II 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 2053 

To protect elections for public office by providing financial support and 

enhanced security for the infrastructure used to carry out such elections, 

and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JUNE 28 (legislative day, JUNE 27), 2019 

Ms. KLOBUCHAR introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 

referred to the Committee on Rules and Administration 

A BILL 

To protect elections for public office by providing financial 

support and enhanced security for the infrastructure 

used to carry out such elections, 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; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

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

5 ‘‘Securing America’s Federal Elections Act’’ or the 

6 ‘‘SAFE Act’’. 

7 (b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents of 

8 this Act is as follows: 

Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. 


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TITLE I—FINANCIAL SUPPORT FOR ELECTION INFRASTRUCTURE 

Subtitle A—Voting System Security Improvement Grants 

PART 1—PROMOTING ACCURACY, INTEGRITY, AND SECURITY THROUGH

VOTER-VERIFIED PERMANENT PAPER BALLOT

Sec. 101. Short title. 

Sec. 102. Paper ballot and manual counting requirements. 

Sec. 103. Accessibility and ballot verification for individuals with disabilities. 

Sec. 104. Durability and readability requirements for ballots. 

Sec. 105. Paper ballot printing requirements. 

Sec. 106. Study and report on optimal ballot design. 

Sec. 107. Effective date for new requirements. 

PART 2—GRANTS TO CARRY OUT IMPROVEMENTS

Sec. 111. Grants for obtaining compliant paper ballot voting systems and carrying out voting system security improvements. 

Sec. 112. Coordination of voting system security activities with use of requirements payments and election administration requirements 

under Help America Vote Act of 2002. 

Sec. 113. Incorporation of definitions. 

Subtitle B—Risk-Limiting Audits 

Sec. 121. Risk-limiting audits. 

Sec. 122. Funding for conducting post-election risk-limiting audits. 

Sec. 123. GAO analysis of effects of audits. 

TITLE II—PROMOTING CYBERSECURITY THROUGH 

IMPROVEMENTS IN ELECTION ADMINISTRATION 

Sec. 201. Voting system cybersecurity requirements. 

Sec. 202. Testing of existing voting systems to ensure compliance with election 

cybersecurity guidelines and other guidelines. 

Sec. 203. Requiring use of software and hardware for which information is disclosed by manufacturer. 

Sec. 204. Treatment of electronic poll books as part of voting systems. 

Sec. 205. Pre-election reports on voting system usage. 

Sec. 206. Streamlining collection of election information. 

TITLE III—USE OF VOTING MACHINES MANUFACTURED IN THE 

UNITED STATES 

Sec. 301. Use of voting machines manufactured in the United States. 

TITLE IV—SEVERABILITY 

Sec. 401. Severability. 


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1 TITLE I—FINANCIAL SUPPORT 

2 FOR ELECTION INFRASTRUC3 TURE 

4 Subtitle A—Voting System Security 

5 Improvement Grants 

6 PART 1—PROMOTING ACCURACY, INTEGRITY, 

7 AND SECURITY THROUGH VOTER-VERIFIED 

8 PERMANENT PAPER BALLOT 

9 SEC. 101. SHORT TITLE. 

10 This subtitle may be cited as the ‘‘Voter Confidence 

11 and Increased Accessibility Act of 2019’’. 

12 SEC. 102. PAPER BALLOT AND MANUAL COUNTING RE13 QUIREMENTS. 

14 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 301(a)(2) of the Help 

15 America Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21081(a)(2)) is 

16 amended to read as follows: 

17 ‘‘(2) PAPER BALLOT REQUIREMENT.— 

18 ‘‘(A) VOTER-VERIFIED PAPER BALLOTS.— 

19 ‘‘(i) PAPER BALLOT REQUIREMENT.— 

20 (I) The voting system shall require the use 

21 of an individual, durable, voter-verified 

22 paper ballot of the voter’s vote that shall 

23 be marked and made available for inspec24 tion and verification by the voter before 

25 the voter’s vote is cast and counted, and 


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1 which shall be counted by hand or read by 

2 an optical character recognition device or 

3 other counting device. For purposes of this 

4 subclause, the term ‘individual, durable, 

5 voter-verified paper ballot’ means a paper 

6 ballot marked by the voter by hand or a 

7 paper ballot marked through the use of a 

8 nontabulating ballot marking device or sys9 tem, so long as the voter shall have the op10 tion to mark his or her ballot by hand. The 

11 paper ballot shall be printed or marked in 

12 such a way that vote selections, including 

13 all vote selections scanned by voting sys14 tems to tabulate votes, can be inspected 

15 and verified by the voter without training 

16 or instruction or audited by election offi17 cials without the aid of any machine or 

18 other equipment. 

19 ‘‘(II) The voting system shall provide 

20 the voter with an opportunity to correct 

21 any error on the paper ballot before the 

22 permanent voter-verified paper ballot is 

23 preserved in accordance with clause (ii). 

24 ‘‘(III) The voting system shall not 

25 preserve the voter-verified paper ballots in 


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1 any manner that makes it possible, at any 

2 time after the ballot has been cast, to asso3 ciate a voter with the record of the voter’s 

4 vote without the voter’s consent. 

5 ‘‘(ii) PRESERVATION AS OFFICIAL

6 RECORD.—The individual, durable, voter7 verified paper ballot used in accordance 

8 with clause (i) shall constitute the official 

9 ballot and shall be preserved and used as 

10 the official ballot for purposes of any re11 count or audit conducted with respect to 

12 any election for Federal office in which the 

13 voting system is used. 

14 ‘‘(iii) MANUAL COUNTING REQUIRE15 MENTS FOR RECOUNTS AND AUDITS.—(I) 

16 Each paper ballot used pursuant to clause 

17 (i) shall be suitable for a manual audit, 

18 and shall be counted by hand in any re19 count or audit conducted with respect to 

20 any election for Federal office. 

21 ‘‘(II) In the event of any inconsist22 encies or irregularities between any elec23 tronic vote tallies and the vote tallies de24 termined by counting by hand the indi25 vidual, durable, voter-verified paper ballots 


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1 used pursuant to clause (i), and subject to 

2 subparagraph (B), the individual, durable, 

3 voter-verified paper ballots shall be the 

4 true and correct record of the votes cast. 

5 ‘‘(iv) APPLICATION TO ALL BAL6 LOTS.—The requirements of this subpara7 graph shall apply to all ballots cast in elec8 tions for Federal office, including ballots 

9 cast by absent uniformed services voters 

10 and overseas voters under the Uniformed 

11 and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act 

12 and other absentee voters. 

13 ‘‘(B) SPECIAL RULE FOR TREATMENT OF

14 DISPUTES WHEN PAPER BALLOTS HAVE BEEN

15 SHOWN TO BE COMPROMISED.— 

16 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—In the event 

17 that— 

18 ‘‘(I) there is any inconsistency 

19 between any electronic vote tallies and 

20 the vote tallies determined by count21 ing by hand the individual, durable, 

22 voter-verified paper ballots used pur23 suant to subparagraph (A)(i) with re24 spect to any election for Federal of25 fice; and 


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1 ‘‘(II) it is demonstrated by clear 

2 and convincing evidence (as deter3 mined in accordance with the applica4 ble standards in the jurisdiction in5 volved) in any recount, audit, or con6 test of the result of the election that 

7 the paper ballots have been com8 promised (by damage or mischief or 

9 otherwise) and that a sufficient num10 ber of the ballots have been so com11 promised that the result of the elec12 tion could be changed, 

13 the determination of the appropriate rem14 edy with respect to the election shall be 

15 made in accordance with applicable State 

16 law, except that the electronic tally shall 

17 not be used as the exclusive basis for de18 termining the official certified result. 

19 ‘‘(ii) RULE FOR CONSIDERATION OF

20 BALLOTS ASSOCIATED WITH EACH VOTING

21 MACHINE.—For purposes of clause (i), 

22 only the paper ballots deemed com23 promised, if any, shall be considered in the 

24 calculation of whether or not the result of 


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1 the election could be changed due to the 

2 compromised paper ballots.’’. 

3 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT CLARIFYING APPLI4 CABILITY OF ALTERNATIVE LANGUAGE ACCESSIBILITY.— 

5 Section 301(a)(4) of such Act (52 U.S.C. 21081(a)(4)) 

6 is amended by inserting ‘‘(including the paper ballots re7 quired to be used under paragraph (2))’’ after ‘‘voting sys8 tem’’. 

9 (c) OTHER CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.—Section 

10 301(a)(1) of such Act (52 U.S.C. 21081(a)(1)) is amend11 ed— 

12 (1) in subparagraph (A)(i), by striking ‘‘count13 ed’’ and inserting ‘‘counted, in accordance with 

14 paragraphs (2) and (3)’’; 

15 (2) in subparagraph (A)(ii), by striking ‘‘count16 ed’’ and inserting ‘‘counted, in accordance with 

17 paragraphs (2) and (3)’’; 

18 (3) in subparagraph (A)(iii), by striking ‘‘count19 ed’’ each place it appears and inserting ‘‘counted, in 

20 accordance with paragraphs (2) and (3)’’; and 

21 (4) in subparagraph (B)(ii), by striking ‘‘count22 ed’’ and inserting ‘‘counted, in accordance with 

23 paragraphs (2) and (3)’’. 


