VOTE Act

I 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 4044 To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require State and local election officials to notify the chief State election official of a State with respect to the number of voted ballots that have been received and counted in an election for Federal office at the time of the closing of polls for such election, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JUNE 22, 2021 Mr. DONALDS (for himself, Ms. SALAZAR, Mr. BABIN, Mr. PERRY, Mr. GAETZ, Ms. HERRELL, Mr. SESSIONS, Mr. GIBBS, and Mr. GOODEN of Texas) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on House Administration A BILL To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require State and local election officials to notify the chief State election official of a State with respect to the number of voted ballots that have been received and counted in an election for Federal office at the time of the closing of polls for such election, 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 ‘‘Vote Outcome Trans- 4 parency in Elections Act’’ or the ‘‘VOTE Act’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:40 Jul 10, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4044.IH H4044 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 4044 IH SEC. 2. BALLOT COUNT REPORTING REQUIREMENT. 1 (a) IN GENERAL.—Subtitle A of title III of the Help 2 America Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21081 et seq.) is 3 amended— 4 (1) by redesignating sections 304 and 305 as 5 sections 305 and 306; and 6 (2) by inserting after section 303 the following 7 new section: 8 ‘‘SEC. 304. REPORTING REQUIREMENTS WITH RESPECT TO 9 NUMBER OF BALLOTS. 10 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 1 hour after a 11 polling place in a State closes in an election for Federal 12 office on the date of such election, the appropriate State 13 or local election official for such polling place shall provide 14 to the chief State election official of the State a report 15 that documents, as of such time— 16 ‘‘(1) the total number of voted ballots in the 17 possession of State and local election officials for the 18 election; and 19 ‘‘(2) the total number of voted ballots that have 20 been tabulated for such election. 21 ‘‘(b) ADDITIONAL REPORTING REQUIREMENTS.— 22 ‘‘(1) SUBMISSION TO CHIEF EXECUTIVE.—Not 23 later than 1 hour after the latest time that all poll- 24 ing places in a State close in an election for Federal 25 office on the date of such election, the chief State 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:40 Jul 10, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4044.IH H4044 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 4044 IH election official of the State shall prepare and sub- 1 mit to the chief executive of the State a final report 2 that documents the results of each report received 3 under subsection (a). 4 ‘‘(2) PUBLIC AVAILABILITY OF FINAL RE- 5 PORT.—Not later than 1 hour after the final report 6 is received under paragraph (1), the chief executive 7 of the State shall make the results of the report 8 publicly available on a Government website. 9 ‘‘(c) EFFECTIVE DATE.—This requirement shall 10 apply with respect to the regularly scheduled general elec- 11 tion for Federal office held in November 2022 and each 12 succeeding election for Federal office.’’. 13 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT RELATING TO EN- 14 FORCEMENT.—Section 401 of the Help America Vote Act 15 of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21111) is amended by striking ‘‘and 16 303’’ and inserting ‘‘303, and 304’’. 17 (c) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of contents 18 of such Act is amended— 19 (1) by redesignating the items relating to sec- 20 tions 304 and 305 as relating to sections 305 and 21 306; and 22 (2) by inserting after the item relating to sec- 23 tion 303 the following new item: 24 ‘‘Sec. 304. Reporting requirements with respect to number of ballots.’’. VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:40 Jul 10, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6211 E:\BILLS\H4044.IH H4044 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 4044 IH SEC. 3. REQUIREMENTS FOR BALLOTS DELIVERED BY 1 MAIL. 2 (a) IN GENERAL.—Subtitle A of title III of the Help 3 America Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21081 et seq.), as 4 amended by section 2(a), is amended— 5 (1) by redesignating sections 305 and 306 as 6 sections 306 and 307; and 7 (2) by inserting after section 304 the following 8 new section: 9 ‘‘SEC. 305. REQUIREMENTS WITH RESPECT TO A BALLOT 10 DELIVERED BY MAIL. 11 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Each State and local jurisdiction 12 shall have in place policies to ensure that a voted ballot 13 delivered by postal mail to the appropriate election official 14 in an election for Federal office can be verified to have 15 been delivered by the United States Postal Service by 16 means of an appropriate postmark, signature, or other in- 17 dication from the United States Postal Service. 18 ‘‘(b) EXCEPTIONS.—This section shall not apply with 19 respect to the ballot of an absent uniformed services voter 20 or an overseas voter (as such terms are defined in section 21 107 of the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee 22 Voting Act (52 U.S.C. 20310)). 23 ‘‘(c) EFFECTIVE DATE.—This requirement shall 24 apply with respect to the regularly scheduled general elec- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:40 Jul 10, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4044.IH H4044 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 4044 IH tion for Federal office held in November 2022 and each 1 succeeding election for Federal office.’’. 2 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT RELATING TO EN- 3 FORCEMENT.—Section 401 of the Help America Vote Act 4 of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21111), as amended by section 2(b), 5 is amended by striking ‘‘303, and 304’’ and inserting 6 ‘‘303, 304, and 305’’. 7 (c) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of contents 8 of such Act, as amended by section 2(c), is amended— 9 (1) by redesignating the items relating to sec- 10 tions 305 and 306 as relating to sections 306 and 11 307; and 12 (2) by inserting after the item relating to sec- 13 tion 304 the following new item: 14 ‘‘Sec. 305. Requirements with respect to a ballot delivered by mail.’’. Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:40 Jul 10, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H4044.IH H4044 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS