Help America Vote Act (HAVA) Programs

Help America Vote Act (HAVA) Programs is sponsored by U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) / Administration for Community Living (ACL), HHS. These programs are designed to establish and improve participation in the election process for individuals with the full range of disabilities.

The Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA): Overview and Ongoing Role in Election Administration Policy - EveryCRSReport. com Internet Explorer version 8 or any modern web browser is required to use this website, sorry.

The Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA): Overview and Ongoing Role in Election Administration Policy The Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA): Overview and Ongoing Role in Election Administration Policy Jump to Main Text of Report Overview of Major Provisions U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) Ongoing Role in Election Administration Policy Proposals to Revisit HAVA or the EAC Proposals to Extend HAVA or the EAC Potential Considerations for Congress Table 1.

Requirements for Federal Elections Established by Title III of HAVA, as Amended Table 2. Funding Authorized and Appropriated for HAVA Grant Programs Table A-1. Major Provisions of HAVA by Issue Area Table B-1.

HAVA Amendments to Military and Overseas Voting Processes Table C-1. Timeline of Congressional Deliberations on Election Administration Appendix A. Major Provisions of HAVA by Issue Area Appendix B.

HAVA Amendments to Military and Overseas Voting Processes Appendix C. Timeline of Congressional Deliberations on Election Administration The Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) was enacted in response to issues with the administration of the 2000 elections.

The highest-profile problems in those elections were in Florida—where disputes about the vote count delayed the resolution of the presidential race for weeks—but post-election hearings and reports identified issues with various aspects of election administration across multiple states. Congress's response to those findings, in HAVA, spanned a correspondingly wide range of elections topics.

The act took three main approaches to the issues. First, it set requirements for the administration of federal elections. Some states and localities had adopted policies or technologies before the 2000 elections that may have helped prevent some of the issues encountered by other jurisdictions in 2000, and other policy proposals were offered in post-2000 hearings and reports.

HAVA was designed, in part, to standardize use of some of those policies and technologies in federal elections. Title III of the act set new federal requirements for voting systems, provisional voting, voting information, statewide voter registration databases, voter identification, and the federal mail voter registration form created by the National Voter Registration Act of 1993.

Second, HAVA authorized the first major federal grant programs for elections. Complying with HAVA's Title III requirements involved significant financial investments for many states and localities. There were also other post-2000 changes to election processes—not addressed by the HAVA requirements—that states and localities wanted or needed to make.

Congress authorized a pair of general grant programs in HAVA to help states meet the act's Title III requirements and make certain general improvements to election administration. HAVA also authorized more specialized grant programs to facilitate or incentivize action on voting technology, disability access, youth voter participation, and poll worker recruitment.

Third, HAVA provided for creation of the election administration-dedicated U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC). Federal agency support for the general administration of elections was provided in 2000 by a small office at the Federal Election Commission known as the Office of Election Administration (OEA). The scope of the issues with the conduct of the 2000 elections prompted calls for an expanded federal agency role in elections.

Some proposed assigning any new responsibilities to the existing OEA, while others wanted to create a new agency that would be fully dedicated to election administration. There was also debate about whether a new elections agency should have the authority to issue regulations. Congress struck a balance in HAVA by providing for a new agency, the EAC, but positioning it as a support agency.

HAVA and the agency it created have continued to play a central role in congressional engagement with election administration issues since the act's enactment in 2002. For example, Congress responded to foreign efforts to interfere in the 2016 elections and the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the 2020 election cycle by providing new funding for a HAVA grant program administered by the EAC.

Members have also introduced legislation to revisit HAVA or the EAC or to extend them to address new aspects of election administration. The ongoing role of HAVA in federal elections policymaking is partly a result of two features of the act.

HAVA was (1) more wide-ranging in the topics it aimed to address than elections measures Congress had tended to approve in the recent past, with (2) a greater emphasis on federal assistance for states and localities. Other recent federal election laws had tended primarily to set requirements and to focus on particular aspects of elections or access to the electoral process for particular groups of voters.