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1 SEC. 103. ACCESSIBILITY AND BALLOT VERIFICATION FOR 

2 INDIVIDUALS WITH DISABILITIES. 

3 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 301(a)(3)(B) of the Help 

4 America Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21081(a)(3)(B)) is 

5 amended to read as follows: 

6 ‘‘(B)(i) ensure that individuals with dis7 abilities and others are given an equivalent op8 portunity to vote, including with privacy and 

9 independence, in a manner that produces a 

10 voter-verified paper ballot as for other voters; 

11 ‘‘(ii) satisfy the requirement of subpara12 graph (A) through the use of at least one voting 

13 system equipped for individuals with disabil14 ities, including nonvisual and enhanced visual 

15 accessibility for the blind and visually impaired, 

16 and nonmanual and enhanced manual accessi17 bility for the mobility and dexterity impaired, at 

18 each polling place; and 

19 ‘‘(iii) meet the requirements of subpara20 graph (A) and paragraph (2)(A) by using a sys21 tem that— 

22 ‘‘(I) allows the voter to privately and 

23 independently verify the permanent paper 

24 ballot through the presentation, in acces25 sible form, of the printed or marked vote 

26 selections from the same printed or 


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1 marked information that would be used for 

2 any vote counting or auditing; and 

3 ‘‘(II) allows the voter to privately and 

4 independently verify and cast the perma5 nent paper ballot without requiring the 

6 voter to manually handle the paper ballot; 

7 and’’. 

8 (b) SPECIFIC REQUIREMENT OF STUDY, TESTING, 

9 AND DEVELOPMENT OF ACCESSIBLE PAPER BALLOT

10 VERIFICATION MECHANISMS.— 

11 (1) STUDY AND REPORTING.—Subtitle C of 

12 title II of such Act (52 U.S.C. 21081 et seq.) is 

13 amended— 

14 (A) by redesignating section 247 as section 

15 248; and 

16 (B) by inserting after section 246 the fol17 lowing new section: 

18 ‘‘SEC. 247. STUDY AND REPORT ON ACCESSIBLE PAPER 

19 BALLOT VERIFICATION MECHANISMS. 

20 ‘‘(a) STUDY AND REPORT.—The Director of the Na21 tional Science Foundation shall make grants to not fewer 

22 than three eligible entities to study, test, and develop ac23 cessible paper ballot voting, verification, and casting mech24 anisms and devices and best practices to enhance the ac25 cessibility of paper ballot voting and verification mechaVerDate Sep 11 2014 03:47 Jul 06, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2053.IS S2053

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1 nisms for individuals with disabilities, for voters whose pri2 mary language is not English, and for voters with difficul3 ties in literacy, including best practices for the mecha4 nisms themselves and the processes through which the 

5 mechanisms are used. 

6 ‘‘(b) ELIGIBILITY.—An entity is eligible to receive a 

7 grant under this part if it submits to the Director (at such 

8 time and in such form as the Director may require) an 

9 application containing— 

10 ‘‘(1) certifications that the entity shall specifi11 cally investigate enhanced methods or devices, in12 cluding non-electronic devices, that will assist such 

13 individuals and voters in marking voter-verified 

14 paper ballots and presenting or transmitting the in15 formation printed or marked on such ballots back to 

16 such individuals and voters, and casting such ballots; 

17 ‘‘(2) a certification that the entity shall com18 plete the activities carried out with the grant not 

19 later than December 31, 2020; and 

20 ‘‘(3) such other information and certifications 

21 as the Director may require. 

22 ‘‘(c) AVAILABILITY OF TECHNOLOGY.—Any tech23 nology developed with the grants made under this section 

24 shall be treated as non-proprietary and shall be made 


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1 available to the public, including to manufacturers of vot2 ing systems. 

3 ‘‘(d) COORDINATION WITH GRANTS FOR TECH4 NOLOGY IMPROVEMENTS.—The Director shall carry out 

5 this section so that the activities carried out with the 

6 grants made under subsection (a) are coordinated with the 

7 research conducted under the grant program carried out 

8 by the Commission under section 271, to the extent that 

9 the Director and Commission determine necessary to pro10 vide for the advancement of accessible voting technology. 

11 ‘‘(e) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 

12 is authorized to be appropriated to carry out subsection 

13 (a) $5,000,000, to remain available until expended.’’. 

14 (2) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of con15 tents of such Act is amended— 

16 (A) by redesignating the item relating to 

17 section 247 as relating to section 248; and 

18 (B) by inserting after the item relating to 

19 section 246 the following new item: 

‘‘Sec. 247. Study and report on accessible paper ballot verification mechanisms.’’. 

20 (c) CLARIFICATION OF ACCESSIBILITY STANDARDS

21 UNDER VOLUNTARY VOTING SYSTEM GUIDANCE.—In 

22 adopting any voluntary guidance under subtitle B of title 

23 III of the Help America Vote Act with respect to the ac24 cessibility of the paper ballot verification requirements for 


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1 individuals with disabilities, the Election Assistance Com2 mission shall include and apply the same accessibility 

3 standards applicable under the voluntary guidance adopt4 ed for accessible voting systems under such subtitle. 

5 (d) PERMITTING USE OF FUNDS FOR PROTECTION

6 AND ADVOCACY SYSTEMS TO SUPPORT ACTIONS TO EN7 FORCE ELECTION-RELATED DISABILITY ACCESS.—Sec8 tion 292(a) of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (52 

9 U.S.C. 21062(a)) is amended by striking ‘‘; except that’’ 

10 and all that follows and inserting a period. 

11 SEC. 104. DURABILITY AND READABILITY REQUIREMENTS 

12 FOR BALLOTS. 

13 Section 301(a) of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 

14 (52 U.S.C. 21081(a)) is amended by adding at the end 

15 the following new paragraph: 

16 ‘‘(7) DURABILITY AND READABILITY REQUIRE17 MENTS FOR BALLOTS.— 

18 ‘‘(A) DURABILITY REQUIREMENTS FOR

19 PAPER BALLOTS.— 

20 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—All voter-verified 

21 paper ballots required to be used under 

22 this Act shall be marked or printed on du23 rable paper. 

24 ‘‘(ii) DEFINITION.—For purposes of 

25 this Act, paper is ‘durable’ if it is capable 


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1 of withstanding multiple counts and re2 counts by hand without compromising the 

3 fundamental integrity of the ballots, and 

4 capable of retaining the information 

5 marked or printed on them for the full du6 ration of a retention and preservation pe7 riod of 22 months. 

8 ‘‘(B) READABILITY REQUIREMENTS FOR

9 PAPER BALLOTS MARKED BY BALLOT MARKING

10 DEVICE.—All voter-verified paper ballots com11 pleted by the voter through the use of a ballot 

12 marking device shall be clearly readable by the 

13 voter without assistance (other than eyeglasses 

14 or other personal vision enhancing devices) and 

15 by an optical character recognition device or 

16 other device equipped for individuals with dis17 abilities.’’. 

18 SEC. 105. PAPER BALLOT PRINTING REQUIREMENTS. 

19 (a) REQUIRING PAPER BALLOTS TO BE PRINTED ON

20 RECYCLED PAPER MANUFACTURED IN UNITED

21 STATES.—Section 301(a) of the Help America Vote Act 

22 of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21081(a)), as amended by section 104, 

23 is amended by adding at the end the following new para24 graph: 


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1 ‘‘(8) PRINTING REQUIREMENTS FOR BAL2 LOTS.—All paper ballots used in an election for Fed3 eral office shall be printed in the United States on 

4 recycled paper manufactured in the United States.’’. 

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

6 subsection (a) shall apply with respect to elections occur7 ring on or after January 1, 2021. 

8 SEC. 106. STUDY AND REPORT ON OPTIMAL BALLOT DE9 SIGN. 

10 (a) STUDY.—The Election Assistance Commission 

11 shall conduct a study of the best ways to design ballots 

12 used in elections for public office, including paper ballots 

13 and electronic or digital ballots, to minimize confusion and 

14 user errors. 

15 (b) REPORT.—Not later than January 1, 2020, the 

16 Election Assistance Commission shall submit to Congress 

17 a report on the study conducted under subsection (a). 

18 SEC. 107. EFFECTIVE DATE FOR NEW REQUIREMENTS. 

19 Section 301(d) of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 

20 (52 U.S.C. 21081(d)) is amended to read as follows: 

21 ‘‘(d) EFFECTIVE DATE.— 

22 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in para23 graph (2), each State and jurisdiction shall be re24 quired to comply with the requirements of this sec25 tion on and after January 1, 2006. 


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1 ‘‘(2) SPECIAL RULE FOR CERTAIN REQUIRE2 MENTS.— 

3 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in 

4 section 105(b) of the Securing America’s Fed5 eral Elections Act and subparagraphs (B) and 

6 (C), the requirements of this section which are 

7 first imposed on a State and jurisdiction pursu8 ant to the amendments made by the Voter Con9 fidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2019 

10 shall apply with respect to voting systems used 

11 for any election for Federal office held in 2020 

12 or any succeeding year. 

13 ‘‘(B) DELAY FOR JURISDICTIONS USING

14 CERTAIN PAPER RECORD PRINTERS OR CERTAIN

15 SYSTEMS USING OR PRODUCING VOTER16 VERIFIED PAPER RECORDS IN 2018.— 

17 ‘‘(i) DELAY.—In the case of a juris18 diction described in clause (ii), subpara19 graph (A) shall apply to a voting system in 

20 the jurisdiction as if the reference in such 

21 subparagraph to ‘2020’ were a reference to 

22 ‘2022’, but only with respect to the fol23 lowing requirements of this section: 


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1 ‘‘(I) Paragraph (2)(A)(i)(I) of 

2 subsection (a) (relating to the use of 

3 voter-verified paper ballots). 

4 ‘‘(II) Paragraphs (3)(B)(iii)(I) 

5 and (II) of subsection (a) (relating to 

6 access to verification from and casting 

7 of the durable paper ballot). 

8 ‘‘(III) Paragraph (7) of sub9 section (a) (relating to durability and 

10 readability requirements for ballots). 

