[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1986 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
108th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 1986
To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require voter
verification and improved security for voting systems under title III
of the Act, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
December 9, 2003
Mrs. Clinton introduced the following bill; which was read twice and
referred to the Committee on Rules and Administration
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require voter
verification and improved security for voting systems under title III
of the Act, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Protecting American Democracy Act of
2003''.
SEC. 2. REQUIRING VERIFICATION FOR VOTERS.
(a) In General.--Section 301(a)(2) of the Help America Vote Act of
2002 (42 U.S.C. 15481(a)(2)) is amended by adding at the end the
following new subparagraph:
``(C) Voter verification.--
``(i) The voting system shall provide a
means by which each individual voter must be
able to verify his or her vote at the time the
vote is cast, and shall preserve each vote
within the polling place on the day of the
election in a manner that ensures the security
of the votes as verified for later use in any
audit.
``(ii) The voting system shall provide the
voter with an opportunity to correct any error
made by the system before the permanent record
is preserved for use in any audit.
``(iii) The verified vote produced under
this subparagraph shall be available as an
official record.
``(iv) Any method used to permit the
individual voter to verify his or her vote at
the time the vote is cast and before a
permanent record is created--
``(I) shall use the most accurate
technology, which may include voter-
verifiable paper ballots, votemeters,
modular voting architecture, and
encrypted votes, in a uniform and
nondiscriminatory manner;
``(II) shall guarantee voters with
disabilities and other affected voters
the ability to cast a vote in private,
consistent with paragraph (3)(A); and
``(III) shall guarantee voters
alternative language accessibility
under the requirements of section 203
of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (42
U.S.C. 1973aa-1a), consistent with
paragraph (4).''.
SEC. 3. REQUIRING INCREASED SECURITY FOR VOTING SYSTEMS.
(a) Section 301(a) of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (42 U.S.C.
15481(a)) is amended by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
``(7) Increased security for voting systems.--
``(A) Voting system security requirement.--The
voting system shall adhere to security requirements for
Federal computer systems or more stringent requirements
adopted by the Election Assistance Commission after
receiving recommendations from the Technical Guidelines
Development Committee under sections 221 and 222. Such
requirements shall provide that no voting system shall
contain any wireless device. All software and hardware
used in any electronic voting system shall be certified
by laboratories accredited by the Commission as meeting
the requirements of this subsection.
``(B) Report to congress on security review.--The
Commission, in consultation with the National Institute
of Standards and Technology (NIST), shall report to
Congress not later than 6 months after the date of
enactment of the Protecting American Democracy Act of
2003 regarding a proposed security review and
certification process for all voting systems.
``(C) General accounting office report.--Not later
than 3 months after the date of enactment of the
Protecting American Democracy Act of 2003, the
Government Accounting Office, unless the Commission has
previously completed such report, shall issue a report
to Congress on the operational and management systems
that should be employed to safeguard the security of
voting systems, together with a schedule for how
quickly each such system should be implemented.
``(D) Provision of security consultation
services.--
``(i) In general.--On and after the date of
enactment of the Protecting American Democracy
Act of 2003, the National Institute of
Standards and Technology (NIST) shall provide
security consultation services to State and
local jurisdictions.
``(ii) Authorization.--To carry out the
purposes of this subparagraph, $2,000,0000 is
authorized for each of fiscal years 2004
through 2006.''.
SEC. 4. EFFECTIVE DATE.
The amendments made by this Act shall take effect as if included in
the enactment of the Help America Vote Act of 2002.
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