I 

117TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1294 

To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to prohibit the participation 

of foreign entities in the administration of elections for Federal office. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

FEBRUARY 24, 2021 

Mr. GOHMERT 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 prohibit 

the participation of foreign entities in the administration 

of elections for Federal office. 

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; SENSE OF CONGRESS. 

4 (a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 

5 ‘‘Foreign-Free Elections Act’’. 

6 (b) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con7 gress that— 

8 (1) because Federal elections decide the future 

9 of American citizens, it is unacceptable to have any 

10 foreign participation in these elections; and 


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1 (2) elections in the United States should be car2 ried out with the highest degree of integrity and 

3 safeguards to ensure legality and United States con4 trol, in order to prevent the disenfranchisement of 

5 legal voters. 

6 SEC. 2. PROHIBITING PARTICIPATION OF FOREIGN ENTI7 TIES IN ADMINISTRATION OF FEDERAL ELEC8 TIONS. 

9 (a) PROHIBITION.—Title III of the Help America 

10 Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21081 et seq.) is amended— 

11 (1) by redesignating sections 304 and 305 as 

12 sections 305 and 306; and 

13 (2) by inserting after section 303 the following 

14 new section: 

15 ‘‘SEC. 304. PROHIBITING PARTICIPATION OF FOREIGN EN16 TITIES IN ADMINISTRATION OF ELECTIONS. 

17 ‘‘(a) PROHIBITION.—Each State shall ensure that no 

18 foreign entity carries out any role in the administration 

19 of elections for Federal office in the State, including pro20 viding, maintaining, programming, operating, storing, or 

21 compiling any of the equipment, software, supplies, or in22 formation used in the administration of the election. 

23 ‘‘(b) ROLE OF NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS.—A non24 profit organization may not carry out any activities related 


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1 to voting or elections for public office in a State if the 

2 organization accepts any funds from a foreign entity. 

3 ‘‘(c) FOREIGN ENTITY DEFINED.—In this section, 

4 the term ‘foreign entity’ means— 

5 ‘‘(1) any individual who is not a citizen or na6 tional of the United States; 

7 ‘‘(2) any person who is a foreign principal de8 scribed in section 1(b) of the of the Foreign Agents 

9 Registration Act of 1938, as amended (22 U.S.C. 

10 611(b)); 

11 ‘‘(3) any partnership, association, corporation, 

12 or other business organization in which any indi13 vidual described in paragraph (1) or any person de14 scribed in paragraph (2) directly or indirectly owns 

15 or controls any voting share or directly or indirectly 

16 has any ownership interest; and 

17 ‘‘(4) any person (including a citizen or national 

18 of the United States) who, at the time of carrying 

19 out any role requiring connection to or use of the 

20 Internet in the administration of an election for 

21 Federal office, is not present in a State, the District 

22 of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, 

23 Guam, American Samoa, the United States Virgin 

24 Islands, or the Commonwealth of the Northern Mar25 iana Islands.’’. 


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1 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT RELATING TO EN2 FORCEMENT.—Section 401 of such Act (52 U.S.C. 21111) 

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

4 304’’. 

5 (c) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of contents 

6 of such Act is amended— 

7 (1) by redesignating the items relating to sec8 tions 304 and 305 as relating to sections 305 and 

9 306; and 

10 (2) by inserting after the item relating to sec11 tion 303 the following new item: 

‘‘Sec. 304. Prohibiting participation of foreign entities in administration of elections.’’. 

Æ 


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