I 
114TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 5131 
To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to make improvements to 
voting system technology, election official training, and protecting voting 
system source code. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
APRIL 29, 2016 
Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia (for himself, Ms. PLASKETT, Mr. HASTINGS, Mr. 
RICHMOND, Ms. JACKSON LEE, Mr. DOGGETT, Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN, 
Mr. COHEN, Ms. PINGREE, and Mr. VEASEY) 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 com-
mittee concerned 
A BILL 
To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to make 
improvements to voting system technology, election offi-
cial training, and protecting voting system source code. 
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 Optimal 
Tools for Elections Act of 2016’’ or the ‘‘VOTE Act of 
2016’’. 
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SEC. 2. PAYMENTS TO STATES TO REPLACE OUTDATED 
VOTING MACHINES. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Subtitle D of title II of the Help 
America Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21001 et seq.) is 
amended by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘PART 7—OUTDATED VOTING MACHINES 
‘‘SEC. 297. REPLACEMENT OF OUTDATED VOTING MA-
CHINES. 
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 45 days after the 
date of the enactment of the Verifying Optimal Tools for 
Elections Act of 2016, the Election Assistance Commis-
sion (referred to in this section as the ‘Commission’) shall 
make a payment to each State eligible under subsection 
(b) in which a precinct within that State used at least one 
outdated voting machine to administer the regularly 
scheduled general election for Federal office held in No-
vember 2012 (in this section referred to as a ‘qualifying 
precinct’). 
‘‘(b) ELIGIBILITY.—A State is eligible to receive a 
payment under the program under this section if the 
State, not later than 6 months after the date of the enact-
ment of the Verifying Optimal Tools for Elections Act of 
2016, submits to the Commission a notice that contains 
such information as the Commission may require which 
are necessary for the administration of the program. 
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‘‘(c) USE OF FUNDS.—A State shall use the funds 
provided under a payment under this section (either di-
rectly or as reimbursement, including as reimbursement 
for costs incurred on or after July 30, 2016, under 
multiyear contracts) to replace outdated voting machines 
in qualifying precincts within that State with voting ma-
chines (by purchase, lease, or such other arrangement as 
may be appropriate) that— 
‘‘(1)(A) have never been used in any general 
election for Federal office and are not outdated vot-
ing machines; or 
‘‘(B) have been used only with respect to gen-
eral elections for Federal office held after November 
2012; and 
‘‘(2) are auditable (as defined in the report sub-
mitted by the Auditable Working Group of the Na-
tional Institute of Standards and Technology sub-
mitted to the Commission on January 4, 2011) and 
meet the requirements for such auditability specified 
in such report. 
‘‘(d) CONDITION.—As a condition on receiving a pay-
ment under this section, a State shall provide funds, in- 
kind contributions, or a combination of both, from sources 
other than funds provided through such payment in an 
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amount that is at least equal to one-third of the amount 
of such payment. 
‘‘(e) AMOUNT OF PAYMENT.—The Commission shall 
determine the amount of payment made to a State under 
the program under this section based on— 
‘‘(1) the number of outdated voting machines 
used by a qualifying precinct; and 
‘‘(2) the number of the qualifying precincts 
within the State. 
‘‘(f) ENFORCEMENT.—A State receiving a payment 
under the program under this section shall ensure that 
all of the outdated voting machines in the qualifying pre-
cincts within that State have been replaced in time for 
the regularly scheduled general election for Federal office 
to be held in November 2018. 
‘‘(g) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 
are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section 
$125,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2017 and 
2018. 
‘‘(h) OUTDATED VOTING MACHINE DEFINED.—The 
term ‘outdated voting machine’ means an electronic voting 
machine that, as of November 6, 2012, has been in use 
to administer an election on or before November 4, 
2008;’’. 
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(b) CONFORMING TABLE
OF CONTENTS AMEND-
MENT.—The table of contents of the Help America Vote 
Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 20901 note) is amended by insert-
ing after the item related to section 296 (relating to the 
authorization of appropriations for the National Student 
and Parent Mock Election) the following: 
‘‘PART 7. GRANTS FOR EDUCATION AND TRAINING OF ELECTION OFFICIALS 
‘‘Sec. 297. Replacement of outdated voting machines.’’. 
