SAFE Votes Act

II 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION S. 4895 To establish a Bipartisan Advisory Committee to analyze the integrity and the administration of the 2020 general election for Federal office. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES NOVEMBER 12, 2020 Mr. PERDUE (for himself and Mrs. LOEFFLER) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Rules and Ad- ministration A BILL To establish a Bipartisan Advisory Committee to analyze the integrity and the administration of the 2020 general election for Federal office. 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 ‘‘Securing America’s 4 Future Elections and Votes Act’’ or the ‘‘SAFE Votes 5 Act’’. 6 SEC. 2. 2020 BIPARTISAN ADVISORY COMMITTEE. 7 (a) ESTABLISHMENT.—There is established within 8 the Election Assistance Commission the 2020 Bipartisan 9 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:39 Nov 25, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4895.IS S4895 ctelli on DSK11ZRN23PROD with BILLS_GL 2 •S 4895 IS Advisory Committee (referred to in this section as the 1 ‘‘Advisory Committee’’). 2 (b) MEMBERSHIP.— 3 (1) COMPOSITION.—The Advisory Committee 4 shall be composed of 18 members of whom— 5 (A) nine shall be appointed by the majority 6 leader of the Senate (in consultation with the 7 minority leader of the House of Representa- 8 tives), one of which shall be appointed as a Co- 9 Chairperson of the Advisory Committee; and 10 (B) nine shall be appointed by the Speaker 11 of the House of Representatives (in consultation 12 with the minority leader of the Senate), one of 13 which shall be appointed as a Co-Chairperson of 14 the Advisory Committee. 15 (2) REPRESENTATION.—Individuals appointed 16 to the Advisory Committee under paragraph (1) 17 shall be geographically balanced and shall include 18 representatives of Federal, State, and local govern- 19 ments and of the legal, cybersecurity, and election 20 administration and technology communities. 21 (3) DATE.—The appointments of the members 22 of the Advisory Committee shall be made not later 23 than 90 days after the date of enactment of this 24 Act. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:39 Nov 25, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4895.IS S4895 ctelli on DSK11ZRN23PROD with BILLS_GL 3 •S 4895 IS (c) PERIOD OF APPOINTMENT; VACANCIES.— 1 (1) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in para- 2 graph (2), a member of the Advisory shall be ap- 3 pointed for the duration of the Advisory Committee. 4 (2) REMOVAL.—A member may be removed 5 from the Advisory Committee at any time at the 6 upon concurrence of both of the Co-Chairpersons of 7 the Advisory Committee. 8 (3) VACANCIES.—A vacancy in the Advisory 9 Committee— 10 (A) shall not affect the powers of the Com- 11 mission; and 12 (B) shall be filled in the same manner as 13 the original appointment. 14 (d) DUTIES.— 15 (1) STUDY.— 16 (A) IN GENERAL.—The Advisory Com- 17 mittee shall, consistent with applicable law, 18 study the integrity and administration of the 19 general election for Federal office held in No- 20 vember 2020 and make recommendations to 21 Congress to improve the security, integrity, and 22 administration of Federal elections. 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:39 Nov 25, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4895.IS S4895 ctelli on DSK11ZRN23PROD with BILLS_GL 4 •S 4895 IS (B) MATTERS STUDIED.—The matters 1 studied by the Advisory Committee shall in- 2 clude— 3 (i) the effects of the COVID–19 pan- 4 demic on the administration of the general 5 election for Federal office held in Novem- 6 ber 2020; 7 (ii) the election practices adopted by 8 Federal, State, and local governments in 9 response to the COVID–19 pandemic, in- 10 cluding— 11 (I) practices that undermined the 12 security and integrity of the election; 13 and 14 (II) practices that strengthened 15 the security and integrity of the elec- 16 tion; 17 (iii) the laws, rules, policies, activities, 18 strategies, and practices regarding mail-in 19 ballots, absentee ballots, and vote-by-mail 20 procedures, including— 21 (I) measures that undermined 22 the security and integrity of the elec- 23 tion; and 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:39 Nov 25, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4895.IS S4895 ctelli on DSK11ZRN23PROD with BILLS_GL 5 •S 4895 IS (II) measures that strengthened 1 the security and integrity of the elec- 2 tion; 3 (iv) any laws, rules, policies, activities, 4 strategies, and practices that would have 5 allowed improper or fraudulent votes to be 6 cast in such election and the scope of any 7 improper and fraudulent votes that were 8 cast in the election; and 9 (v) any laws, rules, policies, activities, 10 strategies, and practices that would have 11 allowed improper or fraudulent voter reg- 12 istration and the scope of any improper or 13 fraudulent voter registration. 