110 HR 7245 IH: To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to prohibit U.S. House of Representatives 2008-10-02 text/xml EN Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.

I 110th CONGRESS 2d Session H. R. 7245 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES October 2, 2008 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 prohibit the use in any election for Federal office of any election-dedicated voting system technology which has not been certified for use in the election by the State which will administer the election and to establish the standards under which such technology and information regarding the technology may be disclosed, and for other purposes.

1.

Short Title

This Act may be cited as the Election Software Disclosure Act of 2008.

2.

Prohibiting use of uncertified election-dedicated voting system technologies; disclosure requirements

(a)

In General

Section 301(a) of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (42 U.S.C. 15481 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following new paragraph: (7)

Prohibiting use of uncertified election-dedicated voting system technologies; disclosure requirements

(A)

In general

A voting system used in an election for Federal office in a State may not at any time during the election contain or use any election-dedicated voting system technology— (i)which has not been certified by the State for use in the election; and (ii)which has not been deposited with the appropriate State and local election officials to be held in escrow and disclosed in accordance with this paragraph. (B)

Requirement for and restrictions on disclosure

A State or local election official with whom an election-dedicated voting system technology has been deposited shall— (i)hold the technology in escrow; and (ii)disclose technology and information regarding the technology to another person if— (I)the person is a qualified person described in subparagraph (C) who has entered into a nondisclosure agreement with respect to the technology which meets the requirements of subparagraph (D); or (II)the official is required to disclose the technology to the person under State law, in accordance with the terms and conditions applicable under such law. (C)

Qualified persons described

With respect to the disclosure of election-dedicated voting system technology by an election official under subparagraph (B)(ii)(I), a qualified person is any of the following: (i)A governmental entity with responsibility for the administration of voting and election-related matters for purposes of reviewing, analyzing, or reporting on the technology. (ii)A party to pre- or post-election litigation challenging the result of an election or the administration or use of the technology used in an election, including but not limited to election contests or challenges to the certification of the technology, or an expert for a party to such litigation, for purposes of reviewing or analyzing the technology to support or oppose the litigation, and all parties to the litigation shall have access to the technology for such purposes. (iii)A person not described in clause (i) or (ii) who reviews, analyzes, or reports on the technology solely for an academic, scientific, technological, or other investigation or inquiry concerning the accuracy or integrity of the technology. (D)

Requirements for nondisclosure agreements

A nondisclosure agreement entered into with respect to an election-dedicated voting system technology meets the requirements of this subparagraph if the agreement— (i)is limited in scope to coverage of the technology disclosed under subparagraph (B) and any trade secrets and intellectual property rights related thereto; (ii)does not prohibit a signatory from entering into other nondisclosure agreements to review other technologies under this paragraph; (iii)exempts from coverage any information the signatory lawfully obtained from another source or any information in the public domain; (iv)remains in effect for not longer than the life of any trade secret or other intellectual property right related thereto; (v)prohibits the use of injunctions barring a signatory from carrying out any activity authorized under subparagraph (C), including injunctions limited to the period prior to a trial involving the technology; (vi)is silent as to damages awarded for breach of the agreement, other than a reference to damages available under applicable law; (vii)allows disclosure of evidence of crime, including in response to a subpoena or warrant; (viii)allows the signatory to perform analyses on the technology (including by executing the technology), disclose reports and analyses that describe operational issues pertaining to the technology (including vulnerabilities to tampering, errors, risks associated with use, failures as a result of use, and other problems), and describe or explain why or how a voting system failed or otherwise did not perform as intended; and (ix)provides that the agreement shall be governed by the trade secret laws of the applicable State. (E)

Election-dedicated voting system technology defined

For purposes of this paragraph: (i)

In general

The term election-dedicated voting system technology means the following: (I)The source code used for the trusted build and its file signatures. (II)A complete disk image of the pre-build, build environment, and any file signatures to validate that it is unmodified. (III)A complete disk image of the post-build, build environment, and any file signatures to validate that it is unmodified. (IV)All executable code produced by the trusted build and any file signatures to validate that it is unmodified. (V)Installation devices and software file signatures. (ii)

Exclusion

Such term does not include commercial-off-the-shelf software and hardware defined under under the 2005 voluntary voting system guidelines adopted by the Commission under section 222. . (b)

Effective Date

The amendment made by subsection (a) shall apply with respect to each election for Federal office held after the date of the enactment of this Act.