I 

114TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 5131 

To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to make improvements to 

voting system technology, election official training, and protecting voting 

system source code. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

APRIL 29, 2016 

Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia (for himself, Ms. PLASKETT, Mr. HASTINGS, Mr. 

RICHMOND, Ms. JACKSON LEE, Mr. DOGGETT, Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN, 

Mr. COHEN, Ms. PINGREE, and Mr. VEASEY) introduced the following 

bill; which was referred to the Committee on House Administration, and 

in addition to the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, for a 

period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for 

consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 

A BILL 

To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to make 

improvements to voting system technology, election official training, and protecting voting system source code. 

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 ‘‘Verifying Optimal 

5 Tools for Elections Act of 2016’’ or the ‘‘VOTE Act of 

6 2016’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. PAYMENTS TO STATES TO REPLACE OUTDATED 

2 VOTING MACHINES. 

3 (a) IN GENERAL.—Subtitle D of title II of the Help 

4 America Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21001 et seq.) is 

5 amended by adding at the end the following: 

6 ‘‘PART 7—OUTDATED VOTING MACHINES 

7 ‘‘SEC. 297. REPLACEMENT OF OUTDATED VOTING MA8 CHINES. 

9 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 45 days after the 

10 date of the enactment of the Verifying Optimal Tools for 

11 Elections Act of 2016, the Election Assistance Commis12 sion (referred to in this section as the ‘Commission’) shall 

13 make a payment to each State eligible under subsection 

14 (b) in which a precinct within that State used at least one 

15 outdated voting machine to administer the regularly 

16 scheduled general election for Federal office held in No17 vember 2012 (in this section referred to as a ‘qualifying 

18 precinct’). 

19 ‘‘(b) ELIGIBILITY.—A State is eligible to receive a 

20 payment under the program under this section if the 

21 State, not later than 6 months after the date of the enact22 ment of the Verifying Optimal Tools for Elections Act of 

23 2016, submits to the Commission a notice that contains 

24 such information as the Commission may require which 

25 are necessary for the administration of the program. 


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1 ‘‘(c) USE OF FUNDS.—A State shall use the funds 

2 provided under a payment under this section (either di3 rectly or as reimbursement, including as reimbursement 

4 for costs incurred on or after July 30, 2016, under 

5 multiyear contracts) to replace outdated voting machines 

6 in qualifying precincts within that State with voting ma7 chines (by purchase, lease, or such other arrangement as 

8 may be appropriate) that— 

9 ‘‘(1)(A) have never been used in any general 

10 election for Federal office and are not outdated vot11 ing machines; or 

12 ‘‘(B) have been used only with respect to gen13 eral elections for Federal office held after November 

14 2012; and 

15 ‘‘(2) are auditable (as defined in the report sub16 mitted by the Auditable Working Group of the Na17 tional Institute of Standards and Technology sub18 mitted to the Commission on January 4, 2011) and 

19 meet the requirements for such auditability specified 

20 in such report. 

21 ‘‘(d) CONDITION.—As a condition on receiving a pay22 ment under this section, a State shall provide funds, in23 kind contributions, or a combination of both, from sources 

24 other than funds provided through such payment in an 


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1 amount that is at least equal to one-third of the amount 

2 of such payment. 

3 ‘‘(e) AMOUNT OF PAYMENT.—The Commission shall 

4 determine the amount of payment made to a State under 

5 the program under this section based on— 

6 ‘‘(1) the number of outdated voting machines 

7 used by a qualifying precinct; and 

8 ‘‘(2) the number of the qualifying precincts 

9 within the State. 

10 ‘‘(f) ENFORCEMENT.—A State receiving a payment 

11 under the program under this section shall ensure that 

12 all of the outdated voting machines in the qualifying pre13 cincts within that State have been replaced in time for 

14 the regularly scheduled general election for Federal office 

15 to be held in November 2018. 

16 ‘‘(g) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 

17 are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section 

18 $125,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2017 and 

19 2018. 

20 ‘‘(h) OUTDATED VOTING MACHINE DEFINED.—The 

21 term ‘outdated voting machine’ means an electronic voting 

22 machine that, as of November 6, 2012, has been in use 

23 to administer an election on or before November 4, 

24 2008;’’. 


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1 (b) CONFORMING TABLE OF CONTENTS AMEND2 MENT.—The table of contents of the Help America Vote 

3 Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 20901 note) is amended by insert4 ing after the item related to section 296 (relating to the 

5 authorization of appropriations for the National Student 

6 and Parent Mock Election) the following: 

‘‘PART 7. GRANTS FOR EDUCATION AND TRAINING OF ELECTION OFFICIALS

‘‘Sec. 297. Replacement of outdated voting machines.’’. 