HAVA, by contrast, spans multiple issues and voter groups and pairs its requirements with grant programs and the assistance-oriented EAC. Those features have made HAVA and the EAC common choices of vehicles for efforts to extend federal requirements to new aspects of election administration or provide for new federal support for elections.

Ongoing congressional engagement with HAVA can also be traced, in part, to interest in revisiting the act. There was broad agreement during the HAVA debate that Congress should consider a legislative response to the issues with the conduct of the 2000 elections but disagreement about exactly what that legislative response should look like.

Compromises struck in HAVA did not necessarily resolve the underlying disagreements, and new developments since 2002—both due to HAVA and independently of it—have changed the election administration landscape. As a result, some Members have proposed revisiting HAVA's treatment of particular elections issues or the structure of the act or the agency it created. The Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA; P.

L. 107-252 ; 52 U.S.C. §§20901-21145) was enacted in response to issues with the administration of the 2000 elections.

The highest-profile problems in those elections were in Florida—where disputes about the vote count delayed the resolution of the presidential race for weeks—but post-election hearings and reports identified issues with various aspects of election administration across multiple states.

1 Congress's response to those findings, in HAVA, spanned a correspondingly wide range of elections topics, from voting systems to voter identification to the accessibility of the electoral process to individuals with disabilities.

HAVA took three main approaches to the issues: (1) setting requirements for the administration of federal elections, (2) authorizing the first major federal grant programs for election administration, and (3) providing for creation of the election administration-dedicated U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC).

HAVA and the agency it created have continued to play a central role in congressional engagement with election administration issues since the act's enactment in 2002. For example, Congress responded to foreign efforts to interfere in the 2016 elections and the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the 2020 election cycle by providing new funding for a HAVA grant program administered by the EAC.

2 Members have also introduced legislation to revisit HAVA or the EAC or to extend them to address new aspects of election administration. This report provides an overview of HAVA and the ongoing role the act has played in policy discussions about election administration. It starts by describing major provisions of HAVA and then summarizes proposals to revisit or extend the act or the agency it created.

The report closes by briefly introducing some considerations that might be relevant to discussions of any future role for HAVA in federal policymaking on election administration. HAVA generally defines "state" as including the 50 states, the District of Columbia (DC), American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

3 Congress has considered proposals to expand that general definition to include the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), but none of those proposals has been enacted as of this writing. The Protection and Advocacy for Voting Access (PAVA) Program Inclusion Act ( P. L.

117-182 ) and the Confirmation of Congressional Observer Access (COCOA) Act of 2024 ( P. L.

118-106 )—which amended HAVA to extend eligibility for one of its grant programs to the protection and advocacy (P&A) systems serving CNMI and Native Americans in the Four Corners region of the country (American Indian consortium) and to address Congress's authority to send designees to observe states' federal election processes, respectively—define "state" for their purposes as including CNMI.

Some appropriations acts have also included language extending eligibility for certain other HAVA funding to CNMI. 4 Except in the context of the PAVA Program Inclusion Act, the COCOA Act, and relevant appropriations acts, this report typically uses HAVA's general definition of "state." Where the narrower meaning of the term is intended, the report uses the phrase "the 50 states."

Overview of Major Provisions A defining image of the 2000 elections was a picture of a member of a Florida county canvassing board inspecting a punch card ballot with a magnifying glass. 5 Florida's closely contested race would decide the 2000 presidential election.

One of the issues highlighted by litigation and recounts in the state was the challenge of interpreting incompletely punched "hanging" and "dimpled" chads left by the punch card voting systems used in some Florida counties. 6 Hearings and reporting on the 2000 elections emphasized, however, that the election administration issues that year were not limited to Florida or to punch card voting systems.

7 Those investigations identified other problems with voting systems. The lever voting machines used in some jurisdictions in 2000 could jam, for example, and did not produce paper trails that could be used to reconstruct votes cast on a jammed machine. 8 Confusing ballot formats contributed to high rates of "overvoting"—or making more selections for a given contest than permitted—in some counties.

