I 
110TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 7245 
To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to prohibit the use in any 
election for Federal office of any election-dedicated voting system tech-
nology which has not been certified for use in the election by the State 
which will administer the election and to establish the standards under 
which such technology and information regarding the technology may 
be disclosed, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
OCTOBER 2, 2008 
Mr. HOLT introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee 
on House Administration 
A BILL 
To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to prohibit 
the use in any election for Federal office of any election- 
dedicated voting system technology which has not been 
certified for use in the election by the State which will 
administer the election and to establish the standards 
under which such technology and information regarding 
the technology may be disclosed, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Election Software Dis-
closure Act of 2008’’. 
SEC. 2. PROHIBITING USE OF UNCERTIFIED ELECTION- 
DEDICATED VOTING SYSTEM TECHNOLOGIES; 
DISCLOSURE REQUIREMENTS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 301(a) of the Help Amer-
ica Vote Act of 2002 (42 U.S.C. 15481 et seq.) is amend-
ed by adding at the end the following new paragraph: 
‘‘(7) PROHIBITING USE OF UNCERTIFIED ELEC-
TION-DEDICATED
VOTING
SYSTEM
TECHNOLOGIES; 
DISCLOSURE REQUIREMENTS.— 
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—A voting system used 
in an election for Federal office in a State may 
not at any time during the election contain or 
use any election-dedicated voting system tech-
nology— 
‘‘(i) which has not been certified by 
the State for use in the election; and 
‘‘(ii) which has not been deposited 
with the appropriate State and local elec-
tion officials to be held in escrow and dis-
closed in accordance with this paragraph. 
‘‘(B) REQUIREMENT
FOR
AND
RESTRIC-
TIONS ON DISCLOSURE.—A State or local elec-
tion official with whom an election-dedicated 
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voting system technology has been deposited 
shall— 
‘‘(i) hold the technology in escrow; 
and 
‘‘(ii) disclose technology and informa-
tion regarding the technology to another 
person if— 
‘‘(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 official is required to 
disclose the technology to the person 
under State law, 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 by an election 
official under subparagraph (B)(ii)(I), a ‘quali-
fied person’ is any of the following: 
‘‘(i) A governmental entity with re-
sponsibility for the administration of vot-
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ing and election-related matters for pur-
poses of reviewing, analyzing, or reporting 
on the technology. 
‘‘(ii) A party to pre- or post-election 
litigation challenging the result of an elec-
tion or the administration or use of the 
technology used in an election, including 
but not limited to election contests or chal-
lenges to the certification of the tech-
nology, or an expert for a party to such 
litigation, for purposes of reviewing or ana-
lyzing the technology to support or oppose 
the litigation, and all parties to the litiga-
tion shall have access to the technology for 
such purposes. 
‘‘(iii) A person not described in clause 
(i) or (ii) who reviews, analyzes, or reports 
on the technology solely for an academic, 
scientific, technological, or other investiga-
tion or inquiry concerning the accuracy or 
integrity of the technology. 
‘‘(D) REQUIREMENTS
FOR
NONDISCLO-
SURE
AGREEMENTS.—A nondisclosure agree-
ment entered into with respect to an election- 
dedicated voting system technology meets the 
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requirements of this subparagraph if the agree-
ment— 
‘‘(i) is limited in scope to coverage of 
the technology disclosed under subpara-
graph (B) and any trade secrets and intel-
lectual property rights related thereto; 
‘‘(ii) does not prohibit a signatory 
from entering into other nondisclosure 
agreements to review other technologies 
under this paragraph; 
‘‘(iii) exempts from coverage any in-
formation the signatory lawfully obtained 
from another source or any 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 use of injunctions 
barring a signatory from carrying out any 
activity authorized under subparagraph 
(C), including injunctions limited to the 
period prior to a trial involving the tech-
nology; 
‘‘(vi) is silent as to damages awarded 
for breach of the agreement, other than a 
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reference to damages available under appli-
cable law; 
‘‘(vii) allows disclosure of evidence of 
crime, including in response to a subpoena 
or warrant; 
‘‘(viii) allows the signatory to perform 
analyses on the technology (including by 
executing the technology), disclose reports 
and analyses that describe operational 
issues pertaining to the technology (includ-
ing vulnerabilities to tampering, errors, 
risks associated with use, failures as a re-
sult of use, and other problems), and de-
scribe or explain why or how a voting sys-
tem failed or otherwise did not perform as 
intended; 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: 
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‘‘(I) The source code used for the 
trusted build and its file signatures. 
‘‘(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 
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 under 
the 2005 voluntary voting system guide-
lines adopted by the Commission under 
section 222.’’. 
(b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by 
subsection (a) shall apply with respect to each election for 
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