SEC. 106. STUDY AND REPORT ON OPTIMAL BALLOT DE-
SIGN. 
(a) STUDY.—The Election Assistance Commission 
shall conduct a study of the best ways to design ballots used 
in elections for public office, including paper ballots and 
electronic or digital ballots, to minimize confusion and user 
errors. 
(b) REPORT.—Not later than January 1, 2020, the 
Election Assistance Commission shall submit to Congress 
a report on the study conducted under subsection (a). 
SEC. 107. EFFECTIVE DATE FOR NEW REQUIREMENTS. 
Section 301(d) of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 
(52 U.S.C. 21081(d)) is amended to read as follows: 
‘‘(d) EFFECTIVE DATE.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in para-
graph (2), each State and jurisdiction shall be re-
quired to comply with the requirements of this section 
on and after January 1, 2006. 
‘‘(2) SPECIAL
RULE
FOR
CERTAIN
REQUIRE-
MENTS.— 
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in 
section 105(b) of the Securing America’s Federal 
Elections Act and subparagraphs (B) and (C), 
the requirements of this section which are first 
imposed on a State and jurisdiction pursuant to 
the amendments made by the Voter Confidence 
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and Increased Accessibility Act of 2019 shall 
apply with respect to voting systems used for 
any election for Federal office held in 2020 or 
any succeeding year. 
‘‘(B) DELAY
FOR
JURISDICTIONS
USING 
CERTAIN PAPER RECORD PRINTERS OR CERTAIN 
SYSTEMS USING OR PRODUCING VOTER-VERIFIED 
PAPER RECORDS IN 2018.— 
‘‘(i) DELAY.—In the case of a jurisdic-
tion described in clause (ii), subparagraph 
(A) shall apply to a voting system in the ju-
risdiction as if the reference in such sub-
paragraph to ‘2020’ were a reference to 
‘2022’, but only with respect to the fol-
lowing requirements of this section: 
‘‘(I) Paragraph (2)(A)(i)(I) of 
subsection (a) (relating to the use of 
voter-verified paper ballots). 
‘‘(II) Paragraph (3)(B)(ii)(I) and 
(II) of subsection (a) (relating to access 
to verification from and casting of the 
durable paper ballot). 
‘‘(III) Paragraph (7) of subsection 
(a) (relating to durability and read-
ability requirements for ballots). 
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‘‘(ii) JURISDICTIONS
DESCRIBED.—A 
jurisdiction described in this clause is a ju-
risdiction— 
‘‘(I) which used voter-verified 
paper record printers attached to di-
rect recording electronic voting ma-
chines, or which used other voting sys-
tems that used or produced paper 
records of the vote verifiable by voters 
but that are not in compliance with 
paragraphs (2)(A)(i)(I), (3)(B)(iii)(I) 
and (II), and (7) of subsection (a) (as 
amended or added by the Voter Con-
fidence and Increased Accessibility Act 
of 2019), for the administration of the 
regularly scheduled general election for 
Federal office held in November 2018; 
and 
‘‘(II) which will continue to use 
such printers or systems for the admin-
istration of elections for Federal office 
held in years before 2022. 
‘‘(iii) MANDATORY
AVAILABILITY
OF 
PAPER BALLOTS AT POLLING PLACES USING 
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GRANDFATHERED
PRINTERS
AND
SYS-
TEMS.— 
‘‘(I) REQUIRING BALLOTS TO BE 
OFFERED AND PROVIDED.—The appro-
priate election official at each polling 
place that uses a printer or system de-
scribed in clause (ii)(I) for the admin-
istration of elections for Federal office 
shall offer each individual who is eligi-
ble to cast a vote in the election at the 
polling place the opportunity to cast 
the vote using a blank pre-printed 
paper ballot which the individual may 
mark by hand and which is not pro-
duced by the direct recording electronic 
voting machine or other such system. 
The official shall provide the indi-
vidual with the ballot and the supplies 
necessary to mark the ballot, and shall 
ensure (to the greatest extent prac-
ticable) that the waiting period for the 
individual to cast a vote is the lesser of 
30 minutes or the average waiting pe-
riod for an individual who does not 
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agree to cast the vote using such a 
paper ballot under this clause. 
‘‘(II) TREATMENT OF BALLOT.— 
Any paper ballot which is cast by an 
individual under this clause shall be 
counted and otherwise treated as a reg-
ular ballot for all purposes (including 
by incorporating it into the final unof-
ficial vote count (as defined by the 
State) for the precinct) and not as a 
provisional ballot, unless the indi-
vidual casting the ballot would have 
otherwise been required to cast a provi-
sional ballot. 
‘‘(III) POSTING OF NOTICE.—The 
appropriate election official shall en-
sure there is prominently displayed at 
each polling place a notice that de-
scribes the obligation of the official to 
offer individuals the opportunity to 
cast votes using a pre-printed blank 
paper ballot. 