11 ‘‘(ii) JURISDICTIONS DESCRIBED.—A 

12 jurisdiction described in this clause is a ju13 risdiction— 

14 ‘‘(I) which used voter-verified 

15 paper record printers attached to di16 rect recording electronic voting ma17 chines, or which used other voting 

18 systems that used or produced paper 

19 records of the vote verifiable by voters 

20 but that are not in compliance with 

21 paragraphs (2)(A)(i)(I), (3)(B)(iii)(I) 

22 and (II), and (7) of subsection (a) (as 

23 amended or added by the Voter Con24 fidence and Increased Accessibility 

25 Act of 2019), for the administration 


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1 of the regularly scheduled general 

2 election for Federal office held in No3 vember 2018; and 

4 ‘‘(II) which will continue to use 

5 such printers or systems for the ad6 ministration of elections for Federal 

7 office held in years before 2022. 

8 ‘‘(iii) MANDATORY AVAILABILITY OF

9 PAPER BALLOTS AT POLLING PLACES

10 USING GRANDFATHERED PRINTERS AND

11 SYSTEMS.— 

12 ‘‘(I) REQUIRING BALLOTS TO BE

13 OFFERED AND PROVIDED.—The ap14 propriate election official at each poll15 ing place that uses a printer or sys16 tem described in clause (ii)(I) for the 

17 administration of elections for Federal 

18 office shall offer each individual who 

19 is eligible to cast a vote in the election 

20 at the polling place the opportunity to 

21 cast the vote using a blank pre-print22 ed paper ballot which the individual 

23 may mark by hand and which is not 

24 produced by the direct recording elec25 tronic voting machine or other such 


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1 system. The official shall provide the 

2 individual with the ballot and the sup3 plies necessary to mark the ballot, and 

4 shall ensure (to the greatest extent 

5 practicable) that the waiting period 

6 for the individual to cast a vote is the 

7 lesser of 30 minutes or the average 

8 waiting period for an individual who 

9 does not agree to cast the vote using 

10 such a paper ballot under this clause. 

11 ‘‘(II) TREATMENT OF BALLOT.— 

12 Any paper ballot which is cast by an 

13 individual under this clause shall be 

14 counted and otherwise treated as a 

15 regular ballot for all purposes (includ16 ing by incorporating it into the final 

17 unofficial vote count (as defined by 

18 the State) for the precinct) and not as 

19 a provisional ballot, unless the indi20 vidual casting the ballot would have 

21 otherwise been required to cast a pro22 visional ballot. 

23 ‘‘(III) POSTING OF NOTICE.— 

24 The appropriate election official shall 

25 ensure there is prominently displayed 


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1 at each polling place a notice that de2 scribes the obligation of the official to 

3 offer individuals the opportunity to 

4 cast votes using a pre-printed blank 

5 paper ballot. 

6 ‘‘(IV) TRAINING OF ELECTION

7 OFFICIALS.—The chief State election 

8 official shall ensure that election offi9 cials at polling places in the State are 

10 aware of the requirements of this 

11 clause, including the requirement to 

12 display a notice under subclause (III), 

13 and are aware that it is a violation of 

14 the requirements of this title for an 

15 election official to fail to offer an indi16 vidual the opportunity to cast a vote 

17 using a blank pre-printed paper ballot. 

18 ‘‘(V) PERIOD OF APPLICA19 BILITY.—The requirements of this 

20 clause apply only during the period in 

21 which the delay is in effect under 

22 clause (i). 

23 ‘‘(C) SPECIAL RULE FOR JURISDICTIONS

24 USING CERTAIN NONTABULATING BALLOT

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1 tion which uses a nontabulating ballot marking 

2 device which automatically deposits the ballot 

3 into a privacy sleeve, subparagraph (A) shall 

4 apply to a voting system in the jurisdiction as 

5 if the reference in such subparagraph to ‘any 

6 election for Federal office held in 2020 or any 

7 succeeding year’ were a reference to ‘elections 

8 for Federal office occurring held in 2022 or 

9 each succeeding year’, but only with respect to 

10 paragraph (3)(B)(iii)(II) of subsection (a) (re11 lating to nonmanual casting of the durable 

12 paper ballot).’’. 

13 PART 2—GRANTS TO CARRY OUT 

14 IMPROVEMENTS 

15 SEC. 111. GRANTS FOR OBTAINING COMPLIANT PAPER BAL16 LOT VOTING SYSTEMS AND CARRYING OUT 

17 VOTING SYSTEM SECURITY IMPROVEMENTS. 

18 (a) AVAILABILITY OF GRANTS.—Subtitle D of title 

19 II of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 

20 21001 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the fol21 lowing new part: 


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1 ‘‘PART 7—GRANTS FOR OBTAINING COMPLIANT 

2 PAPER BALLOT VOTING SYSTEMS AND CAR3 RYING OUT VOTING SYSTEM SECURITY IM4 PROVEMENTS 

5 ‘‘SEC. 297. GRANTS FOR OBTAINING COMPLIANT PAPER 

6 BALLOT VOTING SYSTEMS AND CARRYING 

7 OUT VOTING SYSTEM SECURITY IMPROVE8 MENTS. 

9 ‘‘(a) AVAILABILITY AND USE OF GRANT.—The Com10 mission shall make a grant to each eligible State— 

11 ‘‘(1) to replace a voting system— 

12 ‘‘(A) which does not meet the requirements 

13 which are first imposed on the State pursuant 

14 to the amendments made by the Voter Con15 fidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2019 

16 with a voting system which does meet such re17 quirements, for use in the regularly scheduled 

18 general elections for Federal office held in No19 vember 2020; or 

20 ‘‘(B) which does meet such requirements 

21 but which is not in compliance with the most 

22 recent voluntary voting system guidelines issued 

23 by the Commission prior to the regularly sched24 uled general election for Federal office held in 

25 November 2020 with another system which does 


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1 meet such requirements and is in compliance 

2 with such guidelines; 

3 ‘‘(2) to carry out voting system security im4 provements described in section 297A with respect 

5 to the regularly scheduled general elections for Fed6 eral office held in November 2020 and each suc7 ceeding election for Federal office; and 

8 ‘‘(3) to implement and model best practices for 

9 ballot design, ballot instructions, and the testing of 

10 ballots. 

11 ‘‘(b) AMOUNT OF GRANT.—The amount of a grant 

12 made to a State under this section shall be such amount 

13 as the Commission determines to be appropriate, except 

14 that such amount may not be less than the product of 

15 $1 and the average of the number of individuals who cast 

16 votes in any of the two most recent regularly scheduled 

17 general elections for Federal office held in the State. 

18 ‘‘(c) PRO RATA REDUCTIONS.—If the amount of 

19 funds appropriated for grants under this part is insuffi20 cient to ensure that each State receives the amount of the 

21 grant calculated under subsection (b), the Commission 

22 shall make such pro rata reductions in such amounts as 

23 may be necessary to ensure that the entire amount appro24 priated under this part is distributed to the States. 


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1 ‘‘(d) SURPLUS APPROPRIATIONS.—If the amount of 

2 funds appropriated for grants authorized under section 

3 297D(a)(2) exceed the amount necessary to meet the re4 quirements of subsection (b), the Commission shall con5 sider the following in making a determination to award 

6 remaining funds to a State: 

7 ‘‘(1) The record of the State in carrying out the 

8 following with respect to the administration of elec9 tions for Federal office: 

10 ‘‘(A) Providing voting machines that are 

11 less than 10 years old. 

12 ‘‘(B) Implementing strong chain of custody 

13 procedures for the physical security of voting 

14 equipment and paper records at all stages of 

15 the process. 

16 ‘‘(C) Conducting pre-election testing on 

17 every voting machine and ensuring that paper 

18 ballots are available wherever electronic ma19 chines are used. 

20 ‘‘(D) Maintaining offline backups of voter 

21 registration lists. 

22 ‘‘(E) Providing a secure voter registration 

23 database that logs requests submitted to the 

24 database. 


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1 ‘‘(F) Publishing and enforcing a policy de2 tailing use limitations and security safeguards 

3 to protect the personal information of voters in 

4 the voter registration process. 

5 ‘‘(G) Providing secure processes and proce6 dures for reporting vote tallies. 

7 ‘‘(H) Providing a secure platform for dis8 seminating vote totals. 

9 ‘‘(2) Evidence of established conditions of inno10 vation and reform in providing voting system secu11 rity and the proposed plan of the State for imple12 menting additional conditions. 

13 ‘‘(3) Evidence of collaboration between relevant 

14 stakeholders, including local election officials, in de15 veloping the grant implementation plan described in 

16 section 297B. 

17 ‘‘(4) The plan of the State to conduct a rig18 orous evaluation of the effectiveness of the activities 

19 carried out with the grant. 

20 ‘‘(e) ABILITY OF REPLACEMENT SYSTEMS TO AD21 MINISTER RANKED CHOICE ELECTIONS.—To the greatest 

22 extent practicable, an eligible State which receives a grant 

23 to replace a voting system under this section shall ensure 

24 that the replacement system is capable of administering 

25 a system of ranked choice voting under which each voter 


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1 shall rank the candidates for the office in the order of 

2 the voter’s preference. 

3 ‘‘SEC. 297A. VOTING SYSTEM SECURITY IMPROVEMENTS 

4 DESCRIBED. 

5 ‘‘(a) PERMITTED USES.—A voting system security 

6 improvement described in this section is any of the fol7 lowing: 

8 ‘‘(1) The acquisition of goods and services from 

9 qualified election infrastructure vendors by purchase, 

10 lease, or such other arrangements as may be appro11 priate. 

12 ‘‘(2) Cyber and risk mitigation training. 

13 ‘‘(3) A security risk and vulnerability assess14 ment of the State’s election infrastructure which is 

15 carried out by a provider of cybersecurity services 

16 under a contract entered into between the chief 

17 State election official and the provider. 

18 ‘‘(4) The maintenance of election infrastruc19 ture, including addressing risks and vulnerabilities 

20 which are identified under either of the security risk 

21 and vulnerability assessments described in para22 graph (3), except that none of the funds provided 

23 under this part may be used to renovate or replace 

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1 poses other than the administration of elections for 

2 public office. 