9 The investigations also revealed issues with other aspects of the administration of the 2000 elections, beyond voting systems. For example, eligible voters who had been erroneously removed from the voter registration rolls were turned away from the polls in some states, and some polling places were moved or closed early without notice.

10 Witnesses representing military and overseas citizens, individuals with disabilities, and older individuals testified in congressional hearings about distinct obstacles to registration and voting by members of those groups.

11 Congress took three main approaches, in HAVA, to responding to issues highlighted by the 2000 elections: (1) setting requirements for the administration of federal elections, (2) authorizing elections grant programs, and (3) expanding agency support for election administration through creation of the EAC.

12 Some states and localities had adopted policies or technologies before the 2000 elections that may have helped prevent some of the issues encountered by other jurisdictions in 2000.

For example, voting systems that alerted voters who attempted to make multiple selections for a single office reportedly reduced overvoting in some cases, and statewide voter registration databases may have helped election officials in some states maintain more accurate voter rolls.

13 Provisional voting policies, which enabled voters whose eligibility was challenged at the polls to cast provisional ballots, may have helped mitigate some of the effects of voter registration list maintenance errors. 14 Other policy proposals were offered in post-2000 hearings and reports.

For example, technology experts suggested setting national standards for voting system auditability, and the U.S. Department of Defense's (DOD's) Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP), among others, proposed changes to military and overseas voting and registration processes. 15 HAVA was designed, in part, to standardize use of some of those policies and technologies in federal elections.

Title VII of the act amended existing federal law to incorporate some of the proposed changes to military and overseas voting and registration, and Title III set requirements for other aspects of the conduct of federal elections. The Title III requirements, as amended, are briefly summarized below. For details of those requirements and the Title VII provisions, respectively, see Table 1 and Appendix B .

16 Voting s ystems .

Require each state to set uniform standards for what counts as a vote on each type of voting system it uses, and require voting systems to offer voters the opportunity to check and correct their ballots; notify voters about overvoting; produce a manually auditable permanent paper record; provide for accessibility for individuals with disabilities; satisfy alternative language requirements of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA; P. L.

89-110 ), as amended; and meet specified error rate standards. Provisional v oting . Require election officials to permit certain voters, including voters whose names do not appear on the voter rolls, to cast provisional ballots; count provisional ballots cast by voters who are found to be eligible under state law to vote; and provide voters with specified options for checking the status of their provisional ballots.

Voting i nformation . Require election officials to post the following information at the polls: a sample ballot, the date of the election, polling place hours, instructions for voting and for complying with HAVA's requirements for mail registrants and first-time voters, and general information about voting rights and prohibitions on fraud and misrepresentation. Statewide v oter r egistration d atabases.

Require states to implement centralized, computerized statewide voter registration lists and follow specified procedures for maintaining them. 17 Voter i dentification . Require certain first-time voters who register by mail to provide one of a specified list of types of identification in order to cast a regular ballot.

Federal m ail v oter r egistration f orm . Require questions about citizenship and age, a statement about the new questions, and a statement about HAVA's voter ID requirement to be added to the federal mail voter registration form established by the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA; P. L.

103-31 ; 52 U.S.C. §§20501-20511), and require election officials to offer voters who fail to answer the citizenship question an opportunity to complete the form. Congressional election observers.

Require states to provide congressional election observers access to federal election processes—including to areas where ballots are cast, processed, scanned, tabulated, canvassed, recounted, audited, or certified—with specified limitations on observers' activities and conditions for their removal and replacement. 18 HAVA leaves decisions about how to implement—and, to a certain extent, enforce—its Title III requirements to the states.

The act directed the EAC to issue voluntary guidance for implementing the Title III requirements but leaves states discretion over exactly how to meet them. 19 It assigns federal enforcement of the requirements to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) but routes action by individual voters on violations through state-based administrative complaint procedures 20 rather than an explicit private right of action. 21 Table 1.

