I 
115TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 6093 
To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require paper ballots 
and risk-limiting audits in all Federal elections, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JUNE 13, 2018 
Mr. BLUMENAUER 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 deter-
mined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions 
as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require 
paper ballots and risk-limiting audits in all Federal elec-
tions, 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 ‘‘Protecting American 
Votes and Elections Act of 2018’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress makes the following findings: 
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(1) Access to the ballot, free and fair elections, 
and a trustworthy election process are at the core of 
American democracy. Just as the Founding Fathers 
signed their names to paper supporting their views 
for a government by and for the people, access to 
the paper ballot is the best way to ensure elections 
stay by and for the American people. Using paper 
provides an easily auditable, tamper proof, and sim-
ple way for citizens to access their ballot. It is for 
these reasons and more that using paper ballots to 
ensure resilient and fair elections should be the pri-
ority of this Nation. 
(2) Risk-limiting audits will help to protect our 
elections from cyberattacks, by ensuring that if the 
electoral outcome is incorrect, for instance because 
someone tampered with the electronic counts or re-
porting, the audit has a large, known probability of 
correcting the outcome by requiring a full hand 
count. Paper ballots are vital to the audit process 
since, other than through manual inspection of a 
sample of paper ballots, there is currently no reliable 
way to determine whether an election was hacked or 
the outcome was miscalculated. 
(3) Risk-limiting audits are a cost effective way 
of auditing election results. They generally require 
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inspecting only a small percentage of the ballots cast 
in an election, and proceed to a full hand count only 
when sampling does not provide strong evidence that 
the reported outcome is correct. This will ensure 
that Americans have confidence in their election re-
sults, without the cost of a full recount of every bal-
lot in the country. 
SEC. 3. PAPER BALLOT AND MANUAL COUNTING REQUIRE-
MENTS. 
(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 
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, 
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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. 
‘‘(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 
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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 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 
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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-
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-
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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 
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.’’. 
(b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT CLARIFYING APPLI-
CABILITY OF ALTERNATIVE LANGUAGE ACCESSIBILITY.— 
Section 301(a)(4) of such Act (52 U.S.C. 21081(a)(4)) 
is 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— 
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(1) in subparagraph (A)(i), by striking ‘‘count-
ed’’ and inserting ‘‘counted, in accordance with 
paragraphs (2) and (3)’’; 
(2) in subparagraph (A)(ii), by striking ‘‘count-
ed’’ and inserting ‘‘counted, in accordance with 
paragraphs (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 
paragraphs (2) and (3)’’. 
(d) EFFECTIVE
DATE.—Notwithstanding section 
301(d) of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 
21081(d)), each State and jurisdiction shall be required 
to comply with the amendments made by this section for 
the regularly scheduled election for Federal office in No-
vember 2020, and for each subsequent election for Federal 
office. 
SEC. 4. ACCESSIBILITY AND BALLOT VERIFICATION FOR IN-
DIVIDUALS 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: 
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(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 by inserting after section 246 the following 
new section: 
‘‘SEC. 246A. 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 3 eligible entities to study, test, and develop acces-
sible paper ballot voting, verification, and casting mecha-
nisms and devices and best practices to enhance the acces-
sibility of paper ballot voting and verification mechanisms 
for individuals with disabilities, for voters whose primary 
language is not English, and for voters with difficulties 
in literacy, including best practices for the mechanisms 
themselves and the processes through which the mecha-
nisms 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— 
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‘‘(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; 
‘‘(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. 
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‘‘(e) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 
is authorized to be appropriated to carry out subsection 
(a) $10,000,000, to remain available until expended.’’. 
(2) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of con-
tents of such Act is amended by inserting after the 
item relating to section 246 the following new item: 
‘‘Sec. 246A. Study and report on accessible paper ballot verification mecha-
nisms.’’. 
SEC. 5. RISK-LIMITING AUDITS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Title III of the Help America 
Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21081 et seq.) is amended 
by inserting after section 303 the following new section: 
‘‘SEC. 303A. RISK-LIMITING AUDITS. 
‘‘(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 
‘‘(1) RISK-LIMITING AUDIT.— 
‘‘(A) IN
GENERAL.—The term ‘risk-lim-
iting audit’ means a post-election process such 
that, if the reported outcome of the contest is 
incorrect, there is at least a 95 percent chance 
that the audit will replace the incorrect outcome 
with the correct outcome as determined by a 
full, hand-to-eye tabulation of all votes validly 
cast in that election contest that ascertains 
voter intent manually and directly from voter- 
verifiable paper records. 
