Safeguarding Election Infrastructure Act of 2019

I 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 378 To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require voting systems used in elections for Federal office to produce a voter-verified, auditable paper record of the votes cast in such elections, to require State election officials to audit the results of such elections prior to certifying the results, to provide grants to States to improve voting system security, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JANUARY 9, 2019 Mrs. DINGELL introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com- mittee on House Administration, and in addition to the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, for a period to be subsequently deter- mined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned A BILL To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require voting systems used in elections for Federal office to produce a voter-verified, auditable paper record of the votes cast in such elections, to require State election officials to audit the results of such elections prior to certifying the results, to provide grants to States to improve voting system security, 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 VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:05 Jan 19, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H378.IH H378 pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 378 IH SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Safeguarding Election 2 Infrastructure Act of 2019’’. 3 SEC. 2. REQUIRING USE OF VOTING SYSTEMS CAPABLE OF 4 PRODUCING VOTER-VERIFIED, AUDITABLE 5 PAPER RECORD IN ELECTIONS FOR FEDERAL 6 OFFICE. 7 (a) MORATORIUM ON ACQUISITION OF CERTAIN DI- 8 RECT RECORDING ELECTRONIC VOTING SYSTEMS AND 9 CERTAIN OTHER VOTING SYSTEMS.—Section 301 of the 10 Help America Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21081) is 11 amended— 12 (1) by redesignating subsections (c) and (d) as 13 subsections (d) and (e); and 14 (2) by inserting after subsection (b) the fol- 15 lowing new subsection: 16 ‘‘(c) MORATORIUM ON ACQUISITION OF CERTAIN DI- 17 RECT RECORDING ELECTRONIC VOTING SYSTEMS AND 18 CERTAIN OTHER VOTING SYSTEMS.—Beginning on the 19 date of the enactment of the Safeguarding Election Infra- 20 structure Act of 2019, no State or jurisdiction may pur- 21 chase or otherwise acquire for use in an election for Fed- 22 eral office a direct recording electronic voting system or 23 other electronic voting system that does not produce a 24 voter-verified paper record as required by section 25 301(a)(2) (as amended by such Act).’’. 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:05 Jan 19, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H378.IH H378 pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 378 IH (b) PAPER BALLOT AND MANUAL COUNTING RE- 1 QUIREMENTS.— 2 (1) IN GENERAL.—Section 301(a)(2) of such 3 Act (52 U.S.C. 21081(a)(2)) is amended to read as 4 follows: 5 ‘‘(2) PAPER BALLOT REQUIREMENT.— 6 ‘‘(A) VOTER-VERIFIED PAPER BALLOTS.— 7 ‘‘(i) PAPER BALLOT REQUIREMENT.— 8 (I) The voting system shall require the use 9 of an individual, durable, voter-verified, 10 paper ballot of the voter’s vote that shall 11 be marked and made available for inspec- 12 tion and verification by the voter before 13 the voter’s vote is cast and counted, and 14 which shall be counted by hand or read by 15 an optical character recognition device or 16 other counting device. For purposes of this 17 subclause, the term ‘individual, durable, 18 voter-verified, paper ballot’ means a paper 19 ballot marked by the voter by hand or a 20 paper ballot marked through the use of a 21 nontabulating ballot marking device or sys- 22 tem, so long as the voter shall have the op- 23 tion to mark his or her ballot by hand (or, 24 in the case of an individual with a dis- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:05 Jan 19, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H378.IH H378 pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 378 IH ability, by such alternative method as the 1 election official shall establish that pro- 2 vides an equivalent opportunity, including 3 with privacy and independence, as for 4 other voters). 5 ‘‘(II) The voting system shall provide 6 the voter with an opportunity to correct 7 any error on the paper ballot before the 8 permanent voter-verified paper ballot is 9 preserved in accordance with clause (ii). 10 ‘‘(III) The voting system shall not 11 preserve the voter-verified paper ballots in 12 any manner that makes it possible, at any 13 time after the ballot has been cast, to asso- 14 ciate a voter with the record of the voter’s 15 vote without the voter’s consent. 16 ‘‘(ii) PRESERVATION AS OFFICIAL 17 RECORD.—The individual, durable, voter- 18 verified, paper ballot used in accordance 19 with clause (i) shall constitute the official 20 ballot and shall be preserved and used as 21 the official ballot for purposes of any re- 22 count or audit conducted with respect to 23 any election for Federal office in which the 24 voting system is used. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:05 Jan 19, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H378.IH H378 pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 378 IH ‘‘(iii) MANUAL COUNTING REQUIRE- 1 MENTS FOR RECOUNTS AND AUDITS.—(I) 2 Each paper ballot used pursuant to clause 3 (i) shall be suitable for a manual audit, 4 and shall be counted by hand in any re- 5 count or audit conducted with respect to 6 any election for Federal office. 7 ‘‘(II) In the event of any inconsist- 8 encies or irregularities between any elec- 9 tronic vote tallies and the vote tallies de- 10 termined by counting by hand the indi- 11 vidual, durable, voter-verified, paper ballots 12 used pursuant to clause (i), and subject to 13 subparagraph (B), the individual, durable, 14 voter-verified, paper ballots shall be the 15 true and correct record of the votes cast. 16 ‘‘(iv) APPLICATION TO ALL BAL- 17 LOTS.—The requirements of this subpara- 18 graph shall apply to all ballots cast in elec- 19 tions for Federal office, including ballots 20 cast by absent uniformed services voters 21 and overseas voters under the Uniformed 22 and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act 23 and other absentee voters. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:05 Jan 19, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H378.IH H378 pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 378 IH ‘‘(B) SPECIAL RULE FOR TREATMENT OF 1 DISPUTES WHEN PAPER BALLOTS HAVE BEEN 2 SHOWN TO BE COMPROMISED.— 3 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—In the event 4 that— 5 ‘‘(I) there is any inconsistency 6 between any electronic vote tallies and 7 the vote tallies determined by count- 8 ing by hand the individual, durable, 9 voter-verified, paper ballots used pur- 10 suant to subparagraph (A)(i) with re- 11 spect to any election for Federal of- 12 fice; and 13 ‘‘(II) it is demonstrated by clear 14 and convincing evidence (as deter- 15 mined in accordance with the applica- 16 ble standards in the jurisdiction in- 17 volved) in any recount, audit, or con- 18 test of the result of the election that 19 the paper ballots have been com- 20 promised (by damage or mischief or 21 otherwise) and that a sufficient num- 22 ber of the ballots have been so com- 23 promised that the result of the elec- 24 tion could be changed, 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:05 Jan 19, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H378.IH H378 pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 7 •HR 378 IH the determination of the appropriate rem- 1 edy with respect to the election shall be 2 made in accordance with applicable State 3 law, except that the electronic tally shall 4 not be used as the exclusive basis for de- 5 termining the official certified result. 6 ‘‘(ii) RULE FOR CONSIDERATION OF 7 BALLOTS ASSOCIATED WITH EACH VOTING 8 MACHINE.—For purposes of clause (i), 9 only the paper ballots deemed com- 10 promised, if any, shall be considered in the 11 calculation of whether or not the result of 12 the election could be changed due to the 13 compromised paper ballots.’’. 14 (2) CONFORMING AMENDMENT CLARIFYING AP- 15 PLICABILITY OF ALTERNATIVE LANGUAGE ACCESSI- 16 BILITY.—Section 301(a)(4) of such Act (52 U.S.C. 17 21081(a)(4)) is amended by inserting ‘‘(including 18 the paper ballots required to be used under para- 19 graph (2))’’ after ‘‘voting system’’. 20 (3) OTHER CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.—Sec- 21 tion 301(a)(1) of such Act (52 U.S.C. 21081(a)(1)) 22 is amended— 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:05 Jan 19, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H378.IH H378 pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 8 •HR 378 IH (A) in subparagraph (A)(i), by striking 1 ‘‘counted’’ and inserting ‘‘counted, in accord- 2 ance with paragraphs (2) and (3)’’; 3 (B) in subparagraph (A)(ii), by striking 4 ‘‘counted’’ and inserting ‘‘counted, in accord- 5 ance with paragraphs (2) and (3)’’; 6 (C) in subparagraph (A)(iii), by striking 7 ‘‘counted’’ each place it appears and inserting 8 ‘‘counted, in accordance with paragraphs (2) 9 and (3)’’; and 10 (D) in subparagraph (B)(ii), by striking 11 ‘‘counted’’ and inserting ‘‘counted, in accord- 12 ance with paragraphs (2) and (3)’’. 13 (c) EFFECTIVE DATE.—Section 301(d) of such Act 14 (52 U.S.C. 21081(d)) is amended by striking the period 15 at the end and inserting the following: ‘‘, or, in the case 16 of the requirements of this section which are first imposed 17 on a State or jurisdiction pursuant to the amendments 18 made by section 2 of the Safeguarding Election Infra- 19 structure Act of 2019, with respect to voting systems used 20 for elections held on or after the expiration of the 1-year 21 period which begins on the date of the enactment of such 22 Act’’. 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:05 Jan 19, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H378.IH H378 pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 9 •HR 378 IH SEC. 3. MANDATORY MANUAL AUDITS OF RESULTS OF FED- 1 ERAL ELECTIONS. 