Verifying Official Totals for Elections Act - Amends the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to prohibit a voting system used in a federal election from containing or using any election-dedicated voting system technology which is not deposited by the state (or at the state's option by the vendor of the technology) with the National Software Reference Library of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) before the election.
Requires the Director of NIST to: (1) hold the technology in escrow; and (2) disclose it and information about it to a qualified person who has entered into a nondisclosure agreement with respect to it, or to whom the Director is permitted or required to disclose the technology under state law.
[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>
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR H5530-5531)
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.
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.
Referred to the Subcommittee on Technology and Innovation.
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