I 
116TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 4777 
To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require States to take 
steps to ensure domestic ownership and control of election service pro-
viders, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
OCTOBER 21, 2019 
Mr. VAN DREW (for himself, Ms. KENDRA S. HORN of Oklahoma, Mr. FOR-
TENBERRY, Mr. STEUBE, Ms. SPANBERGER, Ms. TORRES SMALL of New 
Mexico, Mr. YOUNG, and Mr. CRENSHAW) introduced the following bill; 
which was referred to the Committee on House Administration 
A BILL 
To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require 
States to take steps to ensure domestic ownership and 
control of election service providers, and for other pur-
poses. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Protect our Elections 
Act’’. 
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SEC. 2. ENSURING DOMESTIC OWNERSHIP AND CONTROL 
OF ELECTION SYSTEMS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Title III of the Help America 
Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21083 et seq.) is amended— 
(1) by redesignating sections 304 and 305 as 
sections 305 and 306; and 
(2) by inserting after section 303 the following 
new section: 
‘‘SEC. 304. ENSURING DOMESTIC OWNERSHIP AND CON-
TROL OF ELECTION SYSTEMS. 
‘‘(a) REQUIRING ELECTION SERVICE PROVIDERS TO 
BE QUALIFIED.—Each State, unit of local government, or 
component of a State or unit of local government which 
is responsible for the administration of an election for 
Federal office shall ensure that each election service pro-
vider who provides, supports, or maintains any component 
of an election system used in the administration of the 
election is a qualified election service provider. 
‘‘(b) ANNUAL EVALUATION TO ENSURE COMPLI-
ANCE.—Each State, unit of local government, or compo-
nent of a State or unit of local government which is re-
sponsible for the administration of an election for Federal 
office shall, not less frequently than once each calendar 
year, evaluate each election service provider to ensure that 
the election service provider is a qualified election service 
provider. 
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‘‘(c) CYBERSECURITY BEST PRACTICES.—Not later 
than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this sec-
tion, the Chair of the Commission and the Secretary of 
Homeland Security shall establish and publish cybersecu-
rity best practices for election service providers who pro-
vide, support, or maintain election systems, and shall es-
tablish and publish updates to such best practices at such 
times as the Chair and the Secretary consider appropriate. 
‘‘(d) GUIDANCE AND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Chair of the Commis-
sion and the Secretary of Homeland Security may 
provide such guidance and technical assistance as 
may be appropriate to assist each State, unit of local 
government, or component of a State or unit of local 
government which is responsible for the administra-
tion of an election for Federal office with its obliga-
tions under this section. 
‘‘(2) DATABASE OF QUALIFIED ELECTION SERV-
ICE PROVIDERS.—As part of providing guidance and 
technical assistance under this subsection, the Com-
mission shall establish and maintain a database in 
which each State, unit of local government, or com-
ponent of a State or unit of local government which 
is responsible for the administration of an election 
for Federal office can verify whether an election 
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service provider is a qualified election service pro-
vider. 
‘‘(e) ELECTION SERVICE PROVIDER AND QUALIFIED 
ELECTION SERVICE PROVIDER DEFINED.— 
‘‘(1) ELECTION
SERVICE
PROVIDER.—In this 
section, the term ‘election service provider’ means 
any person providing, supporting, or maintaining an 
election system on behalf of an election agency, such 
as a contractor or vendor. 
‘‘(2) QUALIFIED
ELECTION
SERVICE
PRO-
VIDER.— 
‘‘(A) IN
GENERAL.—In this section, the 
term ‘qualified election service provider’ means 
an election service provider who meets each of 
the following criteria, as established and pub-
lished by the Chair of the Commission in co-
ordination with the Secretary of Homeland Se-
curity: 
‘‘(i) Except as provided in subpara-
graph (C), the election service provider is 
solely owned and controlled by United 
States persons or persons described in sub-
paragraph (B). 
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‘‘(ii) The election service provider sub-
mits in accordance with section 3(a) of the 
Protect our Elections Act— 
‘‘(I) 
notice 
of 
any 
material 
change in ownership or control of the 
election service provider; and 
‘‘(II) any other information re-
quired to be reported under that sec-
tion. 
‘‘(iii) The election service provider 
agrees to ensure that the election systems 
will be developed and maintained in a man-
ner that is consistent with the cybersecu-
rity best practices established under sub-
section (c). 
‘‘(iv) The election service provider 
agrees to maintain its information tech-
nology infrastructure in a manner that is 
consistent with the cybersecurity best prac-
tices established under subsection (c). 