3 ‘‘(5) Providing increased technical support for 

4 any information technology infrastructure that the 

5 chief State election official deems to be part of the 

6 State’s election infrastructure or designates as crit7 ical to the operation of the State’s election infra8 structure. 

9 ‘‘(6) Enhancing the cybersecurity and oper10 ations of the information technology infrastructure 

11 described in paragraph (4). 

12 ‘‘(7) Enhancing the cybersecurity of voter reg13 istration systems. 

14 ‘‘(b) QUALIFIED ELECTION INFRASTRUCTURE VEN15 DORS DESCRIBED.— 

16 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—For purposes of this part, 

17 a ‘qualified election infrastructure vendor’ is any 

18 person who provides, supports, or maintains, or who 

19 seeks to provide, support, or maintain, election in20 frastructure on behalf of a State, unit of local gov21 ernment, or election agency, who meets the criteria 

22 described in paragraph (2). 

23 ‘‘(2) CRITERIA.—The criteria described in this 

24 paragraph are such criteria as the Chairman, in co25 ordination with the Secretary of Homeland Security, 


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1 shall establish and publish, and shall include each of 

2 the following requirements: 

3 ‘‘(A) The vendor must be owned and con4 trolled by a citizen or permanent resident of the 

5 United States. 

6 ‘‘(B) The vendor must disclose to the 

7 Chairman and the Secretary, and to the chief 

8 State election official of any State to which the 

9 vendor provides any goods and services with 

10 funds provided under this part, of any sourcing 

11 outside the United States for parts of the elec12 tion infrastructure. 

13 ‘‘(C) The vendor agrees to ensure that the 

14 election infrastructure will be developed and 

15 maintained in a manner that is consistent with 

16 the cybersecurity best practices issued by the 

17 Technical Guidelines Development Committee. 

18 ‘‘(D) The vendor agrees to maintain its in19 formation technology infrastructure in a man20 ner that is consistent with the cybersecurity 

21 best practices issued by the Technical Guide22 lines Development Committee. 

23 ‘‘(E) The vendor agrees to meet the re24 quirements of paragraph (3) with respect to 

25 any known or suspected cybersecurity incidents 


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1 involving any of the goods and services provided 

2 by the vendor pursuant to a grant under this 

3 part. 

4 ‘‘(F) The vendor agrees to permit inde5 pendent security testing by the Commission (in 

6 accordance with section 231(a)) and by the Sec7 retary of the goods and services provided by the 

8 vendor pursuant to a grant under this part. 

9 ‘‘(3) CYBERSECURITY INCIDENT REPORTING

10 REQUIREMENTS.— 

11 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—A vendor meets the 

12 requirements of this paragraph if, upon becom13 ing aware of the possibility that an election cy14 bersecurity incident has occurred involving any 

15 of the goods and services provided by the ven16 dor pursuant to a grant under this part— 

17 ‘‘(i) the vendor promptly assesses 

18 whether or not such an incident occurred, 

19 and submits a notification meeting the re20 quirements of subparagraph (B) to the 

21 Secretary and the Chairman of the assess22 ment as soon as practicable (but in no case 

23 later than 3 days after the vendor first be24 comes aware of the possibility that the in25 cident occurred); 


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1 ‘‘(ii) if the incident involves goods or 

2 services provided to an election agency, the 

3 vendor submits a notification meeting the 

4 requirements of subparagraph (B) to the 

5 agency as soon as practicable (but in no 

6 case later than 3 days after the vendor 

7 first becomes aware of the possibility that 

8 the incident occurred), and cooperates with 

9 the agency in providing any other nec10 essary notifications relating to the inci11 dent; and 

12 ‘‘(iii) the vendor provides all necessary 

13 updates to any notification submitted 

14 under clause (i) or clause (ii). 

15 ‘‘(B) CONTENTS OF NOTIFICATIONS.— 

16 Each notification submitted under clause (i) or 

17 clause (ii) of subparagraph (A) shall contain 

18 the following information with respect to any 

19 election cybersecurity incident covered by the 

20 notification: 

21 ‘‘(i) The date, time, and time zone 

22 when the election cybersecurity incident 

23 began, if known. 


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1 ‘‘(ii) The date, time, and time zone 

2 when the election cybersecurity incident 

3 was detected. 

4 ‘‘(iii) The date, time, and duration of 

5 the election cybersecurity incident. 

6 ‘‘(iv) The circumstances of the elec7 tion cybersecurity incident, including the 

8 specific election infrastructure systems be9 lieved to have been accessed and informa10 tion acquired, if any. 

11 ‘‘(v) Any planned and implemented 

12 technical measures to respond to and re13 cover from the incident. 

14 ‘‘(vi) In the case of any notification 

15 which is an update to a prior notification, 

16 any additional material information relat17 ing to the incident, including technical 

18 data, as it becomes available. 

19 ‘‘SEC. 297B. ELIGIBILITY OF STATES. 

20 ‘‘A State is eligible to receive a grant under this part 

21 if the State submits to the Commission, at such time and 

22 in such form as the Commission may require, an applica23 tion containing— 


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1 ‘‘(1) a description of how the State will use the 

2 grant to carry out the activities authorized under 

3 this part; 

4 ‘‘(2) a certification and assurance that, not 

5 later than 5 years after receiving the grant, the 

6 State will carry out voting system security improve7 ments, as described in section 297A; and 

8 ‘‘(3) such other information and assurances as 

9 the Commission may require. 

10 ‘‘SEC. 297C. REPORTS TO CONGRESS. 

11 ‘‘Not later than 90 days after the end of each fiscal 

12 year, the Commission shall submit a report to the appro13 priate congressional committees, including the Committees 

14 on Homeland Security, House Administration, and the Ju15 diciary of the House of Representatives and the Commit16 tees on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, the 

17 Judiciary, and Rules and Administration of the Senate, 

18 on the activities carried out with the funds provided under 

19 this part. 

20 ‘‘SEC. 297D. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 

21 ‘‘(a) AUTHORIZATION.—There are authorized to be 

22 appropriated for grants under this part— 

23 ‘‘(1) $600,000,000 for fiscal year 2019; and 

24 ‘‘(2) $175,000,000 for each of the fiscal years 

25 2020, 2022, 2024, and 2026. 


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1 ‘‘(b) CONTINUING AVAILABILITY OF AMOUNTS.—Any 

2 amounts appropriated pursuant to the authorization of 

3 this section shall remain available until expended.’’. 

4 (b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of contents 

5 of such Act is amended by adding at the end of the items 

6 relating to subtitle D of title II the following: 

‘‘PART 7—GRANTS FOR OBTAINING COMPLIANT PAPER BALLOT VOTING

SYSTEMS AND CARRYING OUT VOTING SYSTEM SECURITY IMPROVEMENTS

‘‘Sec. 297. Grants for obtaining compliant paper ballot voting systems and carrying out voting system security improvements. 

‘‘Sec. 297A. Voting system security improvements described. 

‘‘Sec. 297B. Eligibility of States. 

‘‘Sec. 297C. Reports to Congress. 

‘‘Sec. 297D. Authorization of appropriations.’’. 

7 SEC. 112. COORDINATION OF VOTING SYSTEM SECURITY 

8 ACTIVITIES WITH USE OF REQUIREMENTS 

9 PAYMENTS AND ELECTION ADMINISTRATION 

10 REQUIREMENTS UNDER HELP AMERICA 

11 VOTE ACT OF 2002. 

12 (a) DUTIES OF ELECTION ASSISTANCE COMMIS13 SION.—Section 202 of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 

14 (52 U.S.C. 20922) is amended in the matter preceding 

15 paragraph (1) by striking ‘‘by’’ and inserting ‘‘and the se16 curity of election infrastructure by’’. 

17 (b) MEMBERSHIP OF SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SE18 CURITY ON BOARD OF ADVISORS OF ELECTION ASSIST19 ANCE COMMISSION.—Section 214(a) of such Act (52 

20 U.S.C. 20944(a)) is amended— 


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1 (1) by striking ‘‘37 members’’ and inserting 

2 ‘‘38 members’’; and 

3 (2) by adding at the end the following new 

4 paragraph: 

5 ‘‘(17) The Secretary of Homeland Security or 

6 the Secretary’s designee.’’. 

7 (c) REPRESENTATIVE OF DEPARTMENT OF HOME8 LAND SECURITY ON TECHNICAL GUIDELINES DEVELOP9 MENT COMMITTEE.—Section 221(c)(1) of such Act (52 

10 U.S.C. 20961(c)(1)) is amended— 

11 (1) by redesignating subparagraph (E) as sub12 paragraph (F); and 

13 (2) by inserting after subparagraph (D) the fol14 lowing new subparagraph: 

15 ‘‘(E) A representative of the Department 

16 of Homeland Security.’’. 

17 (d) GOALS OF PERIODIC STUDIES OF ELECTION AD18 MINISTRATION ISSUES; CONSULTATION WITH SECRETARY

19 OF HOMELAND SECURITY.—Section 241(a) of such Act 

20 (52 U.S.C. 20981(a)) is amended— 

21 (1) in the matter preceding paragraph (1), by 

22 striking ‘‘the Commission shall’’ and inserting ‘‘the 

23 Commission, in consultation with the Secretary of 

24 Homeland Security (as appropriate), shall’’; 


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1 (2) by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end of paragraph 

2 (3); 

3 (3) by redesignating paragraph (4) as para4 graph (5); and 

5 (4) by inserting after paragraph (3) the fol6 lowing new paragraph: 

7 ‘‘(4) will be secure against attempts to under8 mine the integrity of election systems by cyber or 

9 other means; and’’. 

