Sponsors (14)
This bill expands and standardizes access to vote-by-mail and automatic DMV-based registration—making voting easier and more inclusive for many Americans—while imposing real costs, increasing dependence on USPS, and limiting some state flexibility, which creates administrative, fiscal, and security trade-offs.
A broad set of voters — including seniors, people with disabilities, students, parents, caregivers, rural voters, and others with Election Day conflicts — will receive mailed ballots at least two weeks before federal elections and gain more time and certainty to vote by mail.
People with disabilities will get accessible mailed ballots that provide privacy, independence, and comparable access to other voters.
Automatic voter registration at DMVs will increase registration rates and streamline enrollment, while faster transmission of registration data to election officials reduces processing delays and helps meet registration deadlines.
States and localities will face substantial upfront and ongoing costs — mailing ballots to all registered voters, updating DMV and election IT/processes, and handling additional ballot processing — which will strain budgets, especially in smaller jurisdictions.
Greater reliance on the U.S. Postal Service for sending and returning ballots increases the risk that delivery delays or failures will disenfranchise voters and shifts uncompensated costs to USPS (and potentially taxpayers).
Federal limits on state-level restrictions (and removal of some excuse/notary requirements) reduce States' flexibility to adopt additional mail-voting safeguards, raising concerns about election security, administrative and legal disputes, and inconsistent local responses.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Requires states to mail ballots to registered voters for federal elections, limits state mail-voting restrictions, mandates free USPS carriage of ballots, and expands automatic registration at motor vehicle agencies.
Introduced April 10, 2025 by Val Hoyle · Last progress April 10, 2025
Creates a federal right to vote by mail for federally eligible voters by preventing states from imposing extra conditions beyond request and return deadlines, requires states to mail ballots to registered voters at least two weeks before federal elections beginning in 2026, and requires the Postal Service to carry blank and voted ballots without postage. Also expands automatic and streamlined voter registration at motor vehicle offices, with new timing, data, opt-out, and confidentiality rules effective 180 days after enactment.