I 
112TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 6246 
To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require the deposit in 
the National Software Reference Library of the National Institute of 
Standards and Technology of a copy of any election-dedicated voting 
system technology used in the operation of a voting system for an 
election for Federal office, to establish the conditions under which the 
Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology may 
disclose the technology and information regarding the technology to other 
persons, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
AUGUST 1, 2012 
Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia (for himself, Mr. HOLT, Ms. WILSON of Florida, Mr. 
HINCHEY, Mr. CONYERS, Mr. CLYBURN, Ms. FUDGE, Ms. EDWARDS, Mr. 
BARTLETT, and Mr. VAN HOLLEN) introduced the following bill; which 
was referred to the Committee on House Administration, and in addition 
to the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, for a period to be 
subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration 
of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee con-
cerned 
A BILL 
To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require 
the deposit in the National Software Reference Library 
of the National Institute of Standards and Technology 
of a copy of any election-dedicated voting system tech-
nology used in the operation of a voting system for 
an election for Federal office, to establish the conditions 
under which the Director of the National Institute of 
Standards and Technology may disclose the technology 
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and information regarding the technology to other per-
sons, 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 ‘‘Verifying Official To-
tals for Elections Act’’. 
SEC. 2. DEPOSIT OF ELECTION-DEDICATED VOTING SYS-
TEM TECHNOLOGY IN NATIONAL SOFTWARE 
REFERENCE LIBRARY. 
(a) DEPOSIT REQUIRED; CONDITIONS FOR DISCLO-
SURE.—Section 301(a) of the Help America Vote Act of 
2002 (42 U.S.C. 15481(a)) is amended by adding at the 
end the following new paragraph: 
‘‘(7) PROHIBITING
USE
OF
ELECTION-DEDI-
CATED VOTING SYSTEM TECHNOLOGIES NOT DEPOS-
ITED WITH NATIONAL SOFTWARE REFERENCE LI-
BRARY; DISCLOSURE REQUIREMENTS.— 
‘‘(A) PROHIBITION.— 
‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—A voting system 
used in an election for Federal office in a 
State may not at any time during the elec-
tion contain or use any election-dedicated 
voting system technology which is not de-
posited by the State (or, at the option of 
the State, by the vendor of the technology) 
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with the National Software Reference Li-
brary of the National Institute of Stand-
ards and Technology prior to the date of 
the election, to be held in escrow and sub-
ject to disclosure in accordance with sub-
paragraph (B). 
‘‘(ii) EXTENSION OF DEADLINE FOR 
DEPOSIT.—If the chief State election offi-
cial certifies to the Director of the Na-
tional Institute of Standards and Tech-
nology prior to the date of the election 
that, because of a revision to the election- 
dedicated voting system technology which 
is made less than 30 days prior to the date 
of the election, the State or vendor is un-
able to deposit the technology in accord-
ance with clause (i) prior to the date of the 
election, the voting system used in the elec-
tion may contain or use the technology if— 
‘‘(I) the chief State election offi-
cial approves the use of the technology 
for the election; and 
‘‘(II) the State or vendor deposits 
the technology in accordance with 
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clause (i) not later than 1 week after 
the date of the election. 
‘‘(iii) ENFORCEMENT OF VENDOR RE-
SPONSIBILITIES.—If a State opts to re-
quire the vendor of election-dedicated vot-
ing system technology to deposit the tech-
nology in accordance with this subpara-
graph and the vendor fails to do so, the 
Attorney General may bring a civil action 
against the vendor in an appropriate dis-
trict court for such relief as may be appro-
priate, including injunctive relief or an 
order for a civil penalty in an amount not 
to exceed $500,000. 