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‘‘(B) REPORTED OUTCOME.—The term ‘re-
ported outcome’ means the outcome of an elec-
tion contest which is determined according to 
the canvass and which will become the official, 
certified outcome unless it is revised by an 
audit, recount, or other legal process. 
‘‘(C) INCORRECT
OUTCOME.—The term 
‘incorrect outcome’ means an outcome that dif-
fers from the outcome that would be determined 
by a full tabulation of all votes validly cast in 
that election contest, determining voter intent 
manually, directly from voter-verifiable paper 
records. 
‘‘(D) 
OUTCOME.—The 
term 
‘outcome’ 
means the winner or set of winners of an elec-
tion contest, which might be candidates or posi-
tions. 
‘‘(2) BALLOT
MANIFEST.—The term ‘ballot 
manifest’ means a record maintained by each county 
that— 
‘‘(A) is created without reliance on any 
part of the voting system used to tabulate 
votes; 
‘‘(B) functions as a sampling frame for 
conducting a risk-limiting audit; and 
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‘‘(C) contains the following information 
about ballots cast and counted: 
‘‘(i) The total number of ballots cast 
and counted in the election (including 
undervotes, overvotes, and other invalid 
votes). 
‘‘(ii) The total number of ballots cast 
in each contest in the election (including 
undervotes, overvotes, and other invalid 
votes). 
‘‘(iii) A precise description of the 
manner in which the ballots are physically 
stored, including the total number of phys-
ical groups of ballots, the numbering sys-
tem for each group, a unique label for each 
group, and the number of ballots in each 
such group. 
‘‘(b) REQUIREMENT.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.— 
‘‘(A) AUDITS.—Each State and jurisdic-
tion shall administer risk-limiting audits of the 
results of all elections for Federal office held in 
the State in accordance with the requirements 
of paragraph (2). 
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‘‘(B) FULL MANUAL TALLY.—If a risk-lim-
iting audit conducted under subparagraph (A) 
leads to a full manual tally of an election con-
test, the State or jurisdiction shall use the re-
sults of the full manual tally as the official re-
sults of the election contest. 
‘‘(2) AUDIT REQUIREMENTS.— 
‘‘(A) RULES AND PROCEDURES.— 
‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—Risk-limiting au-
dits shall be conducted in accordance with 
the rules and procedures established by the 
chief State election official of the State not 
later than 1 year after the date of the en-
actment of this section. 
‘‘(ii) MATTERS INCLUDED.—The rules 
and procedures established under clause (i) 
may include the following: 
‘‘(I) Rules for ensuring the secu-
rity of ballots and documenting that 
prescribed procedures were followed. 
‘‘(II) Rules and procedures for 
ensuring the accuracy of ballot mani-
fests produced by jurisdictions. 
‘‘(III) Rules and procedures for 
governing the format of ballot mani-
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fests, cast vote records, and other 
data involved in risk-limiting audits. 
‘‘(IV) Methods to ensure that 
any cast vote records used in a risk- 
limiting audit are those used by the 
voting system to tally the election re-
sults sent to the Secretary of State 
and made public. 
‘‘(V) Procedures for the random 
selection of ballots to be inspected 
manually during each audit. 
‘‘(VI) Rules for the calculations 
and other methods to be used in the 
audit and to determine whether and 
when the audit of each contest is com-
plete. 
‘‘(VII) Procedures and require-
ments for testing any software used to 
conduct risk-limiting audits. 
‘‘(B) TIMING.—The risk-limiting audit 
shall be completed not later than the date that 
the result of the election is certified by the 
State. 
‘‘(C) PUBLIC REPORT.—After the comple-
tion of the risk-limiting audit, the State shall 
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publish a report on the results of the audit, to-
gether with such information as necessary to 
confirm that the audit was conducted properly. 
‘‘(c) EFFECTIVE DATE.—Each State and jurisdiction 
shall be required to comply with the requirements of this 
section for the regularly scheduled election for Federal of-
fice in November 2020, and for each subsequent election 
for Federal office.’’. 
(b) CONFORMING AMENDMENTS RELATED TO EN-
FORCEMENT.—Section 401 of such Act (52 U.S.C. 21111) 
is amended by striking ‘‘and 303’’ and inserting ‘‘303, and 
303A’’. 
(c) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of contents 
for such Act is amended by inserting after the item relat-
ing to section 303 the following new item: 
‘‘Sec. 303A. Risk-limiting audits.’’. 
Æ 
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