10 (e) REQUIREMENTS PAYMENTS.— 

11 (1) USE OF PAYMENTS FOR VOTING SYSTEM

12 SECURITY IMPROVEMENTS.—Section 251(b) of such 

13 Act (52 U.S.C. 21001(b)) is amended by adding at 

14 the end the following new paragraph: 

15 ‘‘(4) PERMITTING USE OF PAYMENTS FOR VOT16 ING SYSTEM SECURITY IMPROVEMENTS.—A State 

17 may use a requirements payment to carry out any 

18 of the following activities: 

19 ‘‘(A) Cyber and risk mitigation training. 

20 ‘‘(B) Providing increased technical support 

21 for any information technology infrastructure 

22 that the chief State election official deems to be 

23 part of the State’s election infrastructure or 

24 designates as critical to the operation of the 

25 State’s election infrastructure. 


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1 ‘‘(C) Enhancing the cybersecurity and op2 erations of the information technology infra3 structure described in subparagraph (B). 

4 ‘‘(D) Enhancing the security of voter reg5 istration databases.’’. 

6 (2) INCORPORATION OF ELECTION INFRA7 STRUCTURE PROTECTION IN STATE PLANS FOR USE

8 OF PAYMENTS.—Section 254(a)(1) of such Act (52 

9 U.S.C. 21004(a)(1)) is amended by striking the pe10 riod at the end and inserting ‘‘, including the protec11 tion of election infrastructure.’’. 

12 (3) COMPOSITION OF COMMITTEE RESPONSIBLE

13 FOR DEVELOPING STATE PLAN FOR USE OF PAY14 MENTS.—Section 255 of such Act (52 U.S.C. 

15 21005) is amended— 

16 (A) by redesignating subsection (b) as sub17 section (c); and 

18 (B) by inserting after subsection (a) the 

19 following new subsection: 

20 ‘‘(b) GEOGRAPHIC REPRESENTATION.—The mem21 bers of the committee shall be a representative group of 

22 individuals from the State’s counties, cities, towns, and 

23 Indian tribes, and shall represent the needs of rural as 

24 well as urban areas of the State, as the case may be.’’. 


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1 (f) ENSURING PROTECTION OF COMPUTERIZED

2 STATEWIDE VOTER REGISTRATION LIST.—Section 

3 303(a)(3) of such Act (52 U.S.C. 21083(a)(3)) is amend4 ed by striking the period at the end and inserting ‘‘, as 

5 well as other measures to prevent and deter cybersecurity 

6 incidents, as identified by the Commission, the Secretary 

7 of Homeland Security, and the Technical Guidelines De8 velopment Committee.’’. 

9 SEC. 113. INCORPORATION OF DEFINITIONS. 

10 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 901 of the Help America 

11 Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21141) is amended to read 

12 as follows: 

13 ‘‘SEC. 901. DEFINITIONS. 

14 ‘‘In this Act, the following definitions apply: 

15 ‘‘(1) The term ‘cybersecurity incident’ has the 

16 meaning given the term ‘incident’ in section 227 of 

17 the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 659). 

18 ‘‘(2) The term ‘election agency’ means any com19 ponent of a State, or any component of a unit of 

20 local government in a State, which is responsible for 

21 the administration of elections for Federal office in 

22 the State. 

23 ‘‘(3) The term ‘election infrastructure’ means 

24 storage facilities, polling places, and centralized vote 

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1 tion of elections for public office, as well as related 

2 information and communications technology (includ3 ing the technology used by or on behalf of election 

4 officials to produce and distribute voter guides to 

5 elections), including voter registration databases, 

6 voting machines, electronic mail and other commu7 nications systems (including electronic mail and 

8 other systems of vendors who have entered into con9 tracts with election agencies to support the adminis10 tration of elections, manage the election process, and 

11 report and display election results), and other sys12 tems used to manage the election process and to re13 port and display election results on behalf of an elec14 tion agency. 

15 ‘‘(4) The term ‘State’ means each of the several 

16 States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth 

17 of Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the United 

18 States Virgin Islands, and the Commonwealth of the 

19 Northern Mariana Islands.’’. 

20 (b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of contents 

21 of such Act is amended by amending the item relating to 

22 section 901 to read as follows: 

‘‘Sec. 901. Definitions.’’. 


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1 Subtitle B—Risk-Limiting Audits 

2 SEC. 121. RISK-LIMITING AUDITS. 

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

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

5 by inserting after section 303 the following new section: 

6 ‘‘SEC. 303A. RISK-LIMITING AUDITS. 

7 ‘‘(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

8 ‘‘(1) RISK-LIMITING AUDIT.—The term ‘risk9 limiting audit’ means, with respect to any election 

10 contest, a post-election process that— 

11 ‘‘(A) has a probability of at least 95 per12 cent of correcting the reported outcome if the 

13 reported outcome is not the correct outcome; 

14 ‘‘(B) will not change the outcome if the re15 ported outcome is the correct outcome; and 

16 ‘‘(C) involves a manual adjudication of 

17 voter intent from some or all of the ballots val18 idly cast in the election contest. 

19 ‘‘(2) REPORTED OUTCOME; CORRECT OUTCOME; 

20 OUTCOME.— 

21 ‘‘(A) REPORTED OUTCOME.—The term ‘re22 ported outcome’ means the outcome of an elec23 tion contest which is determined according to 

24 the canvass and which will become the official, 


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1 certified outcome unless it is revised by an 

2 audit, recount, or other legal process. 

3 ‘‘(B) CORRECT OUTCOME.—The term ‘cor4 rect outcome’ means the outcome that would be 

5 determined by a manual adjudication of voter 

6 intent for all votes validly cast in the election 

7 contest. 

8 ‘‘(C) OUTCOME.—The term ‘outcome’ 

9 means the winner or set of winners of an elec10 tion contest. 

11 ‘‘(3) MANUAL ADJUDICATION OF VOTER IN12 TENT.—The term ‘manual adjudication of voter in13 tent’ means direct inspection and determination by 

14 humans, without assistance from electronic or me15 chanical tabulation devices, of the ballot choices 

16 marked by voters on each voter-verified paper 

17 record. 

18 ‘‘(4) BALLOT MANIFEST.—The term ‘ballot 

19 manifest’ means a record maintained by each juris20 diction that— 

21 ‘‘(A) is created without reliance on any 

22 part of the voting system used to tabulate 

23 votes; 

24 ‘‘(B) functions as a sampling frame for 

25 conducting a risk-limiting audit; and 


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1 ‘‘(C) accounts for all ballots validly cast re2 gardless of how they were tabulated and in3 cludes a precise description of the manner in 

4 which the ballots are physically stored, includ5 ing the total number of physical groups of bal6 lots, the numbering system for each group, a 

7 unique label for each group, and the number of 

8 ballots in each such group. 

9 ‘‘(b) REQUIREMENTS.— 

10 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.— 

11 ‘‘(A) AUDITS.— 

12 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—Each State and 

13 jurisdiction shall administer risk-limiting 

14 audits of the results of all election contests 

15 for Federal office held in the State in ac16 cordance with the requirements of para17 graph (2). 

18 ‘‘(ii) EXCEPTION.—Clause (i) shall 

19 not apply to any election contest for which 

20 the State or jurisdiction conducts a full re21 count through a manual adjudication of 

22 voter intent. 

23 ‘‘(B) FULL MANUAL TABULATION.—If a 

24 risk-limiting audit conducted under subpara25 graph (A) corrects the reported outcome of an 


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1 election contest, the State or jurisdiction shall 

2 use the results of the manual adjudication of 

3 voter intent conducted as part of the risk-lim4 iting audit as the official results of the election 

5 contest. 

6 ‘‘(2) AUDIT REQUIREMENTS.— 

7 ‘‘(A) RULES AND PROCEDURES.— 

8 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 1 

9 year after the date of the enactment of this 

10 section, the chief State election official of 

11 the State shall establish rules and proce12 dures for conducting risk-limiting audits. 

13 ‘‘(ii) MATTERS INCLUDED.—The rules 

14 and procedures established under clause (i) 

15 shall include the following: 

16 ‘‘(I) Rules and procedures for en17 suring the security of ballots and doc18 umenting that prescribed procedures 

19 were followed. 

20 ‘‘(II) Rules and procedures for 

21 ensuring the accuracy of ballot mani22 fests produced by jurisdictions. 

23 ‘‘(III) Rules and procedures for 

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1 fests and other data involved in risk2 limiting audits. 

3 ‘‘(IV) Methods to ensure that 

4 any cast vote records used in a risk5 limiting audit are those used by the 

6 voting system to tally the results of 

7 the election contest sent to the chief 

8 State election official of the State and 

9 made public. 

10 ‘‘(V) Rules and procedures for 

11 the random selection of ballots to be 

12 inspected manually during each audit. 

13 ‘‘(VI) Rules and procedures for 

14 the calculations and other methods to 

15 be used in the audit and to determine 

16 whether and when the audit of each 

17 election contest is complete. 

18 ‘‘(VII) Rules and procedures for 

19 testing any software used to conduct 

20 risk-limiting audits. 

21 ‘‘(B) PUBLIC REPORT.— 

22 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—After the comple23 tion of the risk-limiting audit and at least 

24 5 days before the election contest is cer25 tified, the State shall publish a report on 


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1 the results of the audit, together with such 

2 information as necessary to confirm that 

3 the audit was conducted properly. 

4 ‘‘(ii) FORMAT OF DATA.—All data 

5 published with the report under clause (i) 

6 shall be published in machine-readable, 

7 open data formats. 

8 ‘‘(iii) PROTECTION OF ANONYMITY OF

9 VOTES.—Information and data published 

10 by the State under this subparagraph shall 

11 not compromise the anonymity of votes. 