SEC. 3. ELECTION OFFICIAL TRAINING. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Subtitle D of title II of the Help 
America Vote Act (52 U.S.C. 21001 et seq.), as amended 
by section 2, is further amended by adding at the end the 
following: 
‘‘PART 8—GRANTS FOR EDUCATION AND 
TRAINING OF ELECTION OFFICIALS 
‘‘SEC. 298. GRANTS FOR EDUCATION AND TRAINING OF 
ELECTION OFFICIALS. 
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Commission shall make 
grants to States to provide for the education and training, 
through the use of webinars or other appropriate means, 
of election officials and poll workers on voting machine 
maintenance, pre- and post-election voting machine test-
ing, the development of contingency plans, and such other 
topics as may be necessary for purposes of streamlining 
the voting process. 
‘‘(b) GRANT.— 
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‘‘(1) CERTIFICATION.—A State seeking a grant 
under this section shall submit to the Commission a 
certification in such form and manner as the Com-
mission may specify with respect to the State’s ex-
penditures in providing for the education and train-
ing described in subsection (a). 
‘‘(2) AMOUNT.—The amount of a grant made 
to a State shall be determined by the Commission 
based on the Commission’s determination of the 
State’s reasonable costs incurred in providing the 
education and training described in subsection (a). 
‘‘(3) TRANSMISSION OF GRANT/PAYMENT.—Not 
later than 30 days after the date on which the Com-
mission receives the certification specified in para-
graph (1), the Commission shall make a payment to 
the State in an amount equal to the amount of the 
grant determined for such State under paragraph 
(2). 
‘‘(c) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 
are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section 
$50,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2017 through 
2018. 
‘‘(d) STATE DEFINED.—In this section, the term 
‘State’ means each State of the United States, the District 
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of Columbia, and each commonwealth and territory or pos-
session of the United States.’’. 
(b) CONFORMING TABLE
OF CONTENTS AMEND-
MENT.—The table of contents of the Help America Vote 
Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 20901 note), as amended by sec-
tion 2, is further amended by inserting after the item re-
lated to section 297 (relating to the replacement of out-
dated voting machines) the following: 
‘‘PART 8. GRANTS FOR EDUCATION AND TRAINING OF ELECTION OFFICIALS 
‘‘Sec. 298. Grants for education and training of election officials.’’. 
SEC. 4. GRANTS FOR RESEARCH ON VOTING TECHNOLOGY 
IMPROVEMENTS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Part 4 of subtitle D of title II 
of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21051 
et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following 
new sections: 
‘‘SEC. 284. GRANTS FOR TESTING OPEN SOURCE SOFT-
WARE. 
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Commission shall make 
grants to States or any political subdivision thereof to con-
duct pilot testing with respect to, and carry out the imple-
mentation of, voting systems that use— 
‘‘(1) non-proprietary open source software; and 
‘‘(2) commercial or custom firmware and hard-
ware. 
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‘‘(b) CONDITION.—As a condition on receiving a 
grant under this section, a State (or a political subdivision 
thereof) shall submit to the Commission an exact copy of 
the source code for— 
‘‘(1) each component of the voting system that 
is the subject of the grant, including complete build 
and configuration instructions and related docu-
ments for compiling the source code into object code; 
and 
‘‘(2) any interactive enhancements made to 
such system within 30 days of such enhancements 
being made. 
‘‘(c) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 
are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section 
$20,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2017 through 
2018. 
‘‘(d) OPEN
SOURCE
SOFTWARE
DEFINED.—The 
term ‘open source software’ means software the license of 
which is made available under an open source license. 
‘‘SEC. 285. GRANTS FOR A COMMON DATA FORMAT ALLOW-
ING FOR VOTING-EQUIPMENT DEVICE INTER-
OPERABILITY. 
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The National Institute of Stand-
ards and Technology shall develop, or make grants to one 
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or more eligible entities to develop, a common data format 
allowing for voting-equipment device interoperability. 
‘‘(b) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 
are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section 
$5,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2017 through 
2018.’’. 
(b) CONFORMING TABLE
OF CONTENTS AMEND-
MENT.—The table of contents of the Help America Vote 
Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 20901 note), as amended by sec-
tion 2, is further amended by inserting after the item re-
lated to section 283 (relating to the authorization of ap-
propriations for the pilot program for testing of equipment 
and technology) the following: 
‘‘284. Grants for testing open source software. 
‘‘285. Grants for a common data format allowing for voting-equipment device 
interoperability.’’. 
SEC. 5. 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.— 
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