I 
116TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 8991 
To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to prohibit the use of voting 
systems in elections for Federal office whose hardware and software 
components are not manufactured and maintained in the United States 
or which are produced by foreign entities, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
DECEMBER 16, 2020 
Mr. POSEY introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee 
on House Administration 
A BILL 
To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to prohibit 
the use of voting systems in elections for Federal office 
whose hardware and software components are not manu-
factured and maintained in the United States or which 
are produced by foreign entities, and for other purposes. 
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 ‘‘American Election Se-
curity Act’’. 
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SEC. 2. PROHIBITING USE OF VOTING SYSTEM PRODUCED 
BY FOREIGN ENTITY IN ELECTIONS FOR FED-
ERAL OFFICE. 
(a) PROHIBITION.—Section 301(a) of the Help Amer-
ica Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21081(a)) is amended 
by adding at the end the following new paragraphs: 
‘‘(7) SYSTEM HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE MAN-
UFACTURED
AND
MAINTAINED
IN
UNITED 
STATES.—All of the hardware components and all of 
the software components of the system shall be man-
ufactured in the United States, and all of the hard-
ware components or software components shall be 
maintained and serviced only by persons who are in 
the United States. 
‘‘(8) SYSTEM NOT PRODUCED BY FOREIGN EN-
TITY.— 
‘‘(A) IN
GENERAL.—The voting system 
may not be produced by a foreign entity. 
‘‘(B) FOREIGN ENTITY DEFINED.—In sub-
paragraph (A), the term ‘foreign entity’ means 
any of the following: 
‘‘(i) A foreign national. 
‘‘(ii) Any corporation which is not a 
foreign national and in which a foreign na-
tional or an alien directly or indirectly 
owns or controls any voting share. 
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‘‘(iii) Any corporation which is not a 
foreign national and with respect to which 
any of the members of the board of direc-
tors are foreign nationals or aliens. 
‘‘(iv) Any corporation which is not a 
foreign national and over which one or 
more foreign nationals or aliens has the 
power to direct, dictate, or control the de-
cision-making process of the corporation 
with respect to its interests in the United 
States. 
‘‘(C) FOREIGN
NATIONAL
DEFINED.—In 
this paragraph, the term ‘foreign national’ has 
the meaning given such term in section 1(b) of 
the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938, 
as amended (22 U.S.C. 611(b)), except that 
such term shall not include any individual who 
is a citizen of the United States. 
‘‘(D) ALIEN DEFINED.—In this paragraph, 
the term ‘alien’ means an individual who is not 
a citizen of the United States or a national of 
the United States (as defined in section 
101(a)(22) of the Immigration and Nationality 
Act), and who is not lawfully admitted for per-
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manent 
residence 
(as 
defined 
in 
section 
101(a)(20) of such Act).’’. 
(b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—Section 301(d) of such Act 
(52 U.S.C. 21081(d)) is amended to read as follows: 
‘‘(d) EFFECTIVE DATE.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in para-
graph (2), each State and jurisdiction shall be re-
quired to comply with the requirements of this sec-
tion on and after January 1, 2006. 
‘‘(2) SPECIAL RULE FOR REQUIREMENTS RE-
LATING TO FOREIGN ENTITIES.—In the case of the 
requirements of paragraphs (7) and (8) of sub-
section (a), each State and jurisdiction shall be re-
quired to comply with such requirements on and 
after the date of the enactment of the American 
Election Security Act.’’. 
Æ 
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