This Act may be cited as the “Election Security Act of 2022”.

This title may be cited as the “Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2022”.

(a) In general.—Section 301(a)(2) of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21081(a)(2)) is amended to read as follows:

“(2) PAPER BALLOT REQUIREMENT.—

“(A) VOTER-VERIFIABLE PAPER BALLOTS.—

“(i) The voting system shall require the use of an individual, durable, voter-verifiable paper ballot of the voter’s vote selections that shall be marked by the voter and presented to the voter for verification before the voter’s ballot is preserved in accordance with subparagraph (B), and which shall be counted by hand or other counting device or read by a ballot tabulation device. For purposes of this subclause, the term ‘individual, durable, voter-verifiable paper ballot’ means a paper ballot marked by the voter by hand or a paper ballot marked through the use of a nontabulating ballot marking device or system, so long as the voter shall have the option at every in-person voting location to mark by hand a printed ballot that includes all relevant contests and candidates.

“(ii) The voting system shall provide the voter with an opportunity to correct any error on the paper