‘‘(IV) TRAINING OF ELECTION OF-
FICIALS.—The chief State election offi-
cial shall ensure that election officials 
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at polling places in the State are 
aware of the requirements of this 
clause, including the requirement to 
display a notice under subclause (III), 
and are aware that it is a violation of 
the requirements of this title for an 
election official to fail to offer an indi-
vidual the opportunity to cast a vote 
using a blank pre-printed paper ballot. 
‘‘(V) 
PERIOD
OF
APPLICA-
BILITY.—The 
requirements 
of 
this 
clause apply only during the period in 
which the delay is in effect under 
clause (i). 
‘‘(C) SPECIAL
RULE
FOR
JURISDICTIONS 
USING CERTAIN NONTABULATING BALLOT MARK-
ING
DEVICES.—In the case of a jurisdiction 
which uses a nontabulating ballot marking de-
vice which automatically deposits the ballot into 
a privacy sleeve, subparagraph (A) shall apply 
to a voting system in the jurisdiction as if the 
reference in such subparagraph to ‘any election 
for Federal office held in 2020 or any succeeding 
year’ were a reference to ‘elections for Federal of-
fice occurring held in 2022 or each succeeding 
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year’, but only with respect to paragraph 
(3)(B)(iii)(II) of subsection (a) (relating to non-
manual casting of the durable paper ballot).’’. 
PART 2—GRANTS TO CARRY OUT IMPROVEMENTS 
SEC. 111. GRANTS FOR OBTAINING COMPLIANT PAPER BAL-
LOT VOTING SYSTEMS AND CARRYING OUT 
VOTING SYSTEM SECURITY IMPROVEMENTS. 
(a) AVAILABILITY OF GRANTS.—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 new 
part: 
‘‘PART 7—GRANTS FOR OBTAINING COMPLIANT 
PAPER BALLOT VOTING SYSTEMS AND CAR-
RYING OUT VOTING SYSTEM SECURITY IM-
PROVEMENTS 
‘‘SEC. 297. GRANTS FOR OBTAINING COMPLIANT PAPER 
BALLOT VOTING SYSTEMS AND CARRYING 
OUT VOTING SYSTEM SECURITY IMPROVE-
MENTS. 
‘‘(a) AVAILABILITY AND USE OF GRANT.—The Com-
mission shall make a grant to each eligible State— 
‘‘(1) to replace a voting system— 
‘‘(A) which does not meet the requirements 
which are first imposed on the State pursuant to 
the amendments made by the Voter Confidence 
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and Increased Accessibility Act of 2019 with a 
voting system which does meet such require-
ments, for use in the regularly scheduled general 
elections for Federal office held in November 
2020, or 
‘‘(B) which does meet such requirements but 
which is not in compliance with the most recent 
voluntary voting system guidelines issued by the 
Commission prior to the regularly scheduled gen-
eral election for Federal office held in November 
2020 with another system which does meet such 
requirements and is in compliance with such 
guidelines; 
‘‘(2) to carry out voting system security im-
provements described in section 297A with respect to 
the regularly scheduled general elections for Federal 
office held in November 2020 and each succeeding 
election for Federal office; and 
‘‘(3) to implement and model best practices for 
ballot design, ballot instructions, and the testing of 
ballots. 
‘‘(b) AMOUNT OF GRANT.—The amount of a grant 
made to a State under this section shall be such amount 
as the Commission determines to be appropriate, except that 
such amount may not be less than the product of $1 and 
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the average of the number of individuals who cast votes in 
any of the two most recent regularly scheduled general elec-
tions for Federal office held in the State. 
‘‘(c) PRO RATA REDUCTIONS.—If the amount of funds 
appropriated for grants under this part is insufficient to 
ensure that each State receives the amount of the grant cal-
culated under subsection (b), the Commission shall make 
such pro rata reductions in such amounts as may be nec-
essary to ensure that the entire amount appropriated under 
this part is distributed to the States. 
‘‘(d) SURPLUS APPROPRIATIONS.—If the amount of 
funds appropriated for grants authorized under section 
297D(a)(2) exceed the amount necessary to meet the require-
ments of subsection (b), the Commission shall consider the 
following in making a determination to award remaining 
funds to a State: 
‘‘(1) The record of the State in carrying out the 
following with respect to the administration of elec-
tions for Federal office: 
‘‘(A) Providing voting machines that are 
less than 10 years old. 
‘‘(B) Implementing strong chain of custody 
procedures for the physical security of voting 
equipment and paper records at all stages of the 
process. 
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‘‘(C) Conducting pre-election testing on 
every voting machine and ensuring that paper 
ballots are available wherever electronic ma-
chines are used. 