12 ‘‘(c) EFFECTIVE DATE.—Each State and jurisdiction 

13 shall be required to comply with the requirements of this 

14 section for the first regularly scheduled election for Fed15 eral office held more than 1 year after the date of the 

16 enactment of the Securing America’s Federal Elections 

17 Act and for each subsequent election for Federal office.’’. 

18 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT RELATING TO EN19 FORCEMENT.—Section 401 of such Act (52 U.S.C. 21111) 

20 is amended by striking ‘‘sections 301, 302, and 303’’ and 

21 inserting ‘‘subtitle A of title III’’. 

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

23 for such Act is amended by inserting after the item relat24 ing to section 303 the following new item: 

‘‘Sec. 303A. Risk-limiting audits.’’. 


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1 SEC. 122. FUNDING FOR CONDUCTING POST-ELECTION 

2 RISK-LIMITING AUDITS. 

3 (a) PAYMENTS TO STATES.—Subtitle D of title II of 

4 the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21001 et 

5 seq.), as amended by section 111(a), is amended by adding 

6 at the end the following new part: 

7 ‘‘PART 8—FUNDING FOR POST-ELECTION RISK8 LIMITING AUDITS 

9 ‘‘SEC. 298. PAYMENTS FOR POST-ELECTION RISK-LIMITING 

10 AUDITS. 

11 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Commission shall pay to 

12 States the amount of eligible post-election audit costs. 

13 ‘‘(b) ELIGIBLE POST-ELECTION AUDIT COSTS.—For 

14 purposes of this section, the term ‘eligible post-election 

15 audit costs’ means, with respect to any State, costs paid 

16 or incurred by the State or local government within the 

17 State for— 

18 ‘‘(1) the conduct of any risk-limiting audit (as 

19 defined in section 303A) with respect to an election 

20 for Federal office occurring after the date of the en21 actment of this part; and 

22 ‘‘(2) any equipment, software, or services nec23 essary for the conduct of any such risk-limiting 

24 audit. 

25 ‘‘(c) SPECIAL RULES.— 


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1 ‘‘(1) RULES AND PROCEDURES.—The Commis2 sion shall establish rules and procedures for submis3 sion of eligible post-election audit costs for payments 

4 under this section. 

5 ‘‘(2) INSUFFICIENT FUNDS.—In any case in 

6 which the amounts appropriated under subsection 

7 (d) are insufficient to pay all eligible post-election 

8 audit costs submitted by States with respect to any 

9 Federal election, the amount of such costs paid 

10 under subsection (a) to any State shall be equal to 

11 the amount that bears the same ratio to the amount 

12 which would be paid to such State (determined with13 out regard to this paragraph) as— 

14 ‘‘(A) the number of individuals who voted 

15 in such Federal election in such State; bears to 

16 ‘‘(B) the total number of individuals who 

17 voted in such Federal election in all States sub18 mitting a claim for eligible post-election audit 

19 costs. 

20 ‘‘(d) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.— 

21 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—There is hereby authorized 

22 to be appropriated to the Commission such sums as 

23 are necessary to carry out this part. 

24 ‘‘(2) AVAILABILITY.—Any amounts appro25 priated pursuant to paragraph (1) shall remain 


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1 available without fiscal year limitation until ex2 pended.’’. 

3 (b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of contents 

4 of such Act, as amended by section 111(b), is further 

5 amended by adding at the end of the items relating to 

6 subtitle D of title II the following: 

‘‘PART 8—FUNDING FOR POST-ELECTION RISK-LIMITING AUDITS

‘‘Sec. 298. Payments for post-election risk-limiting audits.’’. 

7 SEC. 123. GAO ANALYSIS OF EFFECTS OF AUDITS. 

8 (a) ANALYSIS.—Not later than 6 months after the 

9 first elections for Federal office is held for which States 

10 must conduct risk-limiting audits under section 303A of 

11 the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (as added by section 

12 121), the Comptroller General of the United States shall 

13 conduct an analysis of the extent to which such audits 

14 have improved the administration of such elections and the 

15 security of election infrastructure in the States receiving 

16 such grants. 

17 (b) REPORT.—The Comptroller General of the 

18 United States shall submit a report on the analysis con19 ducted under subsection (a) to the Committee on House 

20 Administration of the House of Representatives and the 

21 Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate. 


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1 TITLE II—PROMOTING CYBERSE2 CURITY THROUGH IMPROVE3 MENTS IN ELECTION ADMIN4 ISTRATION 

5 SEC. 201. VOTING SYSTEM CYBERSECURITY REQUIRE6 MENTS. 

7 (a) BALLOT TABULATING DEVICES.—Section 301(a) 

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

9 21081(a)), as amended by section 104 and section 105, 

10 is further amended by adding at the end the following new 

11 paragraph: 

12 ‘‘(9) BALLOT TABULATING METHODS.— 

13 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The voting system 

14 tabulates ballots by hand or through the use of 

15 an optical scanning device that meets the re16 quirements of subparagraph (B). 

17 ‘‘(B) REQUIREMENTS FOR OPTICAL SCAN18 NING DEVICES.—Except as provided in sub19 paragraph (C), the requirements of this sub20 paragraph are as follows: 

21 ‘‘(i) The device is designed and built 

22 in a manner in which it is mechanically im23 possible for the device to add or change the 

24 vote selections on a printed or marked bal25 lot. 


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1 ‘‘(ii) The device is capable of export2 ing its data (including vote tally data sets 

3 and cast vote records) in a machine-read4 able, open data standard format required 

5 by the Commission, in consultation with 

6 the Director of the National Institute of 

7 Standards and Technology. 

8 ‘‘(iii) The device consists of hardware 

9 that demonstrably conforms to a hardware 

10 component manifest describing point-of-or11 igin information (including upstream hard12 ware supply chain information for each 

13 component) that— 

14 ‘‘(I) has been provided to the 

15 Commission, the Director of Cyberse16 curity and Infrastructure Security, 

17 and the chief State election official for 

18 each State in which the device is used; 

19 and 

20 ‘‘(II) may be shared by any enti21 ty to whom it has been provided under 

22 subclause (I) with independent experts 

23 for cybersecurity analysis. 

24 ‘‘(iv) The device utilizes technology 

25 that prevents the operation of the device if 


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1 any hardware components do not meet the 

2 requirements of clause (iii). 

3 ‘‘(v) The device operates using soft4 ware for which the source code, system 

5 build tools, and compilation parameters— 

6 ‘‘(I) have been provided to the 

7 Commission, the Director of Cyberse8 curity and Infrastructure Security, 

9 and the chief State election official for 

10 each State in which the device is used; 

11 and 

12 ‘‘(II) may be shared by any enti13 ty to whom it has been provided under 

14 subclause (I) with independent experts 

15 for cybersecurity analysis. 

16 ‘‘(vi) The device utilizes technology 

17 that prevents the running of software on 

18 the device that does not meet the require19 ments of clause (v). 

20 ‘‘(vii) The device utilizes technology 

21 that enables election officials, cybersecurity 

22 researchers, and voters to verify that the 

23 software running on the device— 


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1 ‘‘(I) was built from a specific, 

2 untampered version of the code that is 

3 described in clause (v); and 

4 ‘‘(II) uses the system build tools 

5 and compilation parameters that are 

6 described in clause (v). 

7 ‘‘(viii) The device contains such other 

8 security requirements as the Director of 

9 Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security 

10 requires. 

11 ‘‘(C) WAIVER.— 

12 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—The Director of 

13 Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security, 

14 in consultation with the Director of the 

15 National Institute of Standards and Tech16 nology, may waive one or more of the re17 quirements of subparagraph (B) (other 

18 than the requirement of clause (i) thereof) 

19 with respect to any device for a period of 

20 not to exceed 2 years. 

21 ‘‘(ii) PUBLICATION.—Information re22 lating to any waiver granted under clause 

23 (i) shall be made publicly available on the 

24 internet. 


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1 ‘‘(D) EFFECTIVE DATE.—Each State and 

2 jurisdiction shall be required to comply with the 

3 requirements of this paragraph for the regularly 

4 scheduled election for Federal office in Novem5 ber 2024, and for each subsequent election for 

6 Federal office.’’. 

7 (b) OTHER CYBERSECURITY REQUIREMENTS.—Sec8 tion 301(a) of such Act (52 U.S.C. 21081(a)), as amended 

9 by section 104, section 105, and subsection (a), is further 

10 amended by adding at the end the following new para11 graphs: 

12 ‘‘(10) PROHIBITION OF USE OF WIRELESS COM13 MUNICATIONS DEVICES IN SYSTEMS OR DEVICES.— 

14 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—No system or device 

15 upon which ballot marking devices or optical 

16 scanners are configured, upon which ballots are 

17 marked by voters (except as necessary for indi18 viduals with disabilities to use ballot marking 

19 devices that meet the accessibility requirements 

20 of paragraph (3)), or upon which votes are cast, 

21 tabulated, or aggregated shall contain, use, or 

22 be accessible by any wireless, power-line, or con23 cealed communication device. 

24 ‘‘(B) EFFECTIVE DATE.—Each State and 

25 jurisdiction shall be required to comply with the 


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1 requirements of this paragraph for the regularly 

2 scheduled election for Federal office in Novem3 ber 2020, and for each subsequent election for 

4 Federal office. 

5 ‘‘(11) PROHIBITING CONNECTION OF SYSTEM

6 TO THE INTERNET.— 

7 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—No system or device 

8 upon which ballot marking devices or optical 

9 scanners are configured, upon which ballots are 

10 marked by voters, or upon which votes are cast, 

11 tabulated, or aggregated shall be connected to 

12 the internet or any non-local computer system 

13 via telephone or other communication network 

14 at any time. 

