II 109th CONGRESS 2d Session S. 4034 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES September 29, 2006 Mr. Reid (for himself and Mrs. Clinton) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary A BILL To amend title 18 of the United States Code to prohibit certain types of vote tampering.

1.

Short title

This Act may be cited as the Voter Suppression, Ballot Hacking, and Election Fraud Prevention Act.

2.

Prohibition on vote tampering

(a)

In general

Chapter 29 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:

612.

Vote tampering

(a)

In general

Whoever knowingly and willfully interferes with, affects, attempts to interfere with, or attempts to affect an election of a candidate or a ballot initiative by tampering with a voting system, discarding ballots, or altering a vote shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for not more than 20 years, or both. (b)

Application

This section applies only to elections described in, and candidates described in, section 11(e)(2) of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 1973i(e)(2)). (c)

Civil action

Any individual whose right to vote is interfered with by reason of a violation of this section may bring a civil action in Federal court against the violator and recover damages not to exceed $10,000. (d)

Definition

In this section, the terms vote and voting have the meanings given the terms in section 14(c) of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 1973l(c)).

. (b)

Chapter analysis

The chapter analysis for chapter 29 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by inserting after the item for section 612 the following: 612. Vote tampering. .