Advancing “a bill to amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require voters to provide photo identification” (S 5271)

The bill

A bill to amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require voters to provide photo identification.

Topic: Government Operations and Politics

What the bill does

This bill establishes certain photo identification requirements for voting in federal elections. Specifically, the bill prohibits a state or local election official from providing a ballot for a federal election to an individual who does not present valid physical photo identification. Next, the bill outlines the availability of provisional ballots and the requirements for counting those ballots. An individual who does not present a valid photo identification must be permitted to cast a provisional ballot. However, an election official may not determine that the individual is eligible under state law to vote in the election unless, not later than three days after casting the provisional ballot, the individual presents (1) the identification required, or (2) an affidavit attesting that the individual does not possess the identification because of a religious objection to being photographed.

Source: Congressional Research Service summary

Bill on congress.gov(opens in a new tab)