Requirements for Federal Elections Established by Title III of HAVA, as Amended Require voting systems to permit voters privately and independently to verify and change or correct their ballots before they are cast and counted; notify voters who have selected more than one candidate for a single office that they have overvoted, inform them of the effects of overvoting, and provide an opportunity to correct the ballot before it is cast and counted; a produce a manually auditable permanent paper record that is available as an official record for recounts, and permit voters to change or correct their ballots before the manually auditable permanent paper record is produced; be accessible to individuals with disabilities in a manner that provides them the same opportunity for access and participation as other voters, through use of at least one direct recording electronic voting system or other accessible voting system at each polling place; b provide alternative language accessibility as required by Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended; and comply with the error rate standards established by Section 3.

2. 1 of the Federal Election Commission's 1990 Voting Systems Standards. Require each state to adopt uniform and nondiscriminatory standards for what constitutes and will be counted as a vote for each type of voting system it uses.

Require individuals who do not appear on the official list of eligible voters or whose eligibility to vote is otherwise challenged by an election official to be permitted to cast a provisional ballot if they provide written affirmation that they are registered in the jurisdiction and eligible to vote in the election.

Require election officials to notify eligible individuals that they may cast a provisional ballot; transmit provisional ballots to the appropriate officials for prompt verification; count provisional ballots cast by individuals they find to be eligible under state law to vote; establish a free access system individuals can use to check the status of their provisional ballots; provide individuals who cast provisional ballots with written information about the free access system; and establish and maintain procedures to protect the security, confidentiality, and integrity of personal information collected, stored, or otherwise used by the free access system.

Require individuals who vote during certain extended polling place hours to cast provisional rather than regular ballots, and require those ballots to be held apart from other provisional ballots.

d Require election officials to post the following information at the polls: a sample ballot; information about the date of the election and polling place hours; instructions for how to vote, including how to cast a vote and a provisional ballot; instructions about the Help America Vote Act of 2002's (HAVA's) requirements for mail-in registrants and first-time voters; general information about federal and state voting rights, including information about the right to cast a provisional ballot and how to report violations of voting rights; and general information about federal and state prohibitions on fraud and misrepresentation.

Statewide Voter Registration Databases e Require states to implement a single, uniform, official, centralized, interactive computerized statewide voter registration list that is defined, maintained, and administered at the state level; includes the name and registration information of all registered voters in the state; assigns each registered voter a unique identifier; and can be immediately electronically accessed by any election official in the state.

Require coordination of the statewide voter registration list with other agency databases in the state. Require voter registration information obtained by local election officials to be electronically entered into the list on an expedited basis, and require chief state election officials to provide any support required to facilitate expeditious entry of such information.

Require election officials to comply with provisions of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA) when removing individuals from the list and coordinate the list with state agency records on felony status and death for purposes of removing ineligible voters from the list.

g Require list maintenance under the above provisions to be conducted in a manner that ensures that the name of each registered voter appears in the computerized list, only voters who are not registered or are ineligible to vote are removed from the list, and duplicate names are removed from the list.

Require state or local officials to provide adequate technological security measures to prevent unauthorized access to the statewide voter registration list. Require provisions to ensure that voter registration records are accurate and regularly updated, including reasonable efforts to remove registrants who are not eligible to vote and safeguards against erroneous removal of eligible voters.

Require voter registration applicants who have a current and valid driver's license number or Social Security number to provide the license number or the last four digits of the Social Security number with their registration applications, and require states to verify the information applicants provide.

Require states to assign unique identifying numbers to voter registration applicants who have not been issued a current and valid license or Social Security number.

Require the official responsible for the state motor vehicle authority of each state to enter into data-matching agreements with the chief state election official of the state and the commissioner of Social Security for purposes of verifying the accuracy of information provided on voter registration applications. h 52 U.S.C.

