42 U.S.C. § 1974
Section 1974 · Retention and preservation of records and papers by officers of elections; deposit with custodian; penalty for violation
This is the Civil Rights Act of 1960
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 13 court decisions — leading case 104 F. Supp. 2d 18 - Scolaro v. District of Columbia Bd. of Elections and Ethics (2000)
Most recently applied in Project Vote, Inc. v. Kemp (September 2016)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Every officer of election shall retain and preserve, for a period of twenty-two months from the date of any general, special, or primary election of which candidates for the office of President, Vice President, presidential elector, Member of the Senate, Member of the House of Representatives, or Resident Commissioner from the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico are voted for, all records and papers which come into his possession relating to any application, registration, payment of poll tax, or other act requisite to voting in such election, except that, when required by law, such records and papers may be delivered to another officer of election and except that, if a State or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico designates a custodian to retain and preserve these records and papers at a specified place, then such records and papers may be deposited with such custodian, and the duty to retain and preserve any record or paper so deposited shall devolve upon such custodian. Any officer of election or custodian who willfully fails to comply with this section shall be fined not more than $1,000 or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Short Title
Section 1 of Pub. L. 86–449 provided that: “This Act [enacting this subchapter and sections 837, 1074, and 1609 of Title 18, Crimes and Criminal Procedure, and amending section 1971 of this title and sections 241 and 640 of Title 20, Education] may be cited as the ‘Civil Rights Act of 1960’.”