Reducing Barriers for Military Voters Act

I 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 3646 To direct the Presidential designee under the Uniformed and Overseas Citi- zens Absentee Voting Act to develop and implement a plan to provide end-to-end electronic voting services for absent uniformed services voters under such Act who are deployed or mobilized to locations with limited or immature postal service. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES MAY 28, 2021 Mr. WILSON of South Carolina (for himself, Mr. RYAN, Ms. STEFANIK, Mr. KIM of New Jersey, Mr. TURNER, Mr. VELA, Mr. JACKSON, Mr. BROWN, and Mr. TIMMONS) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on House Administration A BILL To direct the Presidential designee under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act to develop and implement a plan to provide end-to-end electronic voting services for absent uniformed services voters under such Act who are deployed or mobilized to locations with limited or immature postal service. 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 ‘‘Reducing Barriers for 4 Military Voters Act’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 06:40 Jun 24, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3646.IH H3646 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 3646 IH SEC. 2. PROVIDING END-TO-END ELECTRONIC VOTING 1 SERVICES FOR ABSENT UNIFORMED SERV- 2 ICES VOTERS IN LOCATIONS WITH LIMITED 3 OR IMMATURE POSTAL SERVICE. 4 (a) PLAN.— 5 (1) DEVELOPMENT.—In consultation with the 6 Chief Information Officer of the Department of De- 7 fense, the Presidential designee under the Uni- 8 formed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act 9 (52 U.S.C. 20301 et seq.) shall develop a plan for 10 providing end-to-end electronic voting services (in- 11 cluding services for registering to vote, requesting an 12 electronic ballot, completing the ballot, and return- 13 ing the ballot) in participating States for absent uni- 14 formed services voters under such Act who are de- 15 ployed or mobilized to locations with limited or im- 16 mature postal service (as determined by the Presi- 17 dential designee). 18 (2) SPECIFICATIONS.—The Presidential des- 19 ignee shall include in the plan developed under para- 20 graph (1)— 21 (A) methods to ensure that voters have the 22 opportunity to verify that their ballots are re- 23 ceived and tabulated correctly by the appro- 24 priate State and local election officials; 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 06:40 Jun 24, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3646.IH H3646 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 3646 IH (B) methods to generate a verifiable and 1 auditable vote trail for the purposes of any re- 2 count or audit conducted with respect to an 3 election; and 4 (C) an assessment of whether commercially 5 available technologies may be used to carry out 6 any of the elements of the plan. 7 (3) CONSULTATION WITH STATE AND LOCAL 8 ELECTION OFFICIALS.—The Presidential designee 9 shall develop the plan under paragraph (1) in con- 10 sultation with appropriate State and local election 11 officials to ensure that the plan may be implemented 12 successfully in any State which agrees to participate 13 in the plan. 14 (4) USE OF CONTRACTORS.—To the extent the 15 Presidential designee determines to be appropriate, 16 the Presidential designee may include in the plan de- 17 veloped under paragraph (1) provisions for the use 18 of contractors to carry out any of the elements of 19 the plan. 20 (5) SUBMISSION.—Not later than 1 year after 21 the date of the enactment of this Act, the Presi- 22 dential designee shall submit the plan developed 23 under paragraph (1) to the Committees on Armed 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 06:40 Jun 24, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3646.IH H3646 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 3646 IH Services of the House of Representatives and Sen- 1 ate. 2 (b) IMPLEMENTATION.—The Presidential designee 3 shall implement the plan— 4 (1) for a trial group of voters in participating 5 States for elections for Federal office held in 2024; 6 and 7 (2) for all such voters in participating States 8 for elections for Federal office held in 2026 and any 9 succeeding year. 10 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 06:40 Jun 24, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H3646.IH H3646 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS