Expanding the VOTE Act

Sponsor: Alex Padilla (Democratic-CA)

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Introduced

In Committee

Passed One Chamber

Passed Both Chambers

Signed into Law

Read twice and referred to the Committee on Rules and Administration.

Expands language help for voters and Native American communities.

This bill would help voters who speak other languages, including American Indian and Alaska Native communities, get election information in their native languages. It would update rules to cover digital voting materials and set up a grant program to help local areas offer more language support. The bill also asks for a study on how to give even more language help.

What Would Change

Today, federal law requires language assistance for voting based on 1990 census data and specific population thresholds, mainly for printed materials. This bill would update the census data to the most recent information, explicitly include digital voting materials, and create specific rules for American Indian and Alaska Native languages. It would also establish a $15,000,000 grant program to encourage more local areas to offer language assistance beyond what is currently required.

Key Provisions

Updates the census data used to decide which language minority groups get voting assistance.
Includes digital voting materials, like websites and online forms, in the types of materials that must be translated.
Allows American Indian and Alaska Native Tribal governments to choose oral-only language help if their language is unwritten or they prefer it.
Requires states to provide written translations of all voting materials to election workers, with Tribal government consent, for accurate help.
Creates a $15,000,000 grant program to help states and local areas offer voting materials in languages not currently required by law.
Requires the head of the Government Accountability Office (GAO), called the Comptroller General, to study lowering the population thresholds for language assistance and adding languages like Arabic, French, and Haitian Creole.

View on Congress.gov

S 2589 · 119th Congress · AI Summary by gemini-2.5-flash · 7/10

Expanding the VOTE Act

What Would Change

Key Provisions

Lobbying Activity