[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6187 Introduced in House (IH)]








109th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 6187

 To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to reimburse jurisdictions 
    for amounts paid or incurred in preparing, producing, and using 
  contingency paper ballots in the November 7, 2006, Federal general 
                               election.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 26, 2006

   Mr. Holt introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                   Committee on House Administration

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to reimburse jurisdictions 
    for amounts paid or incurred in preparing, producing, and using 
  contingency paper ballots in the November 7, 2006, Federal general 
                               election.

    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 ``Confidence in Voting Act of 2006''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds that a bipartisan report by former Attorney General 
Richard Thornburgh and former Governor Richard Celeste concluded that 
``it will be essential this year that jurisdictions have backup and 
contingency plans that anticipate a wide range of possible failures in 
their electronic voting systems'', and that contingency paper ballots 
provide a sufficient backup plan for the failure of such systems.

SEC. 3. REIMBURSEMENTS FOR CONTINGENCY PAPER BALLOTS.

    (a) Reimbursement.--Part 1 of subtitle D of title II of the Help 
America Vote Act of 2002 (42 U.S.C. 15401 et seq.) is amended by 
inserting after section 257 the following new section:

``SEC. 257A. PAYMENTS FOR CONTINGENCY PAPER BALLOTS FOR THE 2006 
              GENERAL ELECTION.

    ``(a) In General.--The Commission shall pay to each jurisdiction 
that conducts a general election on November 7, 2006, and uses a voting 
system other than an optical scan or other paper ballot voting system 
in such election an amount equal to the documented costs paid or 
incurred by such jurisdiction for the preparation, production, and use 
of contingency paper ballots for such election, but not to exceed 75 
cents for each contingency paper ballot printed by such jurisdiction 
for such election.
    ``(b) Requirements.--No payment shall be made under subsection (a) 
unless the jurisdiction--
            ``(1) permits an individual, upon request, to cast a vote 
        by means of a contingency paper ballot without regard to the 
        means of voting otherwise specified in the jurisdiction where 
        such individual votes;
            ``(2) posts, in a conspicuous manner at the polling place, 
        a notice stating that contingency paper ballots are available 
        at the polling place and that a voter may request to use such a 
        ballot at the voter's discretion; and
            ``(3) treats each such contingency paper ballot cast by a 
        voter as a regular ballot cast in the election and counts it 
        accordingly, and does not treat it as a provisional ballot 
        under section 302(a), unless the ballot is cast by an 
        individual described in such section who is permitted to cast a 
        provisional ballot in accordance with such section.
    ``(c) Amounts.--There are authorized to be appropriated to the 
Commission such sums as may be necessary for payments under subsection 
(a). Any amounts appropriated pursuant to the authorization under this 
subsection shall remain available until expended.''.
    (b) Conforming Amendment.--The table of sections of the Help 
America Vote Act of 2002 is amended by inserting after the item 
relating to section 257 the following new item:

``Sec. 257A. Payments for contingency paper ballots for the 2006 
                            general election.''.
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