2 (a) REQUIRING AUDITS OF RESULTS.—Title III of 3 the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21081 et 4 seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following new 5 subtitle: 6 ‘‘Subtitle C—Mandatory Manual 7 Audits 8 ‘‘SEC. 321. REQUIRING AUDITS OF RESULTS OF ELECTIONS. 9 ‘‘(a) REQUIRING AUDITS.— 10 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—In accordance with this 11 subtitle, each State shall administer, without ad- 12 vance notice to the precincts or alternative audit 13 units selected, audits of the results of all elections 14 for Federal office held in the State (and, at the op- 15 tion of the State or jurisdiction involved, of elections 16 for State and local office held at the same time as 17 such election) consisting of random hand counts of 18 the voter-verified paper ballots required to be used 19 and preserved pursuant to section 301(a)(2). 20 ‘‘(2) EXCEPTION FOR CERTAIN ELECTIONS.—A 21 State shall not be required to administer an audit of 22 the results of an election for Federal office under 23 this subtitle if the winning candidate in the elec- 24 tion— 25 ‘‘(A) had no opposition on the ballot; or 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:05 Jan 19, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H378.IH H378 pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 10 •HR 378 IH ‘‘(B) received 59 percent or more of the 1 total number of votes cast in the election, as de- 2 termined on the basis of the final unofficial vote 3 count. 4 ‘‘(b) DETERMINATION OF ENTITY CONDUCTING AU- 5 DITS; APPLICATION OF GAO INDEPENDENCE STAND- 6 ARDS.—The State shall administer audits under this sub- 7 title through an entity selected for such purpose by the 8 State in accordance with such criteria as the State con- 9 siders appropriate consistent with the requirements of this 10 subtitle, except that the entity must meet the general 11 standards established by the Comptroller General and as 12 set forth in the Comptroller General’s Government Audit- 13 ing Standards to ensure the independence (including, ex- 14 cept as provided under section 323(b), the organizational 15 independence) of entities performing financial audits, at- 16 testation engagements, and performance audits. 17 ‘‘(c) REFERENCES TO ELECTION AUDITOR.—In this 18 subtitle, the term ‘Election Auditor’ means, with respect 19 to a State, the entity selected by the State under sub- 20 section (b). 21 ‘‘SEC. 322. NUMBER OF BALLOTS COUNTED UNDER AUDIT. 22 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in subsection 23 (b), the number of voter-verified paper ballots which will 24 be subject to a hand count administered by the Election 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:05 Jan 19, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H378.IH H378 pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 11 •HR 378 IH Auditor of a State under this subtitle with respect to an 1 election shall be determined as follows: 2 ‘‘(1) In the event that the unofficial count as 3 described in section 323(a)(1) reveals that the mar- 4 gin of victory between the two candidates receiving 5 the largest number of votes in the election is less 6 than 1 percent of the total votes cast in that elec- 7 tion, the hand counts of the voter-verified paper bal- 8 lots shall occur in at least 10 percent of all precincts 9 or equivalent locations (or alternative audit units 10 used in accordance with the method provided for 11 under subsection (b)) in the congressional district 12 involved (in the case of an election for the House of 13 Representatives) or the State (in the case of any 14 other election for Federal office). 15 ‘‘(2) In the event that the unofficial count as 16 described in section 323(a)(1) reveals that the mar- 17 gin of victory between the two candidates receiving 18 the largest number of votes in the election is greater 19 than or equal to 1 percent but less than 2 percent 20 of the total votes cast in that election, the hand 21 counts of the voter-verified paper ballots shall occur 22 in at least 5 percent of all precincts or equivalent lo- 23 cations (or alternative audit units used in accord- 24 ance with the method provided for under subsection 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:05 Jan 19, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00011 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H378.IH H378 pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 12 •HR 378 IH (b)) in the congressional district involved (in the 1 case of an election for the House of Representatives) 2 or the State (in the case of any other election for 3 Federal office). 4 ‘‘(3) In the event that the unofficial count as 5 described in section 323(a)(1) reveals that the mar- 6 gin of victory between the two candidates receiving 7 the largest number of votes in the election is equal 8 to or greater than 2 percent of the total votes cast 9 in that election, the hand counts of the voter-verified 10 paper ballots shall occu [Text truncated for display. 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