John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2025

Key Points

• The bill restores federal preclearance requirements for states and localities with a pattern of voting discrimination. States with 15 or more voting rights violations in the past 25 years, or 10 violations if at least one was committed by the state itself, must get federal approval before changing election rules. Local jurisdictions with 3 or more violations face the same requirement.
• Even in places not covered by the general preclearance formula, certain specific election changes must get federal approval if they affect areas with large minority populations. These "covered practices" include switching to at-large elections, changing voter ID rules, reducing polling locations or voting hours on Sundays, cutting multilingual voting materials, and altering voter roll maintenance processes.
• States must publicly post information about any changes to voting rules at least 48 hours after making them, and must share details about polling place resources like voting machines and poll workers at least 30 days before a federal election. All notices must be accessible to people with disabilities.
• The bill creates new federal crimes for using force or threats to intimidate voters, election workers, or poll watchers, with penalties up to 6 months in prison or $2,500 in fines. Penalties increase to up to 1 year in prison and $5,000 in fines if a dangerous weapon is involved or bodily injury results.
• The bill strengthens legal standards for proving voting discrimination by codifying protections against both vote dilution and vote denial. Courts must consider factors like a history of voting discrimination, racially polarized voting, and burdensome ID requirements when evaluating whether a law violates minority voting rights.
• Bilingual election material requirements are extended from 2032 to 2037, and the bill makes it easier for voters and the Attorney General to go to court to block discriminatory voting practices before they take effect. Courts are told to give substantial weight to the public interest in expanding ballot access.