IB 
Union Calendar No. 94 
116TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2722 
[Report No. 116–129, Part I] 
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 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 14, 2019 
Ms. LOFGREN introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on House Administration, and in addition to the Committee on 
Science, Space, and Technology, for a period to be subsequently deter-
mined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions 
as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
JUNE 26, 2019 
Additional 
sponsors: 
Mr. 
RASKIN, 
Mrs. 
DAVIS
of 
California, 
Mr. 
BUTTERFIELD, Ms. FUDGE, Mr. AGUILAR, Mr. VAN DREW, Mr. KILDEE, 
Mrs. MCBATH, Ms. BLUNT ROCHESTER, Mr. LAWSON of Florida, Mr. 
SABLAN, and Mr. COOPER 
JUNE 26, 2019 
Reported from the Committee on House Administration with an amendment 
[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic] 
JUNE 26, 2019 
Committee on Science, Space, and Technology discharged; committed to the 
Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union and ordered 
to be printed 
[For text of introduced bill, see copy of bill as introduced on May 14, 2019] 
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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. 
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Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Se-
curing America’s Federal Elections Act’’ or the ‘‘SAFE 
Act’’. 
(b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents of this 
Act is as follows: 
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. 
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 car-
rying out voting system security improvements. 
Sec. 112. Coordination of voting system security activities with use of require-
ments 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 cy-
bersecurity guidelines and other guidelines. 
Sec. 203. Requiring use of software and hardware for which information is dis-
closed by manufacturer. 
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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. 
TITLE 
I—FINANCIAL 
SUPPORT 
FOR ELECTION INFRASTRUC-
TURE 
Subtitle A—Voting System Security 
Improvement Grants 
PART 
1—PROMOTING 
ACCURACY, 
INTEGRITY, 
AND SECURITY THROUGH VOTER-VERIFIED 
PERMANENT PAPER BALLOT 
SEC. 101. SHORT TITLE. 
This subtitle may be cited as the ‘‘Voter Confidence 
and Increased Accessibility Act of 2019’’. 
SEC. 102. PAPER BALLOT AND MANUAL COUNTING RE-
QUIREMENTS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 301(a)(2) of the Help 
America Vote Act of 2002 (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 
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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. 
‘‘(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 deter-
mined by counting by hand the individual, 
durable, voter-verified paper ballots used 
pursuant to clause (i), and subject to sub-
paragraph (B), the individual, durable, 
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voter-verified paper ballots shall be the true 
and correct record of the votes cast. 
‘‘(iv) APPLICATION TO ALL BALLOTS.— 
The requirements of this subparagraph shall 
apply to all ballots cast in elections for Fed-
eral office, including ballots cast by absent 
uniformed services voters and overseas vot-
ers under the Uniformed and Overseas Citi-
zens Absentee Voting Act and other absentee 
voters. 
‘‘(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 be-
tween any electronic vote tallies and 
the vote tallies determined by counting 
by hand the individual, durable, voter- 
verified paper ballots used pursuant to 
subparagraph (A)(i) with respect to 
any election for Federal office; and 
‘‘(II) it is demonstrated by clear 
and convincing evidence (as deter-
mined in accordance with the applica-
ble standards in the jurisdiction in-
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volved) in any recount, audit, or con-
test of the result of the election that the 
paper ballots have been compromised 
(by damage or mischief or otherwise) 
and that a sufficient number of the 
ballots have been so compromised that 
the result of the election could be 
changed, 
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 deter-
mining 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 compromised, 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.’’. 
(b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT CLARIFYING APPLICA-
BILITY OF ALTERNATIVE LANGUAGE ACCESSIBILITY.—Sec-
tion 301(a)(4) of such Act (52 U.S.C. 21081(a)(4)) is 
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amended by inserting ‘‘(including the paper ballots re-
quired to be used under paragraph (2))’’ after ‘‘voting sys-
tem’’. 
(c) OTHER
CONFORMING
AMENDMENTS.—Section 
301(a)(1) of such Act (52 U.S.C. 21081(a)(1)) is amend-
ed— 
(1) in subparagraph (A)(i), by striking ‘‘count-
ed’’ and inserting ‘‘counted, in accordance with para-
graphs (2) and (3)’’; 
(2) in subparagraph (A)(ii), by striking ‘‘count-
ed’’ and inserting ‘‘counted, in accordance with para-
graphs (2) and (3)’’; 
(3) in subparagraph (A)(iii), by striking ‘‘count-
ed’’ each place it appears and inserting ‘‘counted, in 
accordance with paragraphs (2) and (3)’’; and 
(4) in subparagraph (B)(ii), by striking ‘‘count-
ed’’ and inserting ‘‘counted, in accordance with para-
graphs (2) and (3)’’. 
SEC. 103. ACCESSIBILITY AND BALLOT VERIFICATION FOR 
INDIVIDUALS WITH DISABILITIES. 
(a) BALLOT CYBERSECURITY, CONFIDENTIALITY, AND 
ACCESS FOR INDIVIDUALS WITH DISABILITIES.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—Section 301(a)(3)(B) of the 
Help America Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 
21081(a)(3)(B)) is amended to read as follows: 
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‘‘(B)(i) satisfy the requirement of subpara-
graph (A) through the use of at least 1 voting 
system at each polling place that— 
‘‘(I) is equipped for individuals with 
disabilities, including nonvisual and en-
hanced visual accessibility for the blind and 
visually impaired, and contains features to 
support enhanced manual accessibility for 
the mobility and dexterity impaired; 
‘‘(II) in the case of any election for 
Federal office occurring after the date that 
is 6 years after the date of the enactment of 
the Securing America’s Federal Elections 
Act— 
‘‘(aa) marks ballots that are iden-
tical in size, ink, and paper stock to 
those ballots that would be marked by 
hand or a ballot marking device used 
by voters who do not have accessibility 
needs; 
‘‘(bb) marks the ballot in such a 
way that someone examining the ballot 
will not be able to readily determine 
whether the ballot was marked by hand 
or machine; and 
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‘‘(cc) combines ballots produced by 
the voting system with ballots marked 
by voters using other types of voting 
systems used by the State or jurisdic-
tion in a way that prevents identifica-
tion of which ballots were cast using 
each voting system; and 
‘‘(III) is made available for use by any 
voter who requests to use it; and 
‘‘(ii) in the case of any election for Federal 
office occurring after the date that is 6 years 
after the date of the enactment of the Securing 
America’s Federal Elections Act, meet the re-
quirements of subparagraph (A) and paragraph 
(2)(A) by using a system that allows the voter to 
privately and independently verify the accuracy 
of the permanent paper ballot through the pres-
entation, in accessible form, of the printed or 
marked vote selections from the same printed or 
marked information that would be used for any 
vote tabulation or auditing; and’’. 
(2) CLARIFICATION WITH RESPECT TO APPLICA-
TION
OF
REQUIREMENT
TO
BALLOTS
MARKED
AT 
HOME.—Section 301(a)(3) of such Act (52 U.S.C. 
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