§21083(b)(1)-(3) Require individuals who registered by mail, have not previously voted in a federal election in the state, and do not meet certain conditions to present one of a specified list of types of identification at the polls (if voting in person) or include a copy of such identification with their ballot (if voting by mail).

j Require individuals who fail to meet the voter identification requirement to be permitted to cast a provisional ballot or have their mail ballot treated as a provisional ballot.

Federal Mail Voter Registration Form Require the federal mail voter registration form to include questions about citizenship status and age and boxes for applicants to check in response, a statement that voters who check "no" in response to either of the questions should not complete the form, and a statement informing applicants who are registering for the first time by mail that identification information must be submitted with the registration form to avoid additional identification requirements when voting for the first time.

Require registrars to notify individuals who fail to answer the citizenship question that they did not answer the question and provide them with an opportunity to complete the form.

Congressional Election Observers k Require states to provide designated congressional election observers full access to all election administration procedures for federal elections, including to areas where ballots are cast, processed, scanned, tabulated, canvassed, recounted, audited, or certified.

Prohibit congressional election observers from handling ballots or election equipment, advocating for positions or candidates, taking any action to reduce ballot secrecy or voter privacy, taking any action to interfere with the ability of voters to cast a ballot or election administrators to perform their duties, or otherwise interfering with the election administration process.

Authorize election officials to remove a congressional election observer if they have a reasonable basis to believe that the observer has engaged or will imminently engage in intimidation or deceptive practices prohibited by federal law or in disrupting the casting, processing, scanning, tabulating, canvassing, or recounting of ballots or the certification of election results.

Require election officials to notify the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on House Administration or the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, as applicable, of the removal of a congressional election observer and the reason for the removal within 24 hours. Authorize the applicable chair or ranking minority member to replace a removed observer. Source: CRS analysis based on review of the U.S. Code .

Notes: The requirements in this table apply to elections for federal office. For example, the voting systems standards apply to voting systems used in federal elections. a.

HAVA authorizes jurisdictions that use paper ballot, punch card, or central count voting systems to meet this requirement by creating a voter education program that informs voters of the effects of overvoting and providing them with instructions for correcting overvotes before their ballots are cast and counted. b.

Voting systems purchased with requirements payments made available on or after January 1, 2007, are required to meet HAVA's standards for disability access. c. HAVA authorizes states that have not required voter registration on and since August 1, 1994, or that have permitted same-day registration on and since August 1, 1994, to use their existing voter registration procedures to satisfy the act's provisional voting requirements.

d. HAVA also requires individuals who do not meet its voter identification requirement to be allowed to cast a provisional ballot. For more on that requirement, see the "Voter Identification" section of this table.

e. HAVA's statewide voter registration database requirements do not apply to North Dakota, which does not require voter registration. f.

HAVA provided for this deadline to be extended to January 1, 2006, for states or jurisdictions that certified to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission by January 1, 2004, that they would not meet the original deadline for good cause. g.

HAVA indicates that states that have not required voter registration on and since August 1, 1994, or that have permitted same-day registration on and since August 1, 1994, should follow their state laws for removing ineligible voters from their voter registration lists rather than the HAVA requirements. h.

HAVA indicates that compliance with this requirement and the above two requirements is optional for states that are permitted to use, and provide for use of, Social Security numbers on voter registration applications, in accordance with Section 7 of the Privacy Act of 1974 ( P. L. 93-579 ).

i. HAVA indicates that these requirements apply to any individual who registers on or after January 1, 2003. j.

The relevant conditions are (1) registering to vote by mail under Section 6 of the NVRA and submitting a copy of acceptable identification with the registration; (2) registering to vote by mail under Section 6 of the NVRA, submitting a driver's license number or at least the last four digits of a Social Security number with the registration, and having the submitted information matched by an election official to an existing state identification record with the same number, name, and date of birth; or (3) being entitled to vote by absentee ballot under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act of 1986 or to vote other than in person under the Voting Accessibility for the Elderly and Handicapped Act of 1984 or any other federal law.

k. This requirement was added by the Confirmation of Congressional Observer Access (COCOA) Act of 2024 ( P. L.

