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# Legislative Bulletin.......................................September 6, 2007

**Contents:**

> **H.R. 811 ---** Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of
> 2007

**H.R. 811 --- Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of
2007**

***(Holt, D-NJ)***

**[Order of Business]{.underline}**: The bill is scheduled for
consideration on Thursday, September 6, 2007, likely subject to a closed
rule.

**[Summary]{.underline}**: H.R. 811 would make a number of changes to
federal election law, specifically regarding the audit capacity of
voting systems, as follows:

-   Requires that each voting system used in an election for federal
    office meet the following requirements:

    -   require the use of or produce an individual, durable,
        voter-verified paper ballot of the voter's vote that is to be
        created by or made available for inspection and verification by
        the voter before the voter's vote is cast and counted;

    -   provide the voter with an opportunity to correct any error made
        by the system; and

    -   must not preserve the voter-verified paper ballots in any manner
        that makes it possible, at any time, to associate a voter with
        the record of the voter's vote.

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-   Requires paper ballots to be suitable for a manual audit equivalent
    to that of a paper ballot voting system, and to be counted by hand
    in any recount or audit conducted with respect to any election for
    federal office.

-   Establishes certain rules for the treatment of disputes when paper
    ballots have been shown to be compromised.

-   Authorizes \$3 million for the National Institute of Standards and
    Technology (NIST) to study, test, and develop best practices to
    enhance the accessibility of ballot verification mechanisms for
    individuals with disabilities, for voters whose primary language is
    not English, and for voters with difficulties in literacy. The
    Director of the Institute is specifically required to investigate
    existing and potential methods or devices that will assist these
    individual sand voters in creating voter-verified paper ballots.

-   Prohibits the use of any wireless, power-line, or concealed
    communication device from being used for any voting system, except
    those certified for use by the state and which cannot be used for
    any remote or wide-area communications or used without the knowledge
    of poll workers.

-   Requires the manufacturers of and election officials for any voting
    system used in a federal election to meet certain requirements,
    including documenting the secure chain of custody for the handling
    of all software, hardware, vote storage media, ballots, and
    voter-verified ballots used in connection with the system.

-   Requires election officials, at each polling place for a federal
    election to offer each individual who is eligible to cast a vote,
    the opportunity to cast the vote using a pre-printed paper ballot
    which the individual may mark by hand and which is not produced by a
    direct recording electronic voting machine.

-   Authorizes such sums as necessary for the Election Assistance
    Commission to establish an escrow account (to be known as the
    Testing Escrow Account), to be used for making payments to
    accredited laboratories for the costs of the testing carried out in
    connection with the certification, decertification, and
    recertification of voting system hardware and software.

-   **Establishes a new grant program at NIST**, to be used to provide
    grants to at least three eligible entities (defined in the bill) to
    conduct research on the development of election-dedicated voting
    system software. The bill authorizes \$1.5 million for each of
    fiscal years 2007 and 2008 for this new program.

-   **Authorizes \$1 billion in FY 2007** for grants to states to cover
    the cost of producing a paper record of each voter's ballot.

-   Allows individuals aggrieved by a violation of this law to file a
    written complaint with the Attorney General.

-   Requires states to administer, without advance notice to the
    precincts selected, audits of the results of elections for federal
    office, consisting of random hand counts of the voter-verified paper
    ballots, and outlines certain courses of actions based upon the
    results of these audits.

-   Directs the Election Assistance Commission to make payments to
    states to cover the costs incurred by a state in carrying out random
    precinct audits. The bill authorizes \$100 million in FY 2008, and
    each succeeding year, for these payments. According to CBO, the
    Election Assistance Commission would need "more than 30 new staff"
    in order to carry out the provisions of this legislation.

All of the provisions of this legislation would be effective for the
**[November 2008]{.underline}** election, except for the requirement
that paper ballots be available at all polling places for federal
elections (November 2010).

**[Additional Information]{.underline}**: According to the Minority
Views included in Committee Report
[110-154](http://www.congress.gov/cgi-lis/cpquery/R?cp110:FLD010:@1(hr154)):

> "In our view, H.R. 811 would not accomplish the objectives that the
> majority purports are needed to ensure integrity and increased voter
> confidence in U.S. elections. In fact, this bill would do everything
> to promote a false sense of security and diminish confidence in our
> elections. H.R. 811 would undermine the goals and the true reforms of
> the bipartisan Help America Vote Act of 2002. ...If the goal is to
> provide a secure fraud-proof election process, which we support, H.R.
> 811 as currently written falls woefully short and in the words of one
> election official in one of the largest counties in the nation, is
> 'ill-conceived and unworkable'."

The Minority Views outline in detail the opinion of Minority Members on
the Committee and their list of concerns associated with the
legislation. To view the entire section, please see the [Committee
Report](http://www.congress.gov/cgi-lis/cpquery/R?cp110:FLD010:@1(hr154)).

**[Possible Conservative Concerns]{.underline}**: Some conservatives may
be concerned at the numerous federal mandates on states and localities
contained in this legislation, as well as the fast-approaching deadline
(November 2008) for the compliance with such mandates. A group that
represents the vendors of the optical scanners to produce paper ballots
told an RSC office that it could take up to 54 months to make the
updates required by this legislation---far beyond the November 2008
deadline.

Some conservatives may also be concerned at the explicit prohibition on
the use of new voting technologies (i.e. the use of the Internet,
wireless technologies, etc.) and the requirement that paper ballots be
available at all polling places holding federal elections, thereby
preventing that voting practices from keeping pace with modern
technological and security advances.

**[Committee Action]{.underline}**: H.R. 811 was introduced on February
5, 2007, and referred to the Committee on

House Administration, which considered it, held a mark up, and passed
the bill by a vote of 6-3, on May 16, 2007.

**[Cost to Taxpayers]{.underline}**: According to CBO, implementing H.R.
811 would authorize about \$1 billion in FY 2007, and about \$1.6
billion over six years.

**[Does the Bill Expand the Size and Scope of the Federal
Government?]{.underline}**: Yes, the program creates two new programs.

**[Does the Bill Contain Any New State-Government, Local-Government, or
Private-Sector Mandates?]{.underline}**: CBO notes that the Unfunded
Mandates Reform Act specifically excludes from the application of that
Act any legislative provisions that enforce the constitutional rights of
individuals. CBO has determined that the provisions of H.R. 811 would
fall within that exclusion because they would protect individuals'
voting rights. Therefore, CBO has not reviewed this bill for mandates.

Nevertheless, the bill contains numerous mandates on states and
localities, as detailed above. Although the bill does authorize federal
funds to help states and localities comply with these mandates, the
early deadline (November 2008) is widely seen as nearly impossible to
meet.

**[Earmark Compliance]{.underline}**: According to the Committee Report,
the "H.R. 811 does not contain any congressional earmarks, limited tax
benefits, or limited tariff benefits as defined in clause 9(d), 9(e), or
9(t) of rule XXI."

**[Constitutional Authority]{.underline}**: The House Administration
Committee cites Article I, Section 4 of the Constitution, Clause 1 of
which grants Congress the power to "at any time by Law make or alter
such Regulations \[on the state-prescribed election procedures\]."

**[Staff Contact]{.underline}**: Joelle Cannon,
<joelle.cannon@mail.house.gov>, X69717; or

Paul Teller, <paul.teller@mail.house.gov>, x69718.

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