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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 
‘‘Securing 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 
cybersecurity guidelines and other guidelines. 
Sec. 203. Requiring use of software and hardware for which information is dis-
closed by manufacturer. 
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. 
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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 
of an individual, durable, voter-verified 
paper ballot of the voter’s vote that shall 
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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. The 
paper ballot shall be printed or marked in 
such a way that vote selections, including 
all vote selections scanned by voting sys-
tems to tabulate votes, can be inspected 
and verified by the voter without training 
or instruction or audited by election offi-
cials without the aid of any machine or 
other equipment. 
‘‘(II) The voting system shall provide 
the voter with an opportunity to correct 
any error on the paper ballot before the 
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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. 
‘‘(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. 
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‘‘(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. 
‘‘(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-
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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, 
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 
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(4) in subparagraph (B)(ii), by striking ‘‘count-
ed’’ and inserting ‘‘counted, in accordance with 
paragraphs (2) and (3)’’. 
SEC. 103. ACCESSIBILITY AND BALLOT VERIFICATION FOR 
INDIVIDUALS WITH DISABILITIES. 
(a) 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: 
‘‘(B)(i) ensure that individuals with dis-
abilities and others are given an equivalent op-
portunity to vote, including with privacy and 
independence, in a manner that produces a 
voter-verified paper ballot as for other voters; 
‘‘(ii) satisfy the requirement of subpara-
graph (A) through the use of at least one voting 
system equipped for individuals with disabil-
ities, including nonvisual and enhanced visual 
accessibility for the blind and visually impaired, 
and nonmanual and enhanced manual accessi-
bility for the mobility and dexterity impaired, at 
each polling place; and 
‘‘(iii) meet the requirements of subpara-
graph (A) and paragraph (2)(A) by using a sys-
tem that— 
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‘‘(I) allows the voter to privately and 
independently verify the permanent paper 
ballot through the presentation, in acces-
sible form, of the printed or marked vote 
selections from the same printed or 
marked information that would be used for 
any vote counting or auditing; and 
‘‘(II) allows the voter to privately and 
independently verify and cast the perma-
nent paper ballot without requiring the 
voter to manually handle the paper ballot; 
and’’. 
(b) SPECIFIC REQUIREMENT OF STUDY, TESTING, 
AND DEVELOPMENT
OF ACCESSIBLE PAPER BALLOT 
VERIFICATION MECHANISMS.— 
(1) STUDY
AND
REPORTING.—Subtitle C of 
title II of such Act (52 U.S.C. 21081 et seq.) is 
amended— 
(A) by redesignating section 247 as section 
248; and 
(B) by inserting after section 246 the fol-
lowing new section: 
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‘‘SEC. 247. STUDY AND REPORT ON ACCESSIBLE PAPER 
BALLOT VERIFICATION MECHANISMS. 
‘‘(a) STUDY AND REPORT.—The Director of the Na-
tional Science Foundation shall make grants to not fewer 
than three eligible entities to study, test, and develop ac-
cessible paper ballot voting, verification, and casting mech-
anisms and devices and best practices to enhance the ac-
cessibility of paper ballot voting and verification mecha-
nisms for individuals with disabilities, for voters whose pri-
mary language is not English, and for voters with difficul-
ties in literacy, including best practices for the mecha-
nisms themselves and the processes through which the 
mechanisms are used. 
‘‘(b) ELIGIBILITY.—An entity is eligible to receive a 
grant under this part if it submits to the Director (at such 
time and in such form as the Director may require) an 
application containing— 
‘‘(1) certifications that the entity shall specifi-
cally investigate enhanced methods or devices, in-
cluding non-electronic devices, that will assist such 
individuals and voters in marking voter-verified 
paper ballots and presenting or transmitting the in-
formation printed or marked on such ballots back to 
such individuals and voters, and casting such ballots; 
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‘‘(2) a certification that the entity shall com-
plete the activities carried out with the grant not 
later than December 31, 2020; and 
‘‘(3) such other information and certifications 
as the Director may require. 
‘‘(c) AVAILABILITY
OF TECHNOLOGY.—Any tech-
nology developed with the grants made under this section 
shall be treated as non-proprietary and shall be made 
available to the public, including to manufacturers of vot-
ing systems. 
‘‘(d) COORDINATION WITH GRANTS
FOR TECH-
NOLOGY IMPROVEMENTS.—The Director shall carry out 
this section so that the activities carried out with the 
grants made under subsection (a) are coordinated with the 
research conducted under the grant program carried out 
by the Commission under section 271, to the extent that 
the Director and Commission determine necessary to pro-
vide for the advancement of accessible voting technology. 
‘‘(e) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 
is authorized to be appropriated to carry out subsection 
(a) $5,000,000, to remain available until expended.’’. 
(2) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of con-
tents of such Act is amended— 
(A) by redesignating the item relating to 
section 247 as relating to section 248; and 
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(B) by inserting after the item relating to 
section 246 the following new item: 
‘‘Sec. 247. Study and report on accessible paper ballot verification mecha-
nisms.’’. 
(c) CLARIFICATION OF ACCESSIBILITY STANDARDS 
UNDER VOLUNTARY VOTING SYSTEM GUIDANCE.—In 
adopting any voluntary guidance under subtitle B of title 
III of the Help America Vote Act with respect to the ac-
cessibility of the paper ballot verification requirements for 
individuals with disabilities, the Election Assistance Com-
mission shall include and apply the same accessibility 
standards applicable under the voluntary guidance adopt-
ed for accessible voting systems under such subtitle. 
(d) PERMITTING USE OF FUNDS FOR PROTECTION 
AND ADVOCACY SYSTEMS TO SUPPORT ACTIONS TO EN-
FORCE ELECTION-RELATED DISABILITY ACCESS.—Sec-
tion 292(a) of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (52 
U.S.C. 21062(a)) is amended by striking ‘‘; except that’’ 
and all that follows and inserting a period. 
SEC. 104. DURABILITY AND READABILITY REQUIREMENTS 
FOR BALLOTS. 
Section 301(a) of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 
(52 U.S.C. 21081(a)) is amended by adding at the end 
the following new paragraph: 
‘‘(7) DURABILITY AND READABILITY REQUIRE-
MENTS FOR BALLOTS.— 
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