and litigation burdens — and some open‑ended federal spending — onto state and local governments, nonprofits, and taxpayers.
People experiencing homelessness, residents of emergency shelters, and those using unsheltered or nontraditional addresses gain substantially easier access to register and vote through recognition of nontraditional residences, designation of shelters as registration agencies, acceptance of intersection-based addresses, and mobile outreach.
Individuals incarcerated in States that permit prisoner registration can retain registration and voting access without being disqualified solely because of their prison residence.
Expanded federal enforcement and civil remedies (increased DOJ authority and legal remedies) give the federal government and affected individuals tools to stop discriminatory, residence-based voting practices affecting unhoused people.
State and local election offices, and HUD-assisted providers, will face new administrative and compliance costs — updating forms and systems, training staff, processing intersection-based addresses and shelter registrations, meeting document durability requirements, and fulfilling HUD reporting — which will strain resources.
The broad definition of nontraditional abodes and use of unsheltered street locations as residences will complicate voter residence verification, increase provisional ballots and disputes, and raise the risk of administrative errors that could delay or suppress votes for some people.
Expanded DOJ enforcement and new private causes of action are likely to generate more litigation, creating legal costs and burdens for States, territories, and localities defending residence-based rules.
Based on analysis of 8 sections of legislative text.
Prohibits denying voting rights based on living in nontraditional abodes, expands registration access for unhoused individuals, and funds grants to help them register and vote.
Prohibits States and local governments from denying or restricting a citizen’s right to vote because they live in a nontraditional abode (for example, shelters, places not designed for sleeping, locations meeting the McKinney‑Vento definition of homelessness, and certain prisons). It creates enforcement tools (Department of Justice lawsuits and private suits), expands voter registration access by designating emergency shelters as voter registration agencies, allows use of a street or unsheltered location as a registration residence, requires changes to the federal mail/alternative registration form, directs HUD surveys to collect voting-access data for people experiencing homelessness, and authorizes Election Assistance Commission grants to help unhoused individuals register and vote.