15 ‘‘(B) EFFECTIVE DATE.—Each State and 

16 jurisdiction shall be required to comply with the 

17 requirements of this paragraph for the regularly 

18 scheduled election for Federal office in Novem19 ber 2020, and for each subsequent election for 

20 Federal office.’’. 

21 (c) SPECIAL CYBERSECURITY RULES FOR CERTAIN

22 BALLOT MARKING DEVICES.— 

23 (1) IN GENERAL.—Section 301(a) of such Act 

24 (52 U.S.C. 21081(a)), as amended by section 104, 

25 section 105, and subsections (a) and (b), is further 


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1 amended by adding at the end the following new 

2 paragraph: 

3 ‘‘(12) BALLOT MARKING DEVICES.— 

4 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—In the case of a voting 

5 system that uses a ballot marking device, the 

6 ballot marking device shall be a device that— 

7 ‘‘(i) is not capable of tabulating votes; 

8 ‘‘(ii) except in the case of a ballot 

9 marking device used exclusively to comply 

10 with the requirements of paragraph (3), is 

11 certified in accordance with section 232 as 

12 meeting the requirements of subparagraph 

13 (B); and 

14 ‘‘(iii) meets the requirements of 

15 clauses (iii) through (viii) of section 

16 301(a)(9)(B). 

17 ‘‘(B) REQUIREMENTS.— 

18 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—A ballot marking 

19 device meets the requirements of this sub20 paragraph if, during a double-masked test 

21 conducted by a qualified independent user 

22 experience research laboratory (as defined 

23 in section 232(b)(4)) of a simulated elec24 tion scenario which meets the requirements 

25 of clause (ii), there is less than a 5 percent 


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1 chance that an ordinary voter using the de2 vice would not detect and report any dif3 ference between the vote selection printed 

4 on the ballot by the ballot marking device 

5 and the vote selection indicated by the 

6 voter. 

7 ‘‘(ii) SIMULATED ELECTION SCE8 NARIO.—A simulated election scenario 

9 meets the requirements of this clause if it 

10 is conducted with— 

11 ‘‘(I) a pool of subjects that are— 

12 ‘‘(aa) diverse in age, gender, 

13 education, and physical limita14 tions; and 

15 ‘‘(bb) representative of the 

16 communities in which the voting 

17 system will be used; and 

18 ‘‘(II) ballots that are representa19 tive of ballots ordinarily used in the 

20 communities in which the voting sys21 tem will be used. 

22 ‘‘(C) EFFECTIVE DATE.—Each State and 

23 jurisdiction shall be required to comply with the 

24 requirements of this paragraph for the regularly 

25 scheduled election for Federal office in NovemVerDate Sep 11 2014 03:47 Jul 06, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00055 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2053.IS S2053

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1 ber 2022, and for each subsequent election for 

2 Federal office.’’. 

3 (2) PROCEDURE FOR TESTING.— 

4 (A) IN GENERAL.—Subtitle B of title II of 

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

6 20971 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end 

7 the following new section: 

8 ‘‘SEC. 232. TESTING AND CERTIFICATION OF BALLOT MARK9 ING DEVICES. 

10 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Any State or jurisdiction which 

11 intends to use a ballot marking device (other than a ballot 

12 marking device used exclusively to comply with the re13 quirements of section 301(a)(3)) in an election for Federal 

14 office may submit an application to the Commission for 

15 testing and certification under this section. 

16 ‘‘(b) APPLICATION, ASSIGNMENT, AND TESTING.— 

17 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—An application under sub18 section (a) shall be submitted not later than 18 

19 months before the date of the election for Federal 

20 office in which the ballot marking device is intended 

21 to be used and shall contain such information as the 

22 Commission requires. 

23 ‘‘(2) ASSIGNMENT.—Upon receipt of an appli24 cation for testing under this section, the Commission 

25 shall contract with a qualified independent user exVerDate Sep 11 2014 03:47 Jul 06, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00056 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2053.IS S2053

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1 perience research laboratory for the testing of 

2 whether the ballot marking device intended to be 

3 used by the State or jurisdiction meets the require4 ments of section 301(a)(12)(B). 

5 ‘‘(3) REQUIREMENTS FOR TESTING.—Any con6 tract described in paragraph (2) shall require the 

7 qualified independent user experience research lab8 oratory to— 

9 ‘‘(A) not later than 30 days before testing 

10 begins, submit to the Commission for approval 

11 the protocol for the simulated election scenario 

12 used for testing the ballot marking device; 

13 ‘‘(B) use only protocols approved by the 

14 Commission in conducting such testing; and 

15 ‘‘(C) submit to the Commission a report on 

16 the results of the testing. 

17 ‘‘(4) QUALIFIED INDEPENDENT USER EXPERI18 ENCE RESEARCH LABORATORY.—For purposes of 

19 this section: 

20 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘qualified 

21 independent user experience research labora22 tory’ means a laboratory accredited under this 

23 subsection by the Election Assistance Commis24 sion in accordance with standards determined 

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1 rector of the National Institute of Standards 

2 and Technology and the Secretary of Homeland 

3 Security. 

4 ‘‘(B) CRITERIA.—A laboratory shall not be 

5 accredited under this subsection unless such 

6 laboratory demonstrates that— 

7 ‘‘(i) no employee of, or individual with 

8 an ownership in, such laboratory has, or 

9 has had during the 5 preceding years, any 

10 financial relationship with a manufacturer 

11 of voting systems; and 

12 ‘‘(ii) any group of individuals con13 ducting tests under this section collectively 

14 meet the following qualifications: 

15 ‘‘(I) Experience designing and 

16 running user research studies and ex17 periments using both qualitative and 

18 quantitative methodologies. 

19 ‘‘(II) Experience with voting sys20 tems. 

21 ‘‘(c) REVIEW BY INDEPENDENT BOARD.— 

22 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Commission shall sub23 mit for approval to an independent review board es24 tablished under paragraph (3) the following: 


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1 ‘‘(A) Any protocol submitted to the Com2 mission under subsection (b)(3)(A). 

3 ‘‘(B) Any report submitted to the Commis4 sion under subsection (b)(3)(C). 

5 ‘‘(2) FINAL APPROVAL.—Not later than the 

6 date that is 12 months before the date of the elec7 tion for Federal office in which a State or jurisdic8 tion intends to use the ballot marking device, the 

9 independent review board shall report to the Com10 mission on whether it has approved a report sub11 mitted under paragraph (1)(B). 

12 ‘‘(3) INDEPENDENT REVIEW BOARD.— 

13 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—An independent re14 view board established under this paragraph 

15 shall be composed of five independent scientists 

16 appointed by the Commission, in consultation 

17 with the Director of the National Institute of 

18 Standards and Technology. 

19 ‘‘(B) QUALIFICATIONS.—The members of 

20 the independent review board— 

21 ‘‘(i) shall have expertise and relevant 

22 peer-reviewed publications in the following 

23 fields: cognitive psychology, experimental 

24 design, statistics, and user experience re25 search and testing; and 


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1 ‘‘(ii) may not have, or have had dur2 ing the 5 preceding years, any financial re3 lationship with a manufacturer of voting 

4 systems. 

5 ‘‘(4) PUBLICATION.—The Commission shall 

6 make public— 

7 ‘‘(A) any protocol approved under this sub8 section; 

9 ‘‘(B) any report submitted under sub10 section (b)(3)(C); and 

11 ‘‘(C) any determination made by an inde12 pendent review board under paragraph (2). 

13 ‘‘(d) CERTIFICATION.—If— 

14 ‘‘(1) a ballot marking device is determined by 

15 the qualified independent user experience research 

16 laboratory to meet the requirements of section 

17 301(a)(12); and 

18 ‘‘(2) the report submitted under subsection 

19 (b)(3)(C) is approved by a majority of the members 

20 of the independent review board under subsection 

21 (d)(2), 

22 then the Commission shall certify the ballot marking de23 vice. 

24 ‘‘(e) PROHIBITION ON FEES.—The Commission may 

25 not charge any fee to a State or jurisdiction, a developer 


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1 or manufacturer of a ballot marking device, or any other 

2 person in connection with testing and certification under 

3 this section.’’. 

4 (B) CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.— 

5 (i) Section 202(2) of the Help Amer6 ica Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 20922(2)) 

7 is amended by inserting ‘‘and ballot mark8 ing devices’’ after ‘‘hardware and soft9 ware’’). 

10 (ii) The heading for subtitle B of title 

11 II of such Act is amended by inserting at 

12 the end ‘‘; Ballot Marking Devices’’. 

13 (iii) The table of contents of such Act 

14 is amended— 

15 (I) by inserting ‘‘; Ballot Mark16 ing Devices’’ at the end of the item 

17 relating to subtitle B of title II; and 

18 (II) by inserting after the item 

19 related to section 231 the following: 

‘‘Sec. 232. Testing and certification of ballot marking devices.’’. 

20 SEC. 202. TESTING OF EXISTING VOTING SYSTEMS TO EN21 SURE COMPLIANCE WITH ELECTION CYBER22 SECURITY GUIDELINES AND OTHER GUIDE23 LINES. 

24 (a) REQUIRING TESTING OF EXISTING VOTING SYS25 TEMS.— 


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1 (1) IN GENERAL.—Section 231(a) of the Help 

2 America Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 20971(a)) is 

3 amended by adding at the end the following new 

4 paragraph: 

5 ‘‘(3) TESTING TO ENSURE COMPLIANCE WITH

6 GUIDELINES.— 

7 ‘‘(A) TESTING.—Not later than 9 months 

8 before the date of each regularly scheduled gen9 eral election for Federal office, the Commission 

10 shall provide for the testing by accredited lab11 oratories under this section of the voting system 

12 hardware and software which was certified for 

13 use in the most recent such election, on the 

14 basis of the most recent voting system guide15 lines applicable to such hardware or software 

16 (including election cybersecurity guidelines) 

17 issued under this Act. 

18 ‘‘(B) DECERTIFICATION OF HARDWARE OR

19 SOFTWARE FAILING TO MEET GUIDELINES.—If, 

20 on the basis of the testing described in subpara21 graph (A), the Commission determines that any 

22 voting system hardware or software does not 

23 meet the most recent guidelines applicable to 

24 such hardware or software issued under this 


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1 Act, the Commission shall decertify such hard2 ware or software.’’. 