118-106 ). Unlike the other requirements in the table, it applies to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Complying with HAVA's Title III requirements involved significant financial investments for many states and localities.

There were also other post-2000 changes to election processes—not addressed by the HAVA requirements—that states and localities wanted or needed to make. Congress accounted for both of those circumstances, in HAVA, with a pair of general grant programs that were designed to help states meet HAVA's Title III requirements and make certain general improvements to election administration.

HAVA also authorized grant programs to facilitate or incentivize action on specific issues or policy proposals, such as replacing lever and punch card voting systems. Those more specialized grant programs included programs related to voting technology, disability access, youth voter participation, and poll worker recruitment. Each of the grant programs authorized by HAVA is summarized below.

Information about the funding Congress has authorized and appropriated for each program as of this writing is available in Table 2 . For more on federal elections grant programs in general, see CRS Report R46646, Election Administration: Federal Grant Programs for States and Localities , by Karen L. Shanton.

Requirements p ayments p rogram. Grants to states for meeting requirements for the administration of federal elections. Administered by the EAC.

22 States are required by HAVA to provide a match for funding they receive under this program and a state plan for use of the funds. 23 Funding was initially authorized for this grant program primarily for helping states comply with HAVA's Title III requirements.

24 The Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment (MOVE) Act of 2009 amended HAVA to authorize additional funding for the program to help states meet new requirements for military and overseas voting and registration established by the MOVE Act. 25 General i mprovements g rant p rogram. Grants to states for making certain general improvements to election administration.

26 Administered by the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) and the EAC. 27 Lever and p unch c ard v oting s ystem r eplacement g rant p rogram . Grants to states that used lever or punch card voting systems in the November 2000 election for replacing those systems.

Administered by GSA and the EAC. States that accepted funding under this grant program were required to either replace all of their lever and punch card voting systems by a deadline specified by HAVA or repay a portion of the funds they received. 28 Voting t echnology i mprovements r esearch g rant p rogram .

Grants for researching and developing improvements to the quality, reliability, accuracy, accessibility, affordability, and security of election systems. Administered by the EAC, with support from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). 29 Voting t echnology p ilot p rogram g rant p rogram .

Grants for conducting pilot programs to test new voting technologies and implement them on a trial basis. Administered by the EAC, with support from NIST. Polling p lace a ccessibility g rant p rogram.

Grants to states and localities for improving the accessibility of polling places and sharing information about polling place accessibility. Administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). 30 Protection and a dvocacy (P&A) s ystem g rant p rogram .

Grants to P&A systems—state-level systems charged with empowering and advocating for individuals with disabilities—for conducting activities related to electoral access for individuals with disabilities. Administered by HHS. 31 Mock e lections g rant p rogram .

Grants for conducting voter education activities for students and their parents. Administered by the EAC. Help America Vote College Program.

Grant-making, among other program activities, for encouraging students at institutions of higher education to serve as poll workers and election officials to use their services. Administered by the EAC.

HAVA also authorized creation of a Help America Vote Foundation to perform a similar function for secondary school students, although the act's description of the foundation does not explicitly list grant-making among its authorized activities. 32 To help ensure that grant funds are used as intended, HAVA provides for funding audits and examinations.

33 It includes provisions for audits by the agencies that administer its grant programs, as well as special audits of any HAVA funding upon a vote of the EAC commissioners and regular audits of funding provided under the requirements payments program. 34 Table 2.

Funding Authorized and Appropriated for HAVA Grant Programs Amounts Authorized by HAVA a Requirements payments program FY2010 and subsequent fiscal years: Such sums as may be necessary b General improvements grant program 52 U.S.C. §§20901, 20903-20906 Lever and punch card voting system replacement grant program $650. 0 million (to be divided evenly between the two grant programs) FY2003: $650.

0 million (for combination of general improvements grant program and lever and punch card voting system replacement grant program) e FY2018: $380. 0 million (for general improvements grant program) f , g FY2020: