I 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 4777 

To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require States to take 

steps to ensure domestic ownership and control of election service providers, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

OCTOBER 21, 2019 

Mr. VAN DREW (for himself, Ms. KENDRA S. HORN of Oklahoma, Mr. FORTENBERRY, Mr. STEUBE, Ms. SPANBERGER, Ms. TORRES SMALL of New 

Mexico, Mr. YOUNG, and Mr. CRENSHAW) introduced the following bill; 

which was referred to the Committee on House Administration 

A BILL 

To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require 

States to take steps to ensure domestic ownership and 

control of election service providers, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Protect our Elections 

5 Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. ENSURING DOMESTIC OWNERSHIP AND CONTROL 

2 OF ELECTION SYSTEMS. 

3 (a) IN GENERAL.—Title III of the Help America 

4 Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21083 et seq.) is amended— 

5 (1) by redesignating sections 304 and 305 as 

6 sections 305 and 306; and 

7 (2) by inserting after section 303 the following 

8 new section: 

9 ‘‘SEC. 304. ENSURING DOMESTIC OWNERSHIP AND CON10 TROL OF ELECTION SYSTEMS. 

11 ‘‘(a) REQUIRING ELECTION SERVICE PROVIDERS TO

12 BE QUALIFIED.—Each State, unit of local government, or 

13 component of a State or unit of local government which 

14 is responsible for the administration of an election for 

15 Federal office shall ensure that each election service pro16 vider who provides, supports, or maintains any component 

17 of an election system used in the administration of the 

18 election is a qualified election service provider. 

19 ‘‘(b) ANNUAL EVALUATION TO ENSURE COMPLI20 ANCE.—Each State, unit of local government, or compo21 nent of a State or unit of local government which is re22 sponsible for the administration of an election for Federal 

23 office shall, not less frequently than once each calendar 

24 year, evaluate each election service provider to ensure that 

25 the election service provider is a qualified election service 

26 provider. 


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1 ‘‘(c) CYBERSECURITY BEST PRACTICES.—Not later 

2 than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this sec3 tion, the Chair of the Commission and the Secretary of 

4 Homeland Security shall establish and publish cybersecu5 rity best practices for election service providers who pro6 vide, support, or maintain election systems, and shall es7 tablish and publish updates to such best practices at such 

8 times as the Chair and the Secretary consider appropriate. 

9 ‘‘(d) GUIDANCE AND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE.— 

10 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Chair of the Commis11 sion and the Secretary of Homeland Security may 

12 provide such guidance and technical assistance as 

13 may be appropriate to assist each State, unit of local 

14 government, or component of a State or unit of local 

15 government which is responsible for the administra16 tion of an election for Federal office with its obliga17 tions under this section. 

18 ‘‘(2) DATABASE OF QUALIFIED ELECTION SERV19 ICE PROVIDERS.—As part of providing guidance and 

20 technical assistance under this subsection, the Com21 mission shall establish and maintain a database in 

22 which each State, unit of local government, or com23 ponent of a State or unit of local government which 

24 is responsible for the administration of an election 

25 for Federal office can verify whether an election 


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1 service provider is a qualified election service pro2 vider. 

3 ‘‘(e) ELECTION SERVICE PROVIDER AND QUALIFIED

4 ELECTION SERVICE PROVIDER DEFINED.— 

5 ‘‘(1) ELECTION SERVICE PROVIDER.—In this 

6 section, the term ‘election service provider’ means 

7 any person providing, supporting, or maintaining an 

8 election system on behalf of an election agency, such 

9 as a contractor or vendor. 

10 ‘‘(2) QUALIFIED ELECTION SERVICE PRO11 VIDER.— 

12 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—In this section, the 

13 term ‘qualified election service provider’ means 

14 an election service provider who meets each of 

15 the following criteria, as established and pub16 lished by the Chair of the Commission in co17 ordination with the Secretary of Homeland Se18 curity: 

19 ‘‘(i) Except as provided in subpara20 graph (C), the election service provider is 

21 solely owned and controlled by United 

22 States persons or persons described in sub23 paragraph (B). 


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1 ‘‘(ii) The election service provider sub2 mits in accordance with section 3(a) of the 

3 Protect our Elections Act— 

4 ‘‘(I) notice of any material 

5 change in ownership or control of the 

6 election service provider; and 

7 ‘‘(II) any other information re8 quired to be reported under that sec9 tion. 

10 ‘‘(iii) The election service provider 

11 agrees to ensure that the election systems 

12 will be developed and maintained in a man13 ner that is consistent with the cybersecu14 rity best practices established under sub15 section (c). 

16 ‘‘(iv) The election service provider 

17 agrees to maintain its information tech18 nology infrastructure in a manner that is 

19 consistent with the cybersecurity best prac20 tices established under subsection (c). 

21 ‘‘(v) The election service provider 

22 shall report any known or suspected inci23 dents involving election systems to the 

24 chief State election official of the State inVerDate Sep 11 2014 19:33 Oct 27, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4777.IH H4777

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1 volved or the official’s designee, the Chair, 

2 and the Secretary. 

3 ‘‘(B) PERSONS DESCRIBED.—For purposes 

4 of subparagraph (A)(i), a person described in 

5 this subparagraph is a corporation or business 

6 entity that is created or organized under the 

7 laws of a country that is party to the UK–USA 

8 Agreement for joint cooperation in signals intel9 ligence, military intelligence, and human intel10 ligence, also known as the ‘Five Eyes alliance’. 

11 ‘‘(C) PERMITTING WAIVER OF DOMESTIC

12 OWNERSHIP AND CONTROL REQUIREMENT FOR

13 CERTAIN SUBSIDIARIES.—The Secretary of 

14 Homeland Security may waive the requirement 

15 of clause (i) of subparagraph (A) with respect 

16 to a person who is a United States subsidiary 

17 of a parent company which has implemented a 

18 foreign ownership or control mitigation plan 

19 that has been approved by the Secretary. Such 

20 plan shall ensure that the parent company can21 not control, influence, or direct the subsidiary 

22 in any manner that would compromise or influ23 ence, or give the appearance of compromising 

24 or influencing, the independence and integrity 

25 of an election. 


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1 ‘‘(D) INCIDENT DEFINED.—For purposes 

2 of subparagraph (A)(v), the term ‘incident’ has 

3 the meaning given that term in section 

4 3552(b)(2) of title 44, United States Code. 

5 ‘‘(f) ELECTION SYSTEM DEFINED.—In this section, 

6 the term ‘election system’ means a voting system, an elec7 tion management system, a voter registration website or 

8 database, an electronic pollbook, a system for tabulating 

9 or reporting election results, an election agency commu10 nications system, or any other information system (as de11 fined in section 3502 of title 44, United States Code) that 

12 the Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with 

13 the Commission, identifies as central to the management, 

14 support, or administration of a Federal election. 

15 ‘‘(g) OWNERSHIP AND CONTROL DEFINED.—The 

16 Commission, in consultation with the Secretary of the 

17 Treasury, shall issue regulations defining the terms ‘own18 ership’ and ‘control’ for purposes of this section.’’. 

19 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT RELATING TO EN20 FORCEMENT.—Section 401 of such Act (52 U.S.C. 21111) 

21 is amended by striking ‘‘and 303’’ and inserting ‘‘303, and 

22 304’’. 

23 (c) CLERICAL AMENDMENTS.—The table of contents 

24 of such Act is amended— 


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1 (1) by redesignating the items relating to sec2 tions 304 and 305 as relating to sections 305 and 

3 306; and 

4 (2) by inserting after the item relating to sec5 tion 303 the following new item: 

‘‘Sec. 304. Ensuring domestic ownership and control of election systems.’’. 

6 (d) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 

7 this section shall apply with respect to elections for Fed8 eral office held in 2020 or any succeeding year. 

9 SEC. 3. INFORMATION SHARING WITH RESPECT TO OWNER10 SHIP OF ELECTION SERVICE PROVIDERS. 

11 (a) IN GENERAL.—Each election service provider 

12 shall submit to the Secretary of Homeland Security, the 

13 Election Assistance Commission, and appropriate State or 

14 local governmental entities the following: 

15 (1) Not later than the date that is 90 days 

16 after the later of the date of the enactment of this 

17 section or the date that a person first becomes an 

18 election service provider, a report listing the identity 

19 of any foreign national (as defined in section 319(b) 

20 of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (52 

21 U.S.C. 30121(b))) who directly or indirectly owns or 

22 controls such election service provider and the per23 centage of such ownership, and any other informa24 tion necessary to determine whether the election 


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1 service provider is a qualified election service pro2 vider. 

3 (2) Not later than 90 days after the date of any 

4 material change in ownership or control of such elec5 tion service provider, a notice of such change and an 

6 update of any information previously reported under 

7 paragraph (1). 

8 (b) CIVIL PENALTY FOR FAILURE TO REPORT.—If 

9 an election service provider fails to submit a report re10 quired under subsection (a), the Attorney General may, 

11 after notice and opportunity for hearing, impose a civil 

12 fine of $20,000. 

13 (c) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

14 (1) APPROPRIATE STATE OR LOCAL GOVERN15 MENTAL ENTITY.—The term ‘‘appropriate State or 

16 local governmental entity’’ means, with respect to an 

17 election service provider, any State or local govern18 mental entity that the election service provider seeks 

19 to contract with, contracts with, or otherwise pro20 vides services to provide, support, or maintain an 

21 election system. 

22 (2) ELECTION SERVICE PROVIDER; ELECTION

23 SYSTEM; QUALIFIED ELECTION SERVICE PRO24 VIDER.—The terms ‘‘election service provider’’, 

25 ‘‘election system’’, and ‘‘qualified election service 


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1 provider’’ have the meaning given those terms in 

2 section 304 of the Help America Vote Act of 2002, 

3 as added by section 2. 

Æ 


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