7 SEC. 3. ELECTION OFFICIAL TRAINING. 

8 (a) IN GENERAL.—Subtitle D of title II of the Help 

9 America Vote Act (52 U.S.C. 21001 et seq.), as amended 

10 by section 2, is further amended by adding at the end the 

11 following: 

12 ‘‘PART 8—GRANTS FOR EDUCATION AND 

13 TRAINING OF ELECTION OFFICIALS 

14 ‘‘SEC. 298. GRANTS FOR EDUCATION AND TRAINING OF 

15 ELECTION OFFICIALS. 

16 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Commission shall make 

17 grants to States to provide for the education and training, 

18 through the use of webinars or other appropriate means, 

19 of election officials and poll workers on voting machine 

20 maintenance, pre- and post-election voting machine test21 ing, the development of contingency plans, and such other 

22 topics as may be necessary for purposes of streamlining 

23 the voting process. 

24 ‘‘(b) GRANT.— 


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1 ‘‘(1) CERTIFICATION.—A State seeking a grant 

2 under this section shall submit to the Commission a 

3 certification in such form and manner as the Com4 mission may specify with respect to the State’s ex5 penditures in providing for the education and train6 ing described in subsection (a). 

7 ‘‘(2) AMOUNT.—The amount of a grant made 

8 to a State shall be determined by the Commission 

9 based on the Commission’s determination of the 

10 State’s reasonable costs incurred in providing the 

11 education and training described in subsection (a). 

12 ‘‘(3) TRANSMISSION OF GRANT/PAYMENT.—Not 

13 later than 30 days after the date on which the Com14 mission receives the certification specified in para15 graph (1), the Commission shall make a payment to 

16 the State in an amount equal to the amount of the 

17 grant determined for such State under paragraph 

18 (2). 

19 ‘‘(c) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 

20 are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section 

21 $50,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2017 through 

22 2018. 

23 ‘‘(d) STATE DEFINED.—In this section, the term 

24 ‘State’ means each State of the United States, the District 


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1 of Columbia, and each commonwealth and territory or pos2 session of the United States.’’. 

3 (b) CONFORMING TABLE OF CONTENTS AMEND4 MENT.—The table of contents of the Help America Vote 

5 Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 20901 note), as amended by sec6 tion 2, is further amended by inserting after the item re7 lated to section 297 (relating to the replacement of out8 dated voting machines) the following: 

‘‘PART 8. GRANTS FOR EDUCATION AND TRAINING OF ELECTION OFFICIALS

‘‘Sec. 298. Grants for education and training of election officials.’’. 

9 SEC. 4. GRANTS FOR RESEARCH ON VOTING TECHNOLOGY 

10 IMPROVEMENTS. 

11 (a) IN GENERAL.—Part 4 of subtitle D of title II 

12 of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21051 

13 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following 

14 new sections: 

15 ‘‘SEC. 284. GRANTS FOR TESTING OPEN SOURCE SOFT16 WARE. 

17 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Commission shall make 

18 grants to States or any political subdivision thereof to con19 duct pilot testing with respect to, and carry out the imple20 mentation of, voting systems that use— 

21 ‘‘(1) non-proprietary open source software; and 

22 ‘‘(2) commercial or custom firmware and hard23 ware. 


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1 ‘‘(b) CONDITION.—As a condition on receiving a 

2 grant under this section, a State (or a political subdivision 

3 thereof) shall submit to the Commission an exact copy of 

4 the source code for— 

5 ‘‘(1) each component of the voting system that 

6 is the subject of the grant, including complete build 

7 and configuration instructions and related docu8 ments for compiling the source code into object code; 

9 and 

10 ‘‘(2) any interactive enhancements made to 

11 such system within 30 days of such enhancements 

12 being made. 

13 ‘‘(c) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 

14 are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section 

15 $20,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2017 through 

16 2018. 

17 ‘‘(d) OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE DEFINED.—The 

18 term ‘open source software’ means software the license of 

19 which is made available under an open source license. 

20 ‘‘SEC. 285. GRANTS FOR A COMMON DATA FORMAT ALLOW21 ING FOR VOTING-EQUIPMENT DEVICE INTER22 OPERABILITY. 