‘‘(D) Maintaining offline backups of voter 
registration lists. 
‘‘(E) Providing a secure voter registration 
database that logs requests submitted to the data-
base. 
‘‘(F) Publishing and enforcing a policy de-
tailing use limitations and security safeguards 
to protect the personal information of voters in 
the voter registration process. 
‘‘(G) Providing secure processes and proce-
dures for reporting vote tallies. 
‘‘(H) Providing a secure platform for dis-
seminating vote totals. 
‘‘(2) Evidence of established conditions of inno-
vation and reform in providing voting system secu-
rity and the proposed plan of the State for imple-
menting additional conditions. 
‘‘(3) Evidence of collaboration between relevant 
stakeholders, including local election officials, in de-
veloping the grant implementation plan described in 
section 297B. 
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‘‘(4) The plan of the State to conduct a rigorous 
evaluation of the effectiveness of the activities carried 
out with the grant. 
‘‘(e) ABILITY OF REPLACEMENT SYSTEMS TO ADMIN-
ISTER RANKED CHOICE ELECTIONS.—To the greatest extent 
practicable, an eligible State which receives a grant to re-
place a voting system under this section shall ensure that 
the replacement system is capable of administering a system 
of ranked choice voting under which each voter shall rank 
the candidates for the office in the order of the voter’s pref-
erence. 
‘‘SEC. 297A. VOTING SYSTEM SECURITY IMPROVEMENTS DE-
SCRIBED. 
‘‘(a) PERMITTED USES.—A voting system security im-
provement described in this section is any of the following: 
‘‘(1) The acquisition of goods and services from 
qualified election infrastructure vendors by purchase, 
lease, or such other arrangements as may be appro-
priate. 
‘‘(2) Cyber and risk mitigation training. 
‘‘(3) A security risk and vulnerability assessment 
of the State’s election infrastructure which is carried 
out by a provider of cybersecurity services under a 
contract entered into between the chief State election 
official and the provider. 
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‘‘(4) The maintenance of election infrastructure, 
including addressing risks and vulnerabilities which 
are identified under either of the security risk and 
vulnerability assessments described in paragraph (3), 
except that none of the funds provided under this part 
may be used to renovate or replace a building or fa-
cility which is used primarily for purposes other than 
the administration of elections for public office. 
‘‘(5) Providing increased technical support for 
any information technology infrastructure that the 
chief State election official deems to be part of the 
State’s election infrastructure or designates as critical 
to the operation of the State’s election infrastructure. 
‘‘(6) Enhancing the cybersecurity and operations 
of the information technology infrastructure described 
in paragraph (4). 
‘‘(7) Enhancing the cybersecurity of voter reg-
istration systems. 
‘‘(b) QUALIFIED ELECTION INFRASTRUCTURE VEN-
DORS DESCRIBED.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—For purposes of this part, a 
‘qualified election infrastructure vendor’ is any per-
son who provides, supports, or maintains, or who 
seeks to provide, support, or maintain, election infra-
structure on behalf of a State, unit of local govern-
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ment, or election agency, who meets the criteria de-
scribed in paragraph (2). 
‘‘(2) CRITERIA.—The criteria described in this 
paragraph are such criteria as the Chairman, in co-
ordination with the Secretary of Homeland Security, 
shall establish and publish, and shall include each of 
the following requirements: 
‘‘(A) The vendor must be owned and con-
trolled by a citizen or permanent resident of the 
United States. 
‘‘(B) The vendor must disclose to the Chair-
man and the Secretary, and to the chief State 
election official of any State to which the vendor 
provides any goods and services with funds pro-
vided under this part, of any sourcing outside 
the United States for parts of the election infra-
structure. 
‘‘(C) The vendor agrees to ensure that the 
election infrastructure will be developed and 
maintained in a manner that is consistent with 
the cybersecurity best practices issued by the 
Technical Guidelines Development Committee. 
‘‘(D) The vendor agrees to maintain its in-
formation technology infrastructure in a manner 
that is consistent with the cybersecurity best 
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practices issued by the Technical Guidelines De-
velopment Committee. 
‘‘(E) The vendor agrees to meet the require-
ments of paragraph (3) with respect to any 
known or suspected cybersecurity incidents in-
volving any of the goods and services provided by 
the vendor pursuant to a grant under this part. 
‘‘(F) The vendor agrees to permit inde-
pendent security testing by the Commission (in 
accordance with section 231(a)) and by the Sec-
retary of the goods and services provided by the 
vendor pursuant to a grant under this part. 
