SAFE Act

II 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 2053 To protect elections for public office by providing financial support and enhanced security for the infrastructure used to carry out such elections, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES JUNE 28 (legislative day, JUNE 27), 2019 Ms. KLOBUCHAR introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Rules and Administration A BILL To protect elections for public office by providing financial support and enhanced security for the infrastructure used to carry out such elections, 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; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 3 (a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 4 ‘‘Securing America’s Federal Elections Act’’ or the 5 ‘‘SAFE Act’’. 6 (b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents of 7 this Act is as follows: 8 Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:47 Jul 06, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6211 E:\BILLS\S2053.IS S2053 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •S 2053 IS TITLE I—FINANCIAL SUPPORT FOR ELECTION INFRASTRUCTURE Subtitle A—Voting System Security Improvement Grants PART 1—PROMOTING ACCURACY, INTEGRITY, AND SECURITY THROUGH VOTER-VERIFIED PERMANENT PAPER BALLOT Sec. 101. Short title. Sec. 102. Paper ballot and manual counting requirements. Sec. 103. Accessibility and ballot verification for individuals with disabilities. Sec. 104. Durability and readability requirements for ballots. Sec. 105. Paper ballot printing requirements. Sec. 106. Study and report on optimal ballot design. Sec. 107. Effective date for new requirements. PART 2—GRANTS TO CARRY OUT IMPROVEMENTS Sec. 111. Grants for obtaining compliant paper ballot voting systems and car- rying out voting system security improvements. Sec. 112. Coordination of voting system security activities with use of require- ments payments and election administration requirements under Help America Vote Act of 2002. Sec. 113. Incorporation of definitions. Subtitle B—Risk-Limiting Audits Sec. 121. Risk-limiting audits. Sec. 122. Funding for conducting post-election risk-limiting audits. Sec. 123. GAO analysis of effects of audits. TITLE II—PROMOTING CYBERSECURITY THROUGH IMPROVEMENTS IN ELECTION ADMINISTRATION Sec. 201. Voting system cybersecurity requirements. Sec. 202. Testing of existing voting systems to ensure compliance with election cybersecurity guidelines and other guidelines. Sec. 203. Requiring use of software and hardware for which information is dis- closed by manufacturer. Sec. 204. Treatment of electronic poll books as part of voting systems. Sec. 205. Pre-election reports on voting system usage. Sec. 206. Streamlining collection of election information. TITLE III—USE OF VOTING MACHINES MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES Sec. 301. Use of voting machines manufactured in the United States. TITLE IV—SEVERABILITY Sec. 401. Severability. VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:47 Jul 06, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6211 E:\BILLS\S2053.IS S2053 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •S 2053 IS TITLE I—FINANCIAL SUPPORT 1 FOR ELECTION INFRASTRUC- 2 TURE 3 Subtitle A—Voting System Security 4 Improvement Grants 5 PART 1—PROMOTING ACCURACY, INTEGRITY, 6 AND SECURITY THROUGH VOTER-VERIFIED 7 PERMANENT PAPER BALLOT 8 SEC. 101. SHORT TITLE. 9 This subtitle may be cited as the ‘‘Voter Confidence 10 and Increased Accessibility Act of 2019’’. 11 SEC. 102. PAPER BALLOT AND MANUAL COUNTING RE- 12 QUIREMENTS. 13 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 301(a)(2) of the Help 14 America Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21081(a)(2)) is 15 amended to read as follows: 16 ‘‘(2) PAPER BALLOT REQUIREMENT.— 17 ‘‘(A) VOTER-VERIFIED PAPER BALLOTS.— 18 ‘‘(i) PAPER BALLOT REQUIREMENT.— 19 (I) The voting system shall require the use 20 of an individual, durable, voter-verified 21 paper ballot of the voter’s vote that shall 22 be marked and made available for inspec- 23 tion and verification by the voter before 24 the voter’s vote is cast and counted, and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:47 Jul 06, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2053.IS S2053 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •S 2053 IS which shall be counted by hand or read by 1 an optical character recognition device or 2 other counting device. For purposes of this 3 subclause, the term ‘individual, durable, 4 voter-verified paper ballot’ means a paper 5 ballot marked by the voter by hand or a 6 paper ballot marked through the use of a 7 nontabulating ballot marking device or sys- 8 tem, so long as the voter shall have the op- 9 tion to mark his or her ballot by hand. The 10 paper ballot shall be printed or marked in 11 such a way that vote selections, including 12 all vote selections scanned by voting sys- 13 tems to tabulate votes, can be inspected 14 and verified by the voter without training 15 or instruction or audited by election offi- 16 cials without the aid of any machine or 17 other equipment. 