I 
112TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 5816 
To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require a voter-verified 
permanent paper ballot under title III of such Act, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 17, 2012 
Mr. HOLT (for himself, Mr. ACKERMAN, Mr. ALTMIRE, Mr. ANDREWS, Mr. 
BECERRA, Mr. BISHOP of Georgia, Mr. BISHOP of New York, Mr. BLU-
MENAUER, Mr. BRALEY
of Iowa, Ms. BROWN
of Florida, Mr. 
BUTTERFIELD, Mrs. CAPPS, Mr. CAPUANO, Mr. CARDOZA, Mr. CARSON 
of Indiana, Ms. CASTOR of Florida, Mr. CHANDLER, Mr. CLAY, Mr. 
COHEN, Mr. COSTELLO, Mr. COURTNEY, Mr. CROWLEY, Mr. CUMMINGS, 
Mr. DAVIS of Illinois, Mr. DEFAZIO, Ms. DEGETTE, Ms. DELAURO, Mr. 
DOGGETT, Mr. DOYLE, Ms. EDWARDS, Mr. ELLISON, Ms. ESHOO, Mr. 
FARR, Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts, Mr. GARAMENDI, Mr. GENE GREEN 
of Texas, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. GUTIERREZ, Ms. HAHN, Mr. HASTINGS of 
Florida, Mr. HINCHEY, Mr. HOLDEN, Mr. HONDA, Mr. ISRAEL, Mr. 
JACKSON of Illinois, Ms. KAPTUR, Mr. KEATING, Mr. KISSELL, Mr. LAR-
SON of Connecticut, Ms. LEE of California, Mr. LEVIN, Mr. LEWIS of 
Georgia, Mr. LOEBSACK, Mrs. LOWEY, Mrs. MALONEY, Ms. MATSUI, 
Mrs. MCCARTHY of New York, Ms. MCCOLLUM, Mr. MCDERMOTT, Mr. 
MCGOVERN, Mr. MCINTYRE, Mr. MEEKS, Mr. GEORGE MILLER of Cali-
fornia, Ms. MOORE, Mr. MORAN, Mr. NADLER, Mrs. NAPOLITANO, Ms. 
NORTON, Mr. OLVER, Mr. PALLONE, Mr. PERLMUTTER, Mr. PETERS, 
Ms. PINGREE of Maine, Mr. POLIS, Mr. RANGEL, Mr. RICHMOND, Mr. 
ROTHMAN of New Jersey, Ms. LINDA T. SA´NCHEZ of California, Ms. LO-
RETTA SANCHEZ of California, Mr. SARBANES, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. 
SCHIFF, Ms. SCHWARTZ, Mr. SCOTT of Virginia, Mr. SERRANO, Mr. 
SHULER, Ms. SLAUGHTER, Mr. SMITH of Washington, Mr. STARK, Mr. 
THOMPSON of Mississippi, Mr. TIERNEY, Mr. TOWNS, Mr. VAN HOLLEN, 
Mr. WALZ of Minnesota, Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, Mr. WATT, Mr. 
WAXMAN, Ms. WOOLSEY, Mr. BOSWELL, and Mr. HIMES) introduced the 
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on House Administra-
tion, and in addition to the Committee on Science, Space, and Tech-
nology, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in 
each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdic-
tion of the committee concerned 
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A BILL 
To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require 
a voter-verified permanent paper ballot under title III 
of such Act, 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; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 
‘‘Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 
2011’’. 
(b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents of 
this Act is as follows: 
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. 
TITLE I—PROMOTING ACCURACY, INTEGRITY, AND SECURITY 
THROUGH VOTER-VERIFIED PERMANENT PAPER BALLOT 
Sec. 101. Paper ballot and manual counting requirements. 
Sec. 102. Accessibility and ballot verification for individuals with disabilities. 
Sec. 103. Additional voting system requirements. 
Sec. 104. Availability of additional funding to enable States to meet costs of 
revised requirements. 
Sec. 105. Effective date for new requirements. 
TITLE II—ENHANCEMENT OF ENFORCEMENT 
Sec. 201. Enhancement of enforcement of Help America Vote Act of 2002. 
TITLE III—REQUIREMENT FOR MANDATORY MANUAL AUDITS BY 
HAND COUNT 
Sec. 301. Mandatory manual audits. 
‘‘Sec. 321. Requiring audits of results of elections. 
‘‘Sec. 322. Number of ballots counted under audit. 
‘‘Sec. 323. Process for administering audits. 
‘‘Sec. 324. Selection of precincts. 
‘‘Sec. 325. Publication of results. 
‘‘Sec. 326. Payments to States. 
‘‘Sec. 327. Exception for elections subject to recount under State law prior 
to certification. 
‘‘Sec. 328. Effective date. 
Sec. 302. Availability of enforcement under Help America Vote Act of 2002. 
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Sec. 303. Guidance on best practices for alternative audit mechanisms. 
Sec. 304. Clerical amendment. 
TITLE IV—REPEAL OF EXEMPTION OF ELECTION ASSISTANCE 
COMMISSION FROM CERTAIN GOVERNMENT CONTRACTING RE-
QUIREMENTS 
Sec. 401. Repeal of exemption of Election Assistance Commission from certain 
government contracting requirements. 
TITLE V—EFFECTIVE DATE 
Sec. 501. Effective date. 
TITLE 
I—PROMOTING 
ACCU-
RACY, INTEGRITY, AND SECU-
RITY 
THROUGH 
VOTER- 
VERIFIED 
PERMANENT 
PAPER BALLOT 
SEC. 101. PAPER BALLOT AND MANUAL COUNTING RE-
QUIREMENTS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 301(a)(2) of the Help 
America Vote Act of 2002 (42 U.S.C. 15481(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 
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an optical scanner or other counting de-
vice. 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 system, so long as 
the voter shall have the option to mark his 
or her ballot by hand. 
‘‘(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 
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