This bill would change the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in many ways. It revises the legal tests for when voting rules unlawfully dilute, deny, or abridge the right to vote. It creates a new practice-based preclearance system that would require certain States or localities to get approval before using specified voting changes (for example, moving from districts to at-large seats, cutting polling locations, changing voter ID or list maintenance processes, or reducing multilingual materials) when those changes affect areas with sizable racial or language minority populations. The bill also updates how a State or locality becomes covered for broader preclearance based on the number of voting-rights violations in the prior 25 years. It increases transparency by requiring prompt public notice of voting changes and publishes detailed polling-place resource data before federal elections. The Attorney General would have expanded authority to assign observers, demand documents, review and object to covered practices, and bring enforcement actions. The bill clarifies who may sue for voting-rights violations, changes rules for preliminary and permanent relief in court, adds protections for tabulated votes, extends bilingual voting requirements, and creates criminal penalties for willful interference, intimidation, or damage to election infrastructure. It also authorizes grants to help small jurisdictions meet notice requirements.
No publicly available information.
No publicly available information.