23 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The National Institute of Stand24 ards and Technology shall develop, or make grants to one 


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1 or more eligible entities to develop, a common data format 

2 allowing for voting-equipment device interoperability. 

3 ‘‘(b) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 

4 are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section 

5 $5,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2017 through 

6 2018.’’. 

7 (b) CONFORMING TABLE OF CONTENTS AMEND8 MENT.—The table of contents of the Help America Vote 

9 Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 20901 note), as amended by sec10 tion 2, is further amended by inserting after the item re11 lated to section 283 (relating to the authorization of ap12 propriations for the pilot program for testing of equipment 

13 and technology) the following: 

‘‘284. Grants for testing open source software. 

‘‘285. Grants for a common data format allowing for voting-equipment device 

interoperability.’’. 

14 SEC. 5. DEPOSIT OF ELECTION-DEDICATED VOTING SYS15 TEM TECHNOLOGY IN NATIONAL SOFTWARE 

16 REFERENCE LIBRARY. 

17 (a) DEPOSIT REQUIRED; CONDITIONS FOR DISCLO18 SURE.—Section 301(a) of the Help America Vote Act of 

19 2002 (42 U.S.C. 15481(a)) is amended by adding at the 

20 end the following new paragraph: 

21 ‘‘(7) PROHIBITING USE OF ELECTION-DEDI22 CATED VOTING SYSTEM TECHNOLOGIES NOT DEPOS23 ITED WITH NATIONAL SOFTWARE REFERENCE LI24 BRARY; DISCLOSURE REQUIREMENTS.— 


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1 ‘‘(A) PROHIBITION.— 

2 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—A voting system 

3 used in an election for Federal office in a 

4 State may not at any time during the elec5 tion contain or use any election-dedicated 

6 voting system technology which is not de7 posited by the State (or, at the option of 

8 the State, by the vendor of the technology) 

9 with the National Software Reference Li10 brary of the National Institute of Stand11 ards and Technology prior to the date of 

12 the election, to be held in escrow and sub13 ject to disclosure in accordance with sub14 paragraph (B). 

15 ‘‘(ii) EXTENSION OF DEADLINE FOR

16 DEPOSIT.—If the chief State election offi17 cial certifies to the Director of the Na18 tional Institute of Standards and Tech19 nology prior to the date of the election 

20 that, because of a revision to the election21 dedicated voting system technology which 

22 is made less than 30 days prior to the date 

23 of the election, the State or vendor is un24 able to deposit the technology in accord25 ance with clause (i) prior to the date of the 


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1 election, the voting system used in the elec2 tion may contain or use the technology if— 

3 ‘‘(I) the chief State election offi4 cial approves the use of the technology 

5 for the election; and 

6 ‘‘(II) the State or vendor deposits 

7 the technology in accordance with 

8 clause (i) not later than 1 week after 

9 the date of the election. 

10 ‘‘(iii) ENFORCEMENT OF VENDOR RE11 SPONSIBILITIES.—If a State opts to re12 quire the vendor of election-dedicated vot13 ing system technology to deposit the tech14 nology in accordance with this subpara15 graph and the vendor fails to do so, the 

16 Attorney General may bring a civil action 

17 against the vendor in an appropriate dis18 trict court for such relief as may be appro19 priate, including injunctive relief or an 

20 order for a civil penalty in an amount not 

21 to exceed $500,000. 

22 ‘‘(B) REQUIREMENT FOR DISCLOSURE AND

23 LIMITATION ON RESTRICTING DISCLOSURE.— 

24 With respect to any election-dedicated voting 

25 system technology which is deposited under 


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1 subparagraph (A), the Director of the National 

2 Institute of Standards and Technology shall— 

3 ‘‘(i) hold the technology in escrow; 

4 and 

5 ‘‘(ii) disclose technology and informa6 tion regarding the technology to another 

7 person if— 

8 ‘‘(I) the person is a qualified per9 son described in subparagraph (C) 

10 who has entered into a nondisclosure 

11 agreement with respect to the tech12 nology which meets the requirements 

13 of subparagraph (D); or 

14 ‘‘(II) the Director is permitted or 

15 required to disclose the technology to 

16 the person under the law of the appli17 cable State, in accordance with the 

18 terms and conditions applicable under 

19 such law. 

20 ‘‘(C) QUALIFIED PERSONS DESCRIBED.— 

21 With respect to the disclosure of election-dedi22 cated voting system technology under subpara23 graph (B)(ii)(I), a ‘qualified person’ is any of 

24 the following: 


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1 ‘‘(i) A governmental entity with re2 sponsibility for the administration of vot3 ing and election-related matters in elec4 tions for Federal office, for purposes of re5 viewing, analyzing, or reporting on the 

6 technology. 

