1. Short title This Act may be cited as the People Over Long Lines Act or the POLL Act . 2. Findings Congress makes the following findings: (1) The right to vote for all Americans is fundamental and rules for voting and election administration should protect the right to vote and promote voter participation. (2) It is the responsibility of the State and Federal governments to ensure that every eligible citizen is able to register to vote and to cast a ballot. (3) There continues to be an alarming movement to erect barriers to make it more difficult for Americans to participate in our Nation’s democratic process. The Nation has witnessed unprecedented efforts to turn back the clock and erect barriers to voting for communities of color, which have faced historic and continuing discrimination, as well as disabled, young, elderly, and low-income Americans. (4) One way voting in communities of color has been suppressed is through long waits at polling locations. Studies have shown a number of contributing factors, including the drastic reduction of early voting days, poor allocation of resources to certain communities, cuts to election funding, and a reduction of polling locations. (5) A 2019 study led by economist Keith Chen of the University of California, Los Angeles, matched anonymous location data from 10,000,000 smart phones to 93,000 polling places to create the most extensive map to date of voter wait times across the United States. The results showed one very clear disparity: voters in predominantly Black neighborhoods waited 29 percent longer, on average, than those in White neighborhoods. They were also about 74 percent more likely to wait for more than half an hour. (6) Waiting in long lines discourages people from voting, undermines confidence in the electoral system, and imposes economic costs on voters. (7) Long lines are estimated to have deterred between 500,000 and 700,000 people from casting their ballot in 2012. (8) These problems led to the creation of the bipartisan Presidential Commission on