18 ‘‘(II) The voting system shall provide 19 the voter with an opportunity to correct 20 any error on the paper ballot before the 21 permanent voter-verified paper ballot is 22 preserved in accordance with clause (ii). 23 ‘‘(III) The voting system shall not 24 preserve the voter-verified paper ballots in 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:47 Jul 06, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2053.IS S2053 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 5 •S 2053 IS any manner that makes it possible, at any 1 time after the ballot has been cast, to asso- 2 ciate a voter with the record of the voter’s 3 vote without the voter’s consent. 4 ‘‘(ii) PRESERVATION AS OFFICIAL 5 RECORD.—The individual, durable, voter- 6 verified paper ballot used in accordance 7 with clause (i) shall constitute the official 8 ballot and shall be preserved and used as 9 the official ballot for purposes of any re- 10 count or audit conducted with respect to 11 any election for Federal office in which the 12 voting system is used. 13 ‘‘(iii) MANUAL COUNTING REQUIRE- 14 MENTS FOR RECOUNTS AND AUDITS.—(I) 15 Each paper ballot used pursuant to clause 16 (i) shall be suitable for a manual audit, 17 and shall be counted by hand in any re- 18 count or audit conducted with respect to 19 any election for Federal office. 20 ‘‘(II) In the event of any inconsist- 21 encies or irregularities between any elec- 22 tronic vote tallies and the vote tallies de- 23 termined by counting by hand the indi- 24 vidual, durable, voter-verified paper ballots 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:47 Jul 06, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2053.IS S2053 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 6 •S 2053 IS used pursuant to clause (i), and subject to 1 subparagraph (B), the individual, durable, 2 voter-verified paper ballots shall be the 3 true and correct record of the votes cast. 4 ‘‘(iv) APPLICATION TO ALL BAL- 5 LOTS.—The requirements of this subpara- 6 graph shall apply to all ballots cast in elec- 7 tions for Federal office, including ballots 8 cast by absent uniformed services voters 9 and overseas voters under the Uniformed 10 and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act 11 and other absentee voters. 12 ‘‘(B) SPECIAL RULE FOR TREATMENT OF 13 DISPUTES WHEN PAPER BALLOTS HAVE BEEN 14 SHOWN TO BE COMPROMISED.— 15 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—In the event 16 that— 17 ‘‘(I) there is any inconsistency 18 between any electronic vote tallies and 19 the vote tallies determined by count- 20 ing by hand the individual, durable, 21 voter-verified paper ballots used pur- 22 suant to subparagraph (A)(i) with re- 23 spect to any election for Federal of- 24 fice; and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:47 Jul 06, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2053.IS S2053 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 7 •S 2053 IS ‘‘(II) it is demonstrated by clear 1 and convincing evidence (as deter- 2 mined in accordance with the applica- 3 ble standards in the jurisdiction in- 4 volved) in any recount, audit, or con- 5 test of the result of the election that 6 the paper ballots have been com- 7 promised (by damage or mischief or 8 otherwise) and that a sufficient num- 9 ber of the ballots have been so com- 10 promised that the result of the elec- 11 tion could be changed, 12 the determination of the appropriate rem- 13 edy with respect to the election shall be 14 made in accordance with applicable State 15 law, except that the electronic tally shall 16 not be used as the exclusive basis for de- 17 termining the official certified result. 18 ‘‘(ii) RULE FOR CONSIDERATION OF 19 BALLOTS ASSOCIATED WITH EACH VOTING 20 MACHINE.—For purposes of clause (i), 21 only the paper ballots deemed com- 22 promised, if any, shall be considered in the 23 calculation of whether or not the result of 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:47 Jul 06, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2053.IS S2053 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 8 •S 2053 IS the election could be changed due to the 1 compromised paper ballots.’’. 2 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT CLARIFYING APPLI- 3 CABILITY OF ALTERNATIVE LANGUAGE ACCESSIBILITY.— 4 Section 301(a)(4) of such Act (52 U.S.C. 21081(a)(4)) 5 is amended by inserting ‘‘(including the paper ballots re- 6 quired to be used under paragraph (2))’’ after ‘‘voting sys- 7 tem’’. 8 (c) OTHER CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.—Section 9 301(a)(1) of such Act (52 U.S.C. 21081(a)(1)) is amend- 10 ed— 11 (1) in subparagraph (A)(i), by striking ‘‘count- 12 ed’’ and inserting ‘‘counted, in accordance with 13 paragraphs (2) and (3)’’; 14 (2) in subparagraph (A)(ii), by striking ‘‘count- 15 ed’’ and inserting ‘‘counted, in accordance with 16 paragraphs (2) and (3)’’; 17 (3) in subparagraph (A)(iii), by striking ‘‘count- 18 ed’’ each place it appears and inserting ‘‘counted, in 19 accordance with paragraphs (2) and (3)’’; and 20 (4) in subparagraph (B)(ii), by striking ‘‘count- 21 ed’’ and inserting ‘‘counted, in accordance with 22 paragraphs (2) and (3)’’. 