‘‘(3) CYBERSECURITY INCIDENT REPORTING RE-
QUIREMENTS.— 
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—A vendor meets the re-
quirements of this paragraph if, upon becoming 
aware of the possibility that an election cyberse-
curity incident has occurred involving any of the 
goods and services provided by the vendor pursu-
ant to a grant under this part— 
‘‘(i) the vendor promptly assesses 
whether or not such an incident occurred, 
and submits a notification meeting the re-
quirements of subparagraph (B) to the Sec-
retary and the Chairman of the assessment 
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as soon as practicable (but in no case later 
than 3 days after the vendor first becomes 
aware of the possibility that the incident oc-
curred); 
‘‘(ii) if the incident involves goods or 
services provided to an election agency, the 
vendor submits a notification meeting the 
requirements of subparagraph (B) to the 
agency as soon as practicable (but in no 
case later than 3 days after the vendor first 
becomes aware of the possibility that the in-
cident occurred), and cooperates with the 
agency in providing any other necessary 
notifications relating to the incident; and 
‘‘(iii) the vendor provides all necessary 
updates to any notification submitted under 
clause (i) or clause (ii). 
‘‘(B) CONTENTS OF NOTIFICATIONS.—Each 
notification submitted under clause (i) or clause 
(ii) of subparagraph (A) shall contain the fol-
lowing information with respect to any election 
cybersecurity incident covered by the notifica-
tion: 
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‘‘(i) The date, time, and time zone 
when the election cybersecurity incident 
began, if known. 
‘‘(ii) The date, time, and time zone 
when the election cybersecurity incident was 
detected. 
‘‘(iii) The date, time, and duration of 
the election cybersecurity incident. 
‘‘(iv) The circumstances of the election 
cybersecurity incident, including the spe-
cific election infrastructure systems believed 
to have been accessed and information ac-
quired, if any. 
‘‘(v) Any planned and implemented 
technical measures to respond to and re-
cover from the incident. 
‘‘(vi) In the case of any notification 
which is an update to a prior notification, 
any additional material information relat-
ing to the incident, including technical 
data, as it becomes available. 
‘‘SEC. 297B. ELIGIBILITY OF STATES. 
‘‘A State is eligible to receive a grant under this part 
if the State submits to the Commission, at such time and 
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in such form as the Commission may require, an applica-
tion containing— 
‘‘(1) a description of how the State will use the 
grant to carry out the activities authorized under this 
part; 
‘‘(2) a certification and assurance that, not later 
than 5 years after receiving the grant, the State will 
carry out voting system security improvements, as de-
scribed in section 297A; and 
‘‘(3) such other information and assurances as 
the Commission may require. 
‘‘SEC. 297C. REPORTS TO CONGRESS. 
‘‘Not later than 90 days after the end of each fiscal 
year, the Commission shall submit a report to the appro-
priate congressional committees, including the Committees 
on Homeland Security, House Administration, and the Ju-
diciary of the House of Representatives and the Committees 
on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, the Judi-
ciary, and Rules and Administration of the Senate, on the 
activities carried out with the funds provided under this 
part. 
‘‘SEC. 297D. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 
‘‘(a) AUTHORIZATION.—There are authorized to be ap-
propriated for grants under this part— 
‘‘(1) $600,000,000 for fiscal year 2019; and 
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‘‘(2) $175,000,000 for each of the fiscal years 
2020, 2022, 2024, and 2026. 
‘‘(b) CONTINUING AVAILABILITY OF AMOUNTS.—Any 
amounts appropriated pursuant to the authorization of this 
section shall remain available until expended.’’. 
(b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of contents of 
such Act is amended by adding at the end of the items relat-
ing to subtitle D of title II the following: 
‘‘PART 7—GRANTS FOR OBTAINING COMPLIANT PAPER BALLOT VOTING 
SYSTEMS AND CARRYING OUT VOTING SYSTEM SECURITY IMPROVEMENTS 
‘‘Sec. 297. Grants for obtaining compliant paper ballot voting systems and car-
rying out voting system security improvements. 
‘‘Sec. 297A. Voting system security improvements described. 
‘‘Sec. 297B. Eligibility of States. 
‘‘Sec. 297C. Reports to Congress. 
‘‘Sec. 297D. Authorization of appropriations.’’. 
SEC. 112. COORDINATION OF VOTING SYSTEM SECURITY 
ACTIVITIES WITH USE OF REQUIREMENTS 
PAYMENTS AND ELECTION ADMINISTRATION 
REQUIREMENTS UNDER HELP AMERICA VOTE 
ACT OF 2002. 
(a) DUTIES
OF
ELECTION
ASSISTANCE
COMMIS-
SION.—Section 202 of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 
(52 U.S.C. 20922) is amended in the matter preceding 
paragraph (1) by striking ‘‘by’’ and inserting ‘‘and the se-
curity of election infrastructure by’’. 
(b) MEMBERSHIP OF SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SE-
CURITY ON BOARD OF ADVISORS OF ELECTION ASSISTANCE 
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