I 
115TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 6449 
To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require States to take 
steps to ensure that there is no foreign ownership or influence on the 
voting systems used in elections, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 19, 2018 
Mr. DELANEY (for himself, Mr. HARRIS, Ms. SINEMA, Mr. HASTINGS, Mr. 
COHEN, Mr. DESAULNIER, Ms. DELBENE, and Mr. KEATING) introduced 
the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on House Admin-
istration 
A BILL 
To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require 
States to take steps to ensure that there is no foreign 
ownership or influence on the voting systems used in 
elections, 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 ‘‘Protect Election Sys-
tems from Foreign Control Act’’. 
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SEC. 2. ENSURING NO FOREIGN OWNERSHIP OR INFLU-
ENCE ON VOTING SYSTEMS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Title III of the Help America 
Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21083 et seq.) is amended— 
(1) by redesignating sections 304 and 305 as 
sections 305 and 306; and 
(2) by inserting after section 303 the following 
new section: 
‘‘SEC. 304. ENSURING NO FOREIGN OWNERSHIP OR CON-
TROL OVER VOTING SYSTEMS. 
‘‘(a) REQUIRING VENDORS TO BE QUALIFIED.— 
Each State, unit of local government, or component of a 
State or unit of local government which is responsible for 
the administration of an election for Federal office shall 
ensure that each vendor who provides, supports, or main-
tains any component of a voting system used in the admin-
istration of the election is a qualified voting systems ven-
dor. 
‘‘(b) ANNUAL EVALUATION TO ENSURE COMPLI-
ANCE.—Each State, unit of local government, or compo-
nent of a State or unit of local government which is re-
sponsible for the administration of an election for Federal 
office shall, not less frequently than once each calendar 
year, evaluate each of the vendors who provide, support, 
or maintain any component of a voting system used in 
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the administration of the election to ensure that the ven-
dor is a qualified voting system vendor. 
‘‘(c) CYBERSECURITY BEST PRACTICES.—Not later 
than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this sec-
tion, the Chair of the Commission and the Secretary of 
Homeland Security shall establish and publish cybersecu-
rity best practices for vendors who provide, support, or 
maintain voting systems, and shall establish and publish 
updates to such best practices at such times as the Chair 
and the Secretary consider appropriate. 
‘‘(d) GUIDANCE AND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Chair of the Commis-
sion and the Secretary of Homeland Security may 
provide such guidance and technical assistance as 
may be appropriate to assist each State, unit of local 
government, or component of a State or unit of local 
government which is responsible for the administra-
tion of an election for Federal office with its obliga-
tions under this section. 
‘‘(2) DATABASE OF QUALIFIED VENDORS.—As 
part of providing guidance and technical assistance 
under this subsection, the Commission shall estab-
lish and maintain a database in which each State, 
unit of local government, or component of a State or 
unit of local government which is responsible for the 
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administration of an election for Federal office can 
verify whether a vendor is a qualified voting systems 
vendor. 
‘‘(e) QUALIFIED VOTING SYSTEMS VENDOR DE-
FINED.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—In this section, the term 
‘qualified voting system vendor’ means a person who 
provides, supports, or maintains, or seeks to provide, 
support, or maintain, a voting system used in the 
administration of an election for Federal office who 
meets each of the following criteria, as established 
and published by the Chair of the Commission in co-
ordination with the Secretary of Homeland Security: 
‘‘(A) Except as provided in paragraph (2), 
the person is solely owned and controlled by a 
citizen or citizens of the United States. 
‘‘(B) The person discloses any sourcing 
outside the United States for any parts of the 
voting system to the Chair of the Commission, 
the Secretary of Homeland Security, and the 
chief State election official of any State in 
which the vendor provides or seeks to provide 
goods or services with respect to the voting sys-
tem. 
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‘‘(C) The person discloses any material 
change in its ownership or control to the Chair 
of the Commission, the Secretary of Homeland 
Security, and the chief State election official of 
any State in which the vendor provides goods or 
services with respect to the voting system. 
‘‘(D) The person agrees to ensure that the 
voting systems will be developed and maintained 
in a manner that is consistent with the cyberse-
curity best practices established under sub-
section (c). 
‘‘(E) The person agrees to maintain its in-
formation technology infrastructure in a man-
ner that is consistent with the cybersecurity 
best practices established under subsection (c). 
‘‘(F) The vendor shall report any known or 
suspected security incidents involving voting 
systems to the chief State election official of the 
State involved or the official’s designee, the 
Chair, and the Secretary. 
‘‘(2) PERMITTING WAIVER OF DOMESTIC OWN-
ERSHIP
REQUIREMENT
FOR
CERTAIN
SUBSIDI-
ARIES.—The Secretary of Homeland Security may 
waive the requirement of subparagraph (A) of para-
graph (1) with respect to a person who is a United 
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States subsidiary of a parent company which has im-
plemented a foreign ownership, control, or influence 
mitigation plan that has been approved by the Sec-
retary. Such plan shall ensure that the parent com-
pany cannot control, influence, or direct the sub-
sidiary in any manner that would compromise or in-
fluence, or give the appearance of compromising or 
influencing, the independence and integrity of an 
election. 
‘‘(f) VOTING SYSTEM DEFINED.—In this section, the 
term ‘voting system’ has the meaning given such term in 
section 301(b).’’. 
(b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT RELATING TO EN-
FORCEMENT.—Section 401 of such Act (52 U.S.C. 21111) 
is amended by striking ‘‘and 303’’ and inserting ‘‘303, and 
304’’. 
(c) CLERICAL AMENDMENTS.—The table of contents 
of such Act is amended— 
(1) by redesignating the items relating to sec-
tions 304 and 305 as relating to sections 305 and 
306; and 
(2) by inserting after the item relating to sec-
tion 303 the following new item: 
‘‘Sec. 304. Ensuring no foreign ownership or control over voting systems.’’. 
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(d) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 
this section shall apply with respect to elections for Fed-
eral office held in 2020 or any succeeding year. 
Æ 
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