7 ‘‘(ii) If permitted under a court order, 

8 a party to post-election litigation chal9 lenging the result of an election or the ad10 ministration or use of the technology used 

11 in an election, but only to the extent per12 mitted under the terms and conditions of 

13 such court order. 

14 ‘‘(iii) A person who reviews, analyzes, 

15 or reports on the technology solely for an 

16 investigation or inquiry concerning the ac17 curacy or integrity of the technology pur18 suant to clause (i) or (ii). 

19 ‘‘(D) REQUIREMENTS FOR NONDISCLO20 SURE AGREEMENTS.—A nondisclosure agree21 ment entered into with respect to an election22 dedicated voting system technology meets the 

23 requirements of this subparagraph if the agree24 ment— 


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1 ‘‘(i) is limited in scope to coverage of 

2 the technology disclosed under subpara3 graph (B) and any trade secrets and intel4 lectual property rights related thereto; 

5 ‘‘(ii) does not prohibit a signatory 

6 from entering into other nondisclosure 

7 agreements to review other technologies 

8 under this paragraph; 

9 ‘‘(iii) exempts from coverage both in10 formation the signatory lawfully obtained 

11 from another source and information in 

12 the public domain; 

13 ‘‘(iv) remains in effect for not longer 

14 than the life of any trade secret or other 

15 intellectual property right related thereto; 

16 ‘‘(v) prohibits the request or use of in17 junctions that bar a signatory from car18 rying out any activity authorized under 

19 subparagraph (C), including injunctions 

20 limited to the period prior to a judicial 

21 proceeding involving the technology; 

22 ‘‘(vi) is silent as to damages awarded 

23 for breach of the agreement, other than a 

24 reference to damages available under appli25 cable law; 


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1 ‘‘(vii) allows disclosure of evidence re2 lating to possible criminal conduct or other 

3 violations of law, including in response to 

4 a subpoena or warrant; 

5 ‘‘(viii) allows disclosures and testi6 mony to legislative branch authorities, ju7 dicial proceedings, and executive branch in8 vestigations in response to a subpoena or 

9 warrant or as otherwise provided by law; 

10 and 

11 ‘‘(ix) provides that the agreement 

12 shall be governed by the trade secret laws 

13 of the applicable State. 

14 ‘‘(E) ELECTION-DEDICATED VOTING SYS15 TEM TECHNOLOGY DEFINED.—For purposes of 

16 this paragraph: 

17 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘elec18 tion-dedicated voting system technology’ 

19 means the following: 

20 ‘‘(I) The source code used for the 

21 trusted build and the file signatures 

22 for the trusted build. 

23 ‘‘(II) A complete disk image of 

24 the pre-build, build environment, and 


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1 any file signatures to validate that it 

2 is unmodified. 

3 ‘‘(III) A complete disk image of 

4 the post-build, build environment, and 

5 any file signatures to validate that it 

6 is unmodified. 

7 ‘‘(IV) All executable code pro8 duced by the trusted build and any 

9 file signatures to validate that it is 

10 unmodified. 

11 ‘‘(V) Installation devices and 

12 software file signatures. 

13 ‘‘(ii) EXCLUSION.—Such term does 

14 not include ‘commercial-off-the-shelf’ soft15 ware and hardware defined under the vol16 untary voting system guidelines adopted by 

17 the Commission under section 222 which 

18 are in effect as of the date of the election 

19 involved. 

20 ‘‘(F) TRUSTED BUILD DEFINED.—For 

21 purposes of this paragraph, the term ‘trusted 

22 build’ means a witnessed software build in 

23 which source code is converted to machine-read24 able binary instructions (executable code) in a 

25 manner providing security measures that help 


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1 ensure that the executable code is a verifiable 

2 and faithful representation of the source code.’’. 

3 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by 

4 this section shall apply with respect to elections occurring 

5 during 2016 or any succeeding year. 

6 (c) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS FOR NA7 TIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY.— 

8 There are authorized to be appropriated to the National 

9 Institute of Standards and Technology for each fiscal year 

10 such sums as may be necessary to enable the Institute, 

11 including the National Software Reference Library of the 

12 Institute, to carry out paragraph (7) of section 301(a) of 

13 the Help America Vote Act of 2002, as added by section 

14 2(a). 

Æ 


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