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:47 Jul 06, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2053.IS S2053 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 9 •S 2053 IS SEC. 103. ACCESSIBILITY AND BALLOT VERIFICATION FOR 1 INDIVIDUALS WITH DISABILITIES. 2 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 301(a)(3)(B) of the Help 3 America Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21081(a)(3)(B)) is 4 amended to read as follows: 5 ‘‘(B)(i) ensure that individuals with dis- 6 abilities and others are given an equivalent op- 7 portunity to vote, including with privacy and 8 independence, in a manner that produces a 9 voter-verified paper ballot as for other voters; 10 ‘‘(ii) satisfy the requirement of subpara- 11 graph (A) through the use of at least one voting 12 system equipped for individuals with disabil- 13 ities, including nonvisual and enhanced visual 14 accessibility for the blind and visually impaired, 15 and nonmanual and enhanced manual accessi- 16 bility for the mobility and dexterity impaired, at 17 each polling place; and 18 ‘‘(iii) meet the requirements of subpara- 19 graph (A) and paragraph (2)(A) by using a sys- 20 tem that— 21 ‘‘(I) allows the voter to privately and 22 independently verify the permanent paper 23 ballot through the presentation, in acces- 24 sible form, of the printed or marked vote 25 selections from the same printed or 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:47 Jul 06, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2053.IS S2053 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 10 •S 2053 IS marked information that would be used for 1 any vote counting or auditing; and 2 ‘‘(II) allows the voter to privately and 3 independently verify and cast the perma- 4 nent paper ballot without requiring the 5 voter to manually handle the paper ballot; 6 and’’. 7 (b) SPECIFIC REQUIREMENT OF STUDY, TESTING, 8 AND DEVELOPMENT OF ACCESSIBLE PAPER BALLOT 9 VERIFICATION MECHANISMS.— 10 (1) STUDY AND REPORTING.—Subtitle C of 11 title II of such Act (52 U.S.C. 21081 et seq.) is 12 amended— 13 (A) by redesignating section 247 as section 14 248; and 15 (B) by inserting after section 246 the fol- 16 lowing new section: 17 ‘‘SEC. 247. STUDY AND REPORT ON ACCESSIBLE PAPER 18 BALLOT VERIFICATION MECHANISMS. 19 ‘‘(a) STUDY AND REPORT.—The Director of the Na- 20 tional Science Foundation shall make grants to not fewer 21 than three eligible entities to study, test, and develop ac- 22 cessible paper ballot voting, verification, and casting mech- 23 anisms and devices and best practices to enhance the ac- 24 cessibility of paper ballot voting and verification mecha- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:47 Jul 06, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2053.IS S2053 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 11 •S 2053 IS nisms for individuals with disabilities, for voters whose pri- 1 mary language is not English, and for voters with difficul- 2 ties in literacy, including best practices for the mecha- 3 nisms themselves and the processes through which the 4 mechanisms are used. 5 ‘‘(b) ELIGIBILITY.—An entity is eligible to receive a 6 grant under this part if it submits to the Director (at such 7 time and in such form as the Director may require) an 8 application containing— 9 ‘‘(1) certifications that the entity shall specifi- 10 cally investigate enhanced methods or devices, in- 11 cluding non-electronic devices, that will assist such 12 individuals and voters in marking voter-verified 13 paper ballots and presenting or transmitting the in- 14 formation printed or marked on such ballots back to 15 such individuals and voters, and casting such ballots; 16 ‘‘(2) a certification that the entity shall com- 17 plete the activities carried out with the grant not 18 later than December 31, 2020; and 19 ‘‘(3) such other information and certifications 20 as the Director may require. 21 ‘‘(c) AVAILABILITY OF TECHNOLOGY.—Any tech- 22 nology developed with the grants made under this section 23 shall be treated as non-proprietary and shall be made 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:47 Jul 06, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00011 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2053.IS S2053 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 12 •S 2053 IS available to the public, including to manufacturers of vot- 1 ing systems. 2 ‘‘(d) COORDINATION WITH GRANTS FOR TECH- 3 NOLOGY IMPROVEMENTS.—The Director shall carry out 4 this section so that the activities carried out with the 5 grants made under subsection (a) are coordinated with the 6 research conducted under the grant program carried out 7 by the Commission under section 271, to the extent that 8 the Director and Commission determine necessary to pro- 9 vide for the advancement of accessible voting technology. 10 ‘‘(e) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 11 is authorized to be appropriated to carry [Text truncated for display. 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