(b) PAPER BALLOT AND MANUAL COUNTING RE-
QUIREMENTS.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—Section 301(a)(2) of such 
Act (52 U.S.C. 21081(a)(2)) is amended to read as 
follows: 
‘‘(2) PAPER BALLOT REQUIREMENT.— 
‘‘(A) VOTER-VERIFIED PAPER BALLOTS.— 
‘‘(i) PAPER BALLOT REQUIREMENT.— 
(I) The voting system shall require the use 
of an individual, durable, voter-verified, 
paper ballot of the voter’s vote that shall 
be marked and made available for inspec-
tion and verification by the voter before 
the voter’s vote is cast and counted, and 
which shall be counted by hand or read by 
an optical character recognition device or 
other counting device. For purposes of this 
subclause, the term ‘individual, durable, 
voter-verified, paper ballot’ means a paper 
ballot marked by the voter by hand or a 
paper ballot marked through the use of a 
nontabulating ballot marking device or sys-
tem, so long as the voter shall have the op-
tion to mark his or her ballot by hand (or, 
in the case of an individual with a dis-
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ability, by such alternative method as the 
election official shall establish that pro-
vides an equivalent opportunity, including 
with privacy and independence, as for 
other voters). 
‘‘(II) The voting system shall provide 
the voter with an opportunity to correct 
any error on the paper ballot before the 
permanent voter-verified paper ballot is 
preserved in accordance with clause (ii). 
‘‘(III) The voting system shall not 
preserve the voter-verified paper ballots in 
any manner that makes it possible, at any 
time after the ballot has been cast, to asso-
ciate a voter with the record of the voter’s 
vote without the voter’s consent. 
‘‘(ii) PRESERVATION
AS
OFFICIAL 
RECORD.—The individual, durable, voter- 
verified, paper ballot used in accordance 
with clause (i) shall constitute the official 
ballot and shall be preserved and used as 
the official ballot for purposes of any re-
count or audit conducted with respect to 
any election for Federal office in which the 
voting system is used. 
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‘‘(iii) MANUAL
COUNTING
REQUIRE-
MENTS FOR RECOUNTS AND AUDITS.—(I) 
Each paper ballot used pursuant to clause 
(i) shall be suitable for a manual audit, 
and shall be counted by hand in any re-
count or audit conducted with respect to 
any election for Federal office. 
‘‘(II) In the event of any inconsist-
encies or irregularities between any elec-
tronic vote tallies and the vote tallies de-
termined by counting by hand the indi-
vidual, durable, voter-verified, paper ballots 
used pursuant to clause (i), and subject to 
subparagraph (B), the individual, durable, 
voter-verified, paper ballots shall be the 
true and correct record of the votes cast. 
‘‘(iv) APPLICATION
TO
ALL
BAL-
LOTS.—The requirements of this subpara-
graph shall apply to all ballots cast in elec-
tions for Federal office, including ballots 
cast by absent uniformed services voters 
and overseas voters under the Uniformed 
and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act 
and other absentee voters. 
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‘‘(B) SPECIAL RULE FOR TREATMENT OF 
DISPUTES WHEN PAPER BALLOTS HAVE BEEN 
SHOWN TO BE COMPROMISED.— 
‘‘(i) IN
GENERAL.—In the event 
that— 
‘‘(I) there is any inconsistency 
between any electronic vote tallies and 
the vote tallies determined by count-
ing by hand the individual, durable, 
voter-verified, paper ballots used pur-
suant to subparagraph (A)(i) with re-
spect to any election for Federal of-
fice; and 
‘‘(II) it is demonstrated by clear 
and convincing evidence (as deter-
mined in accordance with the applica-
ble standards in the jurisdiction in-
volved) in any recount, audit, or con-
test of the result of the election that 
the paper ballots have been com-
promised (by damage or mischief or 
otherwise) and that a sufficient num-
ber of the ballots have been so com-
promised that the result of the elec-
tion could be changed, 
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the determination of the appropriate rem-
edy with respect to the election shall be 
made in accordance with applicable State 
law, except that the electronic tally shall 
not be used as the exclusive basis for de-
termining the official certified result. 
‘‘(ii) RULE FOR CONSIDERATION OF 
BALLOTS ASSOCIATED WITH EACH VOTING 
MACHINE.—For purposes of clause (i), 
only the paper ballots deemed com-
promised, if any, shall be considered in the 
calculation of whether or not the result of 
the election could be changed due to the 
compromised paper ballots.’’. 
(2) CONFORMING AMENDMENT CLARIFYING AP-
PLICABILITY OF ALTERNATIVE LANGUAGE ACCESSI-
BILITY.—Section 301(a)(4) of such Act (52 U.S.C. 
21081(a)(4)) is amended by inserting ‘‘(including 
the paper ballots required to be used under para-
graph (2))’’ after ‘‘voting system’’. 
(3) OTHER CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.—Sec-
tion 301(a)(1) of such Act (52 U.S.C. 21081(a)(1)) 
is amended— 
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(A) in subparagraph (A)(i), by striking 
‘‘counted’’ and inserting ‘‘counted, in accord-
ance with paragraphs (2) and (3)’’; 
(B) in subparagraph (A)(ii), by striking 
‘‘counted’’ and inserting ‘‘counted, in accord-
ance with paragraphs (2) and (3)’’; 
(C) in subparagraph (A)(iii), by striking 
‘‘counted’’ each place it appears and inserting 
‘‘counted, in accordance with paragraphs (2) 
and (3)’’; and 
(D) in subparagraph (B)(ii), by striking 
‘‘counted’’ and inserting ‘‘counted, in accord-
ance with paragraphs (2) and (3)’’. 
(c) EFFECTIVE DATE.—Section 301(d) of such Act 
(52 U.S.C. 21081(d)) is amended by striking the period 
at the end and inserting the following: ‘‘, or, in the case 
of the requirements of this section which are first imposed 
on a State or jurisdiction pursuant to the amendments 
made by section 2 of the Safeguarding Election Infra-
structure Act of 2017, with respect to voting systems used 
for elections held on or after the expiration of the 1-year 
period which begins on the date of the enactment of such 
Act’’. 
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