United States S 3142: Election Worker and Polling Place Protection Act

Bill Text

II
117TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION S. 3142
To protect election workers and polling places.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
NOVEMBER 2, 2021
Mr. OSSOFF introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred
to the Committee on the Judiciary
A BILL
To protect election workers and polling places.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Election Worker and 4
Polling Place Protection Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. ELECTION WORKER AND POLLING PLACE PROTEC-6
TION. 7
Section 11 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (52 8
U.S.C. 10307) is amended by adding at the end the fol-9
lowing: 10
‘‘(f)(1) Whoever, whether or not acting under color 11
of law, by force or threat of force, or violence, or threat 12
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•S 3142 IS
of harm to any person or property, willfully intimidates 1
or interferes with, or attempts to intimidate or interfere 2
with, the ability of any person or any class of persons to 3
vote or qualify to vote, or to qualify or act as a poll watch-4
er, or any legally authorized election official, in any pri-5
mary, special, or general election, or any person who is, 6
or is employed by, an agent, contractor, or vendor of a 7
legally authorized election official assisting in the adminis-8
tration of any primary, special, or general election, shall 9
be fined not more than $5,000, or imprisoned not more 10
than one year, or both; and if bodily injury results from 11
the acts committed in violation of this paragraph or if 12
such acts include the use, attempted use, or threatened 13
use of a dangerous weapon, explosives, or fire, shall be 14
fined not more than $5,000 or imprisoned not more than 15
5 years, or both. 16
‘‘(2) Whoever, whether or not acting under color of 17
law, willfully physically damages or threatens to physically 18
damage any physical property being used as a polling 19
place or tabulation center or other election infrastructure, 20
with the intent to interfere with the administration of an 21
election or the tabulation or certification of votes, shall 22
be fined not more than $5,000, or imprisoned not more 23
than one year, or both; and if bodily injury results from 24
the acts committed in violation of this paragraph or if 25
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•S 3142 IS
such acts include the use, attempted use, or threatened 1
use of a dangerous weapon, explosives, or fire, shall be 2
fined not more than $5,000 or imprisoned not more than 3
5 years, or both. 4
‘‘(3) For purposes of this subsection, de minimus 5
damage or threats of de minimus damage to physical prop-6
erty shall not be considered a violation of this subsection. 7
‘‘(4) For purposes of this subsection, the term ‘elec-8
tion infrastructure’ means any office of an election official, 9
staff, worker, or volunteer or any physical, mechanical, or 10
electrical device, structure, or tangible item used in the 11
process of creating, distributing, voting, returning, count-12
ing, tabulating, auditing, storing, or other handling of 13
voter registration or ballot information. 14
‘‘(g) No prosecution of any offense described in this 15
subsection may be undertaken by the United States, ex-16
cept under the certification in writing of the Attorney Gen-17
eral, or a designee, that— 18
‘‘(1) the State does not have jurisdiction; 19
‘‘(2) the State has requested that the Federal 20
Government assume jurisdiction; or 21
‘‘(3) a prosecution by the United States is in 22
the public interest and necessary to secure substan-23
tial justice.’’. 24
Æ
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