[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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