3 (2) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made 

4 by paragraph (1) shall apply with respect to the reg5 ularly scheduled general election for Federal office 

6 held in November 2020 and each succeeding regu7 larly scheduled general election for Federal office. 

8 (b) ISSUANCE OF CYBERSECURITY GUIDELINES BY

9 TECHNICAL GUIDELINES DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE.— 

10 Section 221(b) of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (52 

11 U.S.C. 20961(b)) is amended by adding at the end the 

12 following new paragraph: 

13 ‘‘(3) ELECTION CYBERSECURITY GUIDE14 LINES.—Not later than 6 months after the date of 

15 the enactment of the Securing America’s Federal 

16 Elections Act, the Development Committee shall 

17 issue election cybersecurity guidelines, including 

18 standards and best practices for procuring, main19 taining, testing, operating, and updating election 

20 systems to prevent and deter cybersecurity inci21 dents.’’. 


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1 SEC. 203. REQUIRING USE OF SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE 

2 FOR WHICH INFORMATION IS DISCLOSED BY 

3 MANUFACTURER. 

4 (a) REQUIREMENT.—Section 301(a) of the Help 

5 America Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21081(a)), as 

6 amended by sections 104, 105, 201(a), 201(b), and 

7 201(c), is amended by adding at the end the following new 

8 paragraph: 

9 ‘‘(13) REQUIRING USE OF SOFTWARE AND

10 HARDWARE FOR WHICH INFORMATION IS DISCLOSED

11 BY MANUFACTURER.— 

12 ‘‘(A) REQUIRING USE OF SOFTWARE FOR

13 WHICH SOURCE CODE IS DISCLOSED BY MANU14 FACTURER.— 

15 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—In the operation 

16 of voting systems in an election for Federal 

17 office, a State may only use software for 

18 which the manufacturer makes the source 

19 code (in the form in which will be used at 

20 the time of the election) publicly available 

21 online under a license that grants a world22 wide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, perpetual, 

23 sub-licensable license to all intellectual 

24 property rights in such source code, except 

25 that the manufacturer may prohibit a per26 son who obtains the software from using 


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1 the software in a manner that is primarily 

2 intended for or directed toward commercial 

3 advantage or private monetary compensa4 tion that is unrelated to carrying out legiti5 mate research or cybersecurity activity. 

6 ‘‘(ii) EXCEPTIONS.—Clause (i) does 

7 not apply with respect to— 

8 ‘‘(I) widely used operating system 

9 software which is not specific to vot10 ing systems and for which the source 

11 code or baseline functionality is not 

12 altered; or 

13 ‘‘(II) widely used cybersecurity 

14 software which is not specific to vot15 ing systems and for which the source 

16 code or baseline functionality is not 

17 altered. 

18 ‘‘(B) REQUIRING USE OF HARDWARE FOR

19 WHICH INFORMATION IS DISCLOSED BY MANU20 FACTURER.— 

21 ‘‘(i) REQUIRING DISCLOSURE OF

22 HARDWARE.—A State may not use a vot23 ing system in an election for Federal office 

24 unless the manufacturer of the system 

25 publicly discloses online the identification 


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1 of the hardware used to operate the sys2 tem. 

3 ‘‘(ii) ADDITIONAL DISCLOSURE RE4 QUIREMENTS FOR CUSTOM OR ALTERED

5 HARDWARE.—To the extent that the hard6 ware used to operate a voting system or 

7 any component thereof is not widely used, 

8 or is widely used but is altered, the State 

9 may not use the system in an election for 

10 Federal office unless— 

11 ‘‘(I) the manufacturer of the sys12 tem publicly discloses online the com13 ponents of the hardware, the design of 

14 such components, and how such com15 ponents are connected in the oper16 ation of the system; and 

17 ‘‘(II) the manufacturer makes 

18 the design (in the form which will be 

19 used at the time of the election) pub20 licly available online under a license 

21 that grants a worldwide, royalty-free, 

22 non-exclusive, perpetual, sub-licens23 able license to all intellectual property 

24 rights in the design of the hardware 

25 or the component, except that the 


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1 manufacturer may prohibit a person 

2 who obtains the design from using the 

3 design in a manner that is primarily 

4 intended for or directed toward com5 mercial advantage or private monetary 

6 compensation that is unrelated to car7 rying out legitimate research or cyber8 security activity.’’. 

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

10 subsection (a) shall apply with respect to elections for 

11 Federal office held in 2020 or any succeeding year. 

12 SEC. 204. TREATMENT OF ELECTRONIC POLL BOOKS AS 

13 PART OF VOTING SYSTEMS. 

14 (a) INCLUSION IN DEFINITION OF VOTING SYS15 TEM.—Section 301(b) of the Help America Vote Act of 

16 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21081(b)) is amended— 

17 (1) in the matter preceding paragraph (1), by 

18 striking ‘‘this section’’ and inserting ‘‘this Act’’; 

19 (2) by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end of paragraph 

20 (1); 

21 (3) by redesignating paragraph (2) as para22 graph (3); and 

23 (4) by inserting after paragraph (1) the fol24 lowing new paragraph: 


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1 ‘‘(2) any electronic poll book used with respect 

2 to the election; and’’. 

3 (b) DEFINITION.—Section 301 of such Act (52 

4 U.S.C. 21081) is amended— 

5 (1) by redesignating subsections (c) and (d) as 

6 subsections (d) and (e); and 

7 (2) by inserting after subsection (b) the fol8 lowing new subsection: 

9 ‘‘(c) ELECTRONIC POLL BOOK DEFINED.—In this 

10 Act, the term ‘electronic poll book’ means the total com11 bination of mechanical, electromechanical, or electronic 

12 equipment (including the software, firmware, and docu13 mentation required to program, control, and support the 

14 equipment) that is used— 

15 ‘‘(1) to retain the list of registered voters at a 

16 polling location, or vote center, or other location at 

17 which voters cast votes in an election for Federal of18 fice; and 

19 ‘‘(2) to identify registered voters who are eligi20 ble to vote in an election.’’. 

21 (c) EFFECTIVE DATE.—Section 301(e) of such Act 

22 (52 U.S.C. 21081(e)), as amended by section 107 and as 

23 redesignated by subsection (b), is amended— 

24 (1) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘paragraph 

25 (2)’’ and inserting ‘‘paragraphs (2) and (3)’’; and 


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1 (2) by adding at the end the following new 

2 paragraph: 

3 ‘‘(3) SPECIAL RULE FOR ELECTRONIC POLL

4 BOOKS.—In the case of the requirements of sub5 section (c) (relating to electronic poll books), each 

6 State and jurisdiction shall be required to comply 

7 with such requirements on or after January 1, 

8 2020.’’. 

9 SEC. 205. PRE-ELECTION REPORTS ON VOTING SYSTEM 

10 USAGE. 

11 (a) REQUIRING STATES TO SUBMIT REPORTS.—Title 

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

13 21081 et seq.) is amended by inserting after section 301 

14 the following new section: 

15 ‘‘SEC. 301A. PRE-ELECTION REPORTS ON VOTING SYSTEM 

16 USAGE. 

17 ‘‘(a) REQUIRING STATES TO SUBMIT REPORTS.— 

18 Not later than 120 days before the date of each regularly 

19 scheduled general election for Federal office, the chief 

20 State election official of a State shall submit a report to 

21 the Commission containing a detailed voting system usage 

22 plan for each jurisdiction in the State which will admin23 ister the election, including a detailed plan for the usage 

24 of electronic poll books and other equipment and compo25 nents of such system. 


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1 ‘‘(b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—Subsection (a) shall apply 

2 with respect to the regularly scheduled general election for 

3 Federal office held in November 2020 and each succeeding 

4 regularly scheduled general election for Federal office.’’. 

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

6 of such Act is amended by inserting after the item relating 

7 to section 301 the following new item: 

‘‘Sec. 301A. Pre-election reports on voting system usage.’’. 

8 SEC. 206. STREAMLINING COLLECTION OF ELECTION IN9 FORMATION. 

10 Section 202 of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 

11 (52 U.S.C. 20922) is amended— 

12 (1) by striking ‘‘The Commission’’ and insert13 ing ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Commission’’; and 

14 (2) by adding at the end the following new sub15 section: 

16 ‘‘(b) WAIVER OF CERTAIN REQUIREMENTS.—Sub17 chapter I of chapter 35 of title 44, United States Code, 

18 shall not apply to the collection of information for pur19 poses of maintaining the clearinghouse described in para20 graph (1) of subsection (a).’’. 


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1 TITLE III—USE OF VOTING MA2 CHINES MANUFACTURED IN 

3 THE UNITED STATES 

4 SEC. 301. USE OF VOTING MACHINES MANUFACTURED IN 

5 THE UNITED STATES. 

6 Section 301(a) of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 

7 (52 U.S.C. 21081(a)), as amended by sections 104, 105, 

8 201(a), 201(b), 201(c), and 203(a), is further amended 

9 by adding at the end the following new paragraph: 

10 ‘‘(14) VOTING MACHINE REQUIREMENTS.—By 

11 not later than the date of the regularly scheduled 

12 general election for Federal office occurring in No13 vember 2022, each State shall seek to ensure that 

14 any voting machine used in such election and in any 

15 subsequent election for Federal office is manufac16 tured in the United States.’’. 

17 TITLE IV—SEVERABILITY 

18 SEC. 401. SEVERABILITY. 

19 If any provision of this Act or amendment made by 

20 this Act, or the application of a provision or amendment 

21 to any person or circumstance, is held to be unconstitu22 tional, the remainder of this Act and amendments made 

23 by this Act, and the application of the provisions and 


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1 amendment to any person or circumstance, shall not be 

2 affected by the holding. 

Æ 


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