14 (2) REPORTS.— 15 (A) INITIAL REPORT.—Not later than 180 16 days after the date of the enactment of this 17 Act, the Advisory Committee shall submit to 18 the Election Assistance Commission and the ap- 19 propriate Congressional committees a report on 20 the matter studied under paragraph (1). Such 21 report shall include— 22 (i) precinct-by-precinct data high- 23 lighting the number and incidence of any 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:39 Nov 25, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4895.IS S4895 ctelli on DSK11ZRN23PROD with BILLS_GL 6 •S 4895 IS improper and fraudulent votes that were 1 cast in the election; and 2 (ii) precinct-by-precinct data high- 3 lighting the number and incidence of any 4 improper and fraudulent voter registra- 5 tions. 6 (B) RECOMMENDATIONS.— 7 (i) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 360 8 days after the date of the enactment of 9 this Act, the Advisory Committee shall 10 submit to the Election Assistance Commis- 11 sion and the appropriate Congressional 12 committees recommendations on the fol- 13 lowing: 14 (I) The best practices that should 15 be adopted by at each level of local, 16 State, and Federal Government for 17 administering elections for Federal of- 18 fice— 19 (aa) during the COVID–19 20 pandemic; and 21 (bb) during other national 22 emergencies. 23 (II) The best practices that 24 should be adopted at each level of 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:39 Nov 25, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4895.IS S4895 ctelli on DSK11ZRN23PROD with BILLS_GL 7 •S 4895 IS local, State, and Federal Government 1 to mitigate fraud and increase the in- 2 tegrity and security of mail-in ballots, 3 absentee ballots, and vote-by-mail pro- 4 cedures. 5 (III) The best practices that 6 should be adopted at each level of 7 local, State, and Federal Government 8 to prevent improper or fraudulent 9 votes from being cast. 10 (IV) The best practices that 11 should be adopted at each level of 12 local, State, and Federal Government 13 to prevent improper voters from being 14 registered. 15 (ii) MINORITY VIEWS.—In the case of 16 any recommendation with respect to which 17 one-third or more of the Committee does 18 not concur, the report shall include a jus- 19 tification for why such members do not 20 concur. 21 (C) APPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COM- 22 MITTEES.—For purposes of this paragraph, the 23 term ‘‘appropriate Congressional Committees’’ 24 means— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:39 Nov 25, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4895.IS S4895 ctelli on DSK11ZRN23PROD with BILLS_GL 8 •S 4895 IS (i) the Committee on Rules and Ad- 1 ministration of the Senate; 2 (ii) the Committee on the Judiciary of 3 the Senate; 4 (iii) the Committee on House Admin- 5 istration of the House of Representatives; 6 and 7 (iv) the Committee on the Judiciary of 8 the House of Representatives. 9 (e) COMMISSION PERSONNEL MATTERS.— 10 (1) PROHIBITION ON COMPENSATION OF MEM- 11 BERS.—The members of the Advisory Committee 12 may not receive pay or benefits from the United 13 States Government by reason of their service on the 14 Advisory Committee. 15 (2) STAFF.— 16 (A) IN GENERAL.—Each Co-Chairperson 17 of the Advisory Committee may appoint not 18 more than 5 subject matter experts to serve as 19 staff to the Advisory Committee. 20 (B) COMPENSATION.—The Co-Chair- 21 persons of the Advisory Committee may fix the 22 compensation of the staff of the Advisor Com- 23 mittee without regard to chapter 51 and sub- 24 chapter III of chapter 53 of title 5, United 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:39 Nov 25, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4895.IS S4895 ctelli on DSK11ZRN23PROD with BILLS_GL 9 •S 4895 IS States Code, relating to classification of posi- 1 tions and General Schedule pay rates, except 2 that the rate of pay for the staff may not ex- 3 ceed the rate payable for level V of the Execu- 4 tive Schedule under section 5316 of that title. 5 (f) TERMINATION.—The Advisory Committee shall 6 terminate 90 days after the date on which the Advisory 7 Committee submits the report required under subsection 8 (d). 9 (g) NONAPPLICABILITY OF FACA.—The Federal Ad- 10 visory Committee Act (5 U.S.C. App.) shall not apply to 11 the Advisory Committee. 12 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:39 Nov 25, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S4895.IS S4895 ctelli on DSK11ZRN23PROD with BILLS_GL