1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Voting Innovation Prize Act of 2018 . 2. Findings Congress finds the following: (1) In May 2018, the Pew Research Center found that the United States trails most developed countries in voter turnout. Nearly 56 percent of the United States voting-age population cast ballots in the 2016 Presidential election. The Census Bureau estimated that there were 245.5 million Americans ages 18 and older in November 2016, about 157.6 million of whom reported being registered to vote. Turnout calculations usually are based on the estimated voting-age population (VAP). The 55.7 percent VAP turnout in 2016 puts the United States behind most of its peers in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), most of whose members are highly developed, democratic states. Looking at the most recent nationwide election in each OECD nation, the United States placed 26th out of 32. (2) Also in May 2018, the Pew Research Center found that registered voters represent a much smaller share of potential voters in the United States than in most other OECD countries. Only about 64 percent of the voting-age population (and 70 percent of voting-age citizens) was registered in 2016, according to the Census Bureau report, compared with 91 percent in Canada (2015) and the UK (2017), 96 percent in Sweden (2014), and 99 percent in Slovakia (2016). (3) Historians and election experts have catalogued a long history in the United States of racially suppressive voting measures such as poll taxes and literacy tests, put in place under the guise of stopping voter fraud that was not actually occurring in the first place. The effects persist today. People of color residing in States with a history of voting discrimination had fewer places to vote in 2016, and, on average, minorities, including Hispanics and African Americans, experience longer wait times at the polls than white voters. Strict voter ID laws disproportionately burden voters of color, and purging voter rolls unduly targets people of