I 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 1529 To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require States to conduct post-election audits for elections for Federal office and to provide attesta- tions of the integrity and security of voter identification and voter reg- istration list maintenance procedures, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES MARCH 2, 2021 Mr. WESTERMAN (for himself, Mr. ROGERS of Alabama, Ms. FOXX, Mr. WEBER of Texas, Mr. MAST, and Mr. CRAWFORD) introduced the fol- lowing bill; which was referred to the Committee on House Administra- tion A BILL To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require States to conduct post-election audits for elections for Federal office and to provide attestations of the integrity and security of voter identification and voter registration list maintenance procedures, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Verification and Over- 4 sight for Transparent Elections, Registration, and Identi- 5 fications Act’’ or the ‘‘VOTER ID Act’’. 6 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:50 Apr 19, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1529.IH H1529 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 1529 IH SEC. 2. REQUIRING POST-ELECTION AUDITS OF ELECTIONS 1 FOR FEDERAL OFFICE. 2 (a) REQUIREMENT.—Subtitle A of title III of the 3 Help America Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21081 et seq.) 4 is amended— 5 (1) by redesignating sections 304 and 305 as 6 sections 305 and 306; and 7 (2) by inserting after section 303 the following 8 new section: 9 ‘‘SEC. 304. POST-ELECTION AUDITS. 10 ‘‘(a) REQUIREMENT.—Each State shall conduct an 11 audit of the results of each regularly scheduled general 12 election for Federal office held in the State and submit 13 the audit to the Commission. 14 ‘‘(b) CONTENTS OF AUDIT.—The audit conducted 15 under this section with respect to an election shall include 16 an audit of the accuracy of the voting systems used to 17 carry out the election, together with an assessment of the 18 extent to which the State administered the election in com- 19 pliance with applicable laws, rules, and procedures, includ- 20 ing laws, rules, and procedures governing requirements for 21 voter identification, the accuracy of voter registration lists, 22 the use of absentee and mail-in voting, the effectiveness 23 of the methods used by the State to ensure that voters 24 with disabilities were able to cast ballots, the use of provi- 25 sional ballots, and the timing of the tabulation of ballots. 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:50 Apr 19, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1529.IH H1529 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 1529 IH ‘‘(c) USE OF DESIGNATED ENTITY.—A State shall 1 conduct the audit under this section through an entity des- 2 ignated by the State for purposes of this section which 3 meets such requirements as the State may provide. 4 ‘‘(d) PROVISION OF INFORMATION.—The appropriate 5 State and local election officials shall provide the entity 6 conducting an audit under this section with such informa- 7 tion and assistance as the entity may require to conduct 8 the audit in accordance with the deadline described in sub- 9 section (a). 10 ‘‘(e) DISSEMINATION OF AUDITS.— 11 ‘‘(1) INCLUSION IN SURVEY.—The State shall 12 include the audit of the results of an election under 13 this section in the Election Administration and Vot- 14 ing Survey the State submits to the Commission 15 with respect to the election. 16 ‘‘(2) ONLINE AVAILABILITY.—Each State shall 17 make the audits it conducts under this section pub- 18 licly available on a website of the State in a search- 19 able and sortable electronic manner. 20 ‘‘(f) EFFECTIVE DATE.—This section shall apply 21 with respect to the regularly scheduled general elections 22 for Federal office held in November 2022 and each suc- 23 ceeding regularly scheduled general election for Federal 24 office.’’. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:50 Apr 19, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1529.IH H1529 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 1529 IH (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENTS RELATING TO VOL- 1 UNTARY GUIDANCE OF COMMISSION.— 2 (1) INCLUSION OF RECOMMENDATIONS FOR 3 BEST PRACTICES.—Section 311 of such Act (52 4 U.S.C. 21101) is amended— 5 (A) by redesignating subsections (b) and 6 (c) as subsections (c) and (d); and 7 (B) by inserting after subsection (a) the 8 following new subsection: 9 ‘‘(b) SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS FOR GUIDANCE RE- 10 LATING TO POST-ELECTION AUDITS.—In the case of the 11 recommendations with respect to the requirement under 12 section 304 to conduct post-election audits, the following 13 shall apply: 14 ‘‘(1) Notwithstanding section 212, the Election 15 Assistance Commission Standards Board under part 16 2 of subtitle A of title II shall develop the rec- 17 ommendations directly. 18 ‘‘(2) The Standards Board shall include in the 19 recommendations best practices for conducting the 20 audits required under section 304. 21 ‘‘(3) The Standards Board shall include as part 22 of such best practices— 23 ‘‘(A) a recommendation that the entity 24 conducting the audits is bipartisan; and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:50 Apr 19, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1529.IH H1529 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 1529 IH ‘‘(B) a recommendation that, in the case of 1 an election for the office of Senator or Rep- 2 resentative in Congress (including an election 3 for the office of Delegate or Resident Commis- 4 sioner to the Congress), the State complete the 5 audit of the results of the election not later 6 than 30 days after the State certifies the re- 7 sults of the election.’’. 8 (2) TIMING.—Subsection (c) of section 311 of 9 such Act (52 U.S.C. 21101), as redesignated by 10 paragraph (1), is amended— 11 (A) by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end of para- 12 graph (2); 13 (B) by striking the period at the end of 14 paragraph (3) and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 15 (C) by adding at the end the following new 16 paragraph: 17 ‘‘(4) in the case of the recommendations with 18 respect to section 304, January 1, 2022.’’. 19 (c) CONFORMING AMENDMENT RELATING TO EN- 20 FORCEMENT.—Section 401 of such Act (52 U.S.C. 21111) 21 is amended by striking ‘‘sections 301, 302, and 303’’ and 22 inserting ‘‘subtitle A of title III’’. 23 (d) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of contents 24 of such Act is amended— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:50 Apr 19, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1529.IH H1529 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 1529 IH (1) by redesignating the items relating to sec- 1 tions 304 and 305 as relating to sections 305 and 2 306; and 3 (2) by inserting after the item relating to sec- 4 tion 303 the following: 5 ‘‘Sec. 304. Post-election audits.’’. SEC. 3. ATTESTATIONS OF INTEGRITY OF VOTER IDENTI- 6 FICATION PROCEDURES AND VOTER REG- 7 ISTRATION LIST MAINTENANCE. 8 (a) REQUIRING ATTESTATIONS.—Subtitle A of title 9 III of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 10 21081 et seq.), as amended by section 2(a), is further 11 amended— 12 (1) by redesignating sections 305 and 306 as 13 sections 306 and 307; and 14 (2) by inserting after section 304 the following 15 new section: 16 ‘‘SEC. 305. ATTESTATIONS OF INTEGRITY OF PROCEDURES. 17 ‘‘(a) REQUIREMENT.—Each State shall include in the 18 Policy Survey submitted to the Commission with respect 19 to a regularly scheduled general election for Federal office 20 the following attestations: 21 ‘‘(1) An attestation that the State has in effect 22 voter identification procedures and practices which 23 will ensure the integrity and security of the election 24 by providing a secure method to match voters with 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:50 Apr 19, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1529.IH H1529 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 7 •HR 1529 IH the information contained in the State’s voter reg- 1 istration list. 2 ‘‘(2) An attestation that the State has in effect 3 procedures and practices which will ensure the integ- 4 rity and security of the State’s voter registration list 5 by performing regular maintenance of the list in ac- 6 cordance with applicable Federal and State law. 7 ‘‘(b) INCLUSION OF INFORMATION FROM POST- 8 ELECTION AUDITS.—Each State shall include in the at- 9 testations submitted under subsection (a) the results of 10 the most recent post-election audit conducted by the State 11 under section 304 with respect to the information provided 12 in the attestation. 13 ‘‘(c) ONLINE AVAILABILITY.—Each State shall make 14 the attestations under this section publicly available on a 15 website of the State in a searchable and sortable electronic 16 manner. 17 ‘‘(d) EFFECTIVE DATE.—This section shall apply 18 with respect to the regularly scheduled general elections 19 for Federal office held in November 2022 and each suc- 20 ceeding regularly scheduled general election for Federal 21 office.’’. 22 (b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of contents 23 of such Act, as amended by section 2(d), is further amend- 24 ed— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:50 Apr 19, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1529.IH H1529 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 8 •HR 1529 IH (1) by redesignating the items relating to sec- 1 tions 305 and 306 as relating to sections 306 and 2 307; and 3 (2) by inserting after the item relating to sec- 4 tion 304 the following: 5 ‘‘Sec. 305. Attestations of integrity of procedures.’’. Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:50 Apr 19, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H1529.IH H1529 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS