H.R. 4894: Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Prevention Act of 2025

The bill's findings read like a timeline of voter deception in America. In 1990, thousands of voters — mostly African American — received postcards with fake warnings about criminal penalties for voter fraud. In 2006, Latino voters got Spanish-language mailers falsely warning that immigrant voters could be jailed, despite the fact that naturalized citizens have the same right to vote as anyone else. In 2008, fliers in Black neighborhoods claimed that anyone with an unpaid parking ticket or outstanding warrant could be arrested at the polls. In 2012, voters got calls saying they could 'vote by telephone.' Same playbook, different decade.

The bill's findings document an escalation in 2020: roughly 3 million robocalls telling people to stay home on Election Day, nearly 32,000 calls to the Election Protection hotline that same day, and armed civilians at polling sites in Florida, North Carolina, and Louisiana.

In 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed the conviction of a man who'd used social media in 2016 to tell Hillary Clinton supporters they could 'vote by text.' The court said prosecutors hadn't proven a conspiracy. The bill identifies that reversal as the reason for a new law: there is no current federal statute that directly criminalizes knowingly lying to voters, so prosecutors have to retrofit conspiracy or civil-rights statutes that weren't built for it.

H.R. 4894 would do four things. It makes it a federal crime, punishable by up to 1 year in prison, to knowingly spread materially false information about when, where, or how to vote within 60 days of a federal election. The prohibition explicitly covers content generated by AI. It requires the Attorney General to publish corrective public information when state and local officials don't move fast enough, under written procedures the Justice Department has to release within 180 days of enactment. It lets election officials sue people who intimidate them at polling places, and creates a separate federal crime for intimidating workers who count or certify ballots. It also closes a Voting Rights Act loophole by banning payments not just for voting, but for refraining from voting.

The bill has 34 cosponsors, all Democrats, and was referred to the House Judiciary Committee in August 2025. A companion bill, S. 2912, is sitting in the Senate Judiciary Committee.