‘‘(B) REQUIREMENT FOR DISCLOSURE AND 
LIMITATION
ON
RESTRICTING
DISCLOSURE.— 
With respect to any election-dedicated voting 
system technology which is deposited under 
subparagraph (A), the Director of the National 
Institute of Standards and Technology shall— 
‘‘(i) hold the technology in escrow; 
and 
‘‘(ii) disclose technology and informa-
tion regarding the technology to another 
person if— 
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‘‘(I) the person is a qualified per-
son described in subparagraph (C) 
who has entered into a nondisclosure 
agreement with respect to the tech-
nology which meets the requirements 
of subparagraph (D); or 
‘‘(II) the Director is permitted or 
required to disclose the technology to 
the person under the law of the appli-
cable State, in accordance with the 
terms and conditions applicable under 
such law. 
‘‘(C) QUALIFIED PERSONS DESCRIBED.— 
With respect to the disclosure of election-dedi-
cated voting system technology under subpara-
graph (B)(ii)(I), a ‘qualified person’ is any of 
the following: 
‘‘(i) A governmental entity with re-
sponsibility for the administration of vot-
ing and election-related matters in elec-
tions for Federal office, for purposes of re-
viewing, analyzing, or reporting on the 
technology. 
‘‘(ii) If permitted under a court order, 
a party to post-election litigation chal-
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‘‘(iii) exempts from coverage both in-
formation the signatory lawfully obtained 
from another source and information in 
the public domain; 
‘‘(iv) remains in effect for not longer 
than the life of any trade secret or other 
intellectual property right related thereto; 
‘‘(v) prohibits the request or use of in-
junctions that bar a signatory from car-
rying out any activity authorized under 
subparagraph (C), including injunctions 
limited to the period prior to a judicial 
proceeding involving the technology; 
‘‘(vi) is silent as to damages awarded 
for breach of the agreement, other than a 
reference to damages available under appli-
cable law; 
‘‘(vii) allows disclosure of evidence re-
lating to possible criminal conduct or other 
violations of law, including in response to 
a subpoena or warrant; 
‘‘(viii) allows disclosures and testi-
mony to legislative branch authorities, ju-
dicial proceedings, and executive branch in-
vestigations in response to a subpoena or 
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warrant or as otherwise provided by law; 
and 
‘‘(ix) provides that the agreement 
shall be governed by the trade secret laws 
of the applicable State. 
‘‘(E) ELECTION-DEDICATED VOTING SYS-
TEM TECHNOLOGY DEFINED.—For purposes of 
this paragraph: 
‘‘(i) IN
GENERAL.—The term ‘elec-
tion-dedicated voting system technology’ 
means the following: 
‘‘(I) The source code used for the 
trusted build and the file signatures 
for the trusted build. 
‘‘(II) A complete disk image of 
the pre-build, build environment, and 
any file signatures to validate that it 
is unmodified. 
‘‘(III) A complete disk image of 
the post-build, build environment, and 
any file signatures to validate that it 
is unmodified. 
‘‘(IV) All executable code pro-
duced by the trusted build and any 
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file signatures to validate that it is 
unmodified. 
‘‘(V) Installation devices and 
software file signatures. 
‘‘(ii) EXCLUSION.—Such term does 
not include ‘commercial-off-the-shelf’ soft-
ware and hardware defined under the vol-
untary voting system guidelines adopted by 
the Commission under section 222 which 
are in effect as of the date of the election 
involved. 
‘‘(F) TRUSTED
BUILD
DEFINED.—For 
purposes of this paragraph, the term ‘trusted 
build’ means a witnessed software build in 
which source code is converted to machine-read-
able binary instructions (executable code) in a 
manner providing security measures that help 
ensure that the executable code is a verifiable 
and faithful representation of the source code.’’. 
(b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by 
this section shall apply with respect to elections occurring 
during 2013 or any succeeding year. 
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SEC. 3. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS FOR NA-
TIONAL 
INSTITUTE 
OF 
STANDARDS 
AND 
TECHNOLOGY. 
There are authorized to be appropriated to the Na-
tional Institute of Standards and Technology for each fis-
cal year such sums as may be necessary to enable the In-
stitute, including the National Software Reference Library 
of the Institute, to carry out paragraph (7) of section 
301(a) of the Help America Vote Act of 2002, as added 
by section 2(a). 
Æ 
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