[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6246 Introduced in House (IH)]

112th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 6246

 To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require the deposit in 
 the National Software Reference Library of the National Institute of 
  Standards and Technology of a copy of any election-dedicated voting 
   system technology used in the operation of a voting system for an 
 election for Federal office, to establish the conditions under which 
the Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology may 
  disclose the technology and information regarding the technology to 
                 other persons, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             August 1, 2012

 Mr. Johnson of Georgia (for himself, Mr. Holt, Ms. Wilson of Florida, 
  Mr. Hinchey, Mr. Conyers, Mr. Clyburn, Ms. Fudge, Ms. Edwards, Mr. 
Bartlett, and Mr. Van Hollen) introduced the following bill; which was 
 referred to the Committee on House Administration, and in addition to 
  the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, for a period to be 
subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration 
  of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee 
                               concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require the deposit in 
 the National Software Reference Library of the National Institute of 
  Standards and Technology of a copy of any election-dedicated voting 
   system technology used in the operation of a voting system for an 
 election for Federal office, to establish the conditions under which 
the Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology may 
  disclose the technology and information regarding the technology to 
                 other persons, 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 ``Verifying Official Totals for 
Elections Act''.

SEC. 2. DEPOSIT OF ELECTION-DEDICATED VOTING SYSTEM TECHNOLOGY IN 
              NATIONAL SOFTWARE REFERENCE LIBRARY.

    (a) Deposit Required; Conditions for Disclosure.--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) Prohibiting use of election-dedicated voting system 
        technologies not deposited with national software reference 
        library; disclosure requirements.--
                    ``(A) Prohibition.--
                            ``(i) 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 which is not deposited by the State 
                        (or, at the option of the State, by the vendor 
                        of the technology) with the National Software 
                        Reference Library of the National Institute of 
                        Standards and Technology prior to the date of 
                        the election, to be held in escrow and subject 
                        to disclosure in accordance with subparagraph 
                        (B).
                            ``(ii) Extension of deadline for deposit.--
                        If the chief State election official certifies 
                        to the Director of the National Institute of 
                        Standards and Technology prior to the date of 
                        the election that, because of a revision to the 
                        election-dedicated voting system technology 
                        which is made less than 30 days prior to the 
                        date of the election, the State or vendor is 
                        unable to deposit the technology in accordance 
                        with clause (i) prior to the date of the 
                        election, the voting system used in the 
                        election may contain or use the technology if--
                                    ``(I) the chief State election 
                                official approves the use of the 
                                technology for the election; and
                                    ``(II) the State or vendor deposits 
                                the technology in accordance with 
                                clause (i) not later than 1 week after 
                                the date of the election.
                            ``(iii) Enforcement of vendor 
                        responsibilities.--If a State opts to require 
                        the vendor of election-dedicated voting system 
                        technology to deposit the technology in 
                        accordance with this subparagraph and the 
                        vendor fails to do so, the Attorney General may 
                        bring a civil action against the vendor in an 
                        appropriate district court for such relief as 
                        may be appropriate, including injunctive relief 
                        or an order for a civil penalty in an amount 
                        not to exceed $500,000.
                    ``(B) Requirement for disclosure and limitation on 
                restricting disclosure.--With respect to any election-
                dedicated voting system technology which is deposited 
                under subparagraph (A), the Director of the National 
                Institute of Standards and Technology 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 Director is permitted or 
                                required to disclose the technology to 
                                the person under the law of the 
                                applicable State, 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 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 in elections for 
                        Federal office, for purposes of reviewing, 
                        analyzing, or reporting on the technology.
                            ``(ii) If permitted under a court order, a 
                        party to post-election litigation challenging 
                        the result of an election or the administration 
                        or use of the technology used in an election, 
                        but only to the extent permitted under the 
                        terms and conditions of such court order.
                            ``(iii) A person who reviews, analyzes, or 
                        reports on the technology solely for an 
                        investigation or inquiry concerning the 
                        accuracy or integrity of the technology 
                        pursuant to clause (i) or (ii).
                    ``(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 both 
                        information the signatory lawfully obtained 
                        from another source and 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 request or use of 
                        injunctions that bar a signatory from carrying 
                        out any activity authorized under subparagraph 
                        (C), including injunctions limited to the 
                        period prior to a judicial proceeding 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 
                        relating to possible criminal conduct or other 
                        violations of law, including in response to a 
                        subpoena or warrant;
                            ``(viii) allows disclosures and testimony 
                        to legislative branch authorities, judicial 
                        proceedings, and executive branch 
                        investigations in response to a subpoena or 
                        warrant or as otherwise provided by law; 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 the file signatures 
                                for the trusted build.
                                    ``(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 the voluntary voting 
                        system guidelines adopted by the Commission 
                        under section 222 which are in effect as of the 
                        date of the election involved.
                    ``(F) Trusted build defined.--For purposes of this 
                paragraph, the term `trusted build' means a witnessed 
                software build in which source code is converted to 
                machine-readable binary instructions (executable code) 
                in a manner providing security measures that help 
                ensure that the executable code is a verifiable and 
                faithful representation of the source code.''.
    (b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by this section shall apply 
with respect to elections occurring during 2013 or any succeeding year.

SEC. 3. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS FOR NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF 
              STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY.

    There are authorized to be appropriated to the National Institute 
of Standards and Technology for each fiscal year such sums as may be 
necessary to enable the Institute, including the National Software 
Reference Library of the Institute, to carry out paragraph (7) of 
section 301(a) of the Help America Vote Act of 2002, as added by 
section 2(a).
                                 <all>