HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 1743        FILED ON: 1/13/2009

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 579

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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In the Year Two Thousand Nine

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An Act relative to verification of citizenship when registering to vote..

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
 

SECTION1. Chapter 56 of the General Laws is hereby amended by adding after section 4 the following section:—

Section 4A. Any person registering to vote for the first time in the Commonwealth shall provide verification of U.S. citizenship. Such verification shall include one of the following: a birth certificate, passport or United States naturalization papers.

Any person who transfers, alters, or defaces any such card or license or who makes, uses, carries, sells, or distributes a false identification for the purposes of voting illegally shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be punished by a fine of not more than five hundred dollars.