‘‘(v) The election service provider 
shall report any known or suspected inci-
dents involving election systems to the 
chief State election official of the State in-
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volved or the official’s designee, the Chair, 
and the Secretary. 
‘‘(B) PERSONS DESCRIBED.—For purposes 
of subparagraph (A)(i), a person described in 
this subparagraph is a corporation or business 
entity that is created or organized under the 
laws of a country that is party to the UK–USA 
Agreement for joint cooperation in signals intel-
ligence, military intelligence, and human intel-
ligence, also known as the ‘Five Eyes alliance’. 
‘‘(C) PERMITTING WAIVER OF DOMESTIC 
OWNERSHIP AND CONTROL REQUIREMENT FOR 
CERTAIN
SUBSIDIARIES.—The 
Secretary 
of 
Homeland Security may waive the requirement 
of clause (i) of subparagraph (A) with respect 
to a person who is a United States subsidiary 
of a parent company which has implemented a 
foreign ownership or control mitigation plan 
that has been approved by the Secretary. Such 
plan shall ensure that the parent company can-
not control, influence, or direct the subsidiary 
in any manner that would compromise or influ-
ence, or give the appearance of compromising 
or influencing, the independence and integrity 
of an election. 
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‘‘(D) INCIDENT DEFINED.—For purposes 
of subparagraph (A)(v), the term ‘incident’ has 
the meaning given that term in section 
3552(b)(2) of title 44, United States Code. 
‘‘(f) ELECTION SYSTEM DEFINED.—In this section, 
the term ‘election system’ means a voting system, an elec-
tion management system, a voter registration website or 
database, an electronic pollbook, a system for tabulating 
or reporting election results, an election agency commu-
nications system, or any other information system (as de-
fined in section 3502 of title 44, United States Code) that 
the Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with 
the Commission, identifies as central to the management, 
support, or administration of a Federal election. 
‘‘(g) OWNERSHIP
AND CONTROL DEFINED.—The 
Commission, in consultation with the Secretary of the 
Treasury, shall issue regulations defining the terms ‘own-
ership’ and ‘control’ for purposes of this section.’’. 
(b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT RELATING TO EN-
FORCEMENT.—Section 401 of such Act (52 U.S.C. 21111) 
is amended by striking ‘‘and 303’’ and inserting ‘‘303, and 
304’’. 
(c) CLERICAL AMENDMENTS.—The table of contents 
of such Act is amended— 
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(1) by redesignating the items relating to sec-
tions 304 and 305 as relating to sections 305 and 
306; and 
(2) by inserting after the item relating to sec-
tion 303 the following new item: 
‘‘Sec. 304. Ensuring domestic ownership and control of election systems.’’. 
(d) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 
this section shall apply with respect to elections for Fed-
eral office held in 2020 or any succeeding year. 
SEC. 3. INFORMATION SHARING WITH RESPECT TO OWNER-
SHIP OF ELECTION SERVICE PROVIDERS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Each election service provider 
shall submit to the Secretary of Homeland Security, the 
Election Assistance Commission, and appropriate State or 
local governmental entities the following: 
(1) Not later than the date that is 90 days 
after the later of the date of the enactment of this 
section or the date that a person first becomes an 
election service provider, a report listing the identity 
of any foreign national (as defined in section 319(b) 
of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (52 
U.S.C. 30121(b))) who directly or indirectly owns or 
controls such election service provider and the per-
centage of such ownership, and any other informa-
tion necessary to determine whether the election 
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service provider is a qualified election service pro-
vider. 
(2) Not later than 90 days after the date of any 
material change in ownership or control of such elec-
tion service provider, a notice of such change and an 
update of any information previously reported under 
paragraph (1). 
(b) CIVIL PENALTY FOR FAILURE TO REPORT.—If 
an election service provider fails to submit a report re-
quired under subsection (a), the Attorney General may, 
after notice and opportunity for hearing, impose a civil 
fine of $20,000. 
(c) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 
(1) APPROPRIATE STATE OR LOCAL GOVERN-
MENTAL ENTITY.—The term ‘‘appropriate State or 
local governmental entity’’ means, with respect to an 
election service provider, any State or local govern-
mental entity that the election service provider seeks 
to contract with, contracts with, or otherwise pro-
vides services to provide, support, or maintain an 
election system. 
(2) ELECTION SERVICE PROVIDER; ELECTION 
SYSTEM; 
QUALIFIED
ELECTION
SERVICE
PRO-
VIDER.—The terms ‘‘election service provider’’, 
‘‘election system’’, and ‘‘qualified election service 
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provider’’ have the meaning given those terms in 
section 304 of the Help America Vote Act of 2002, 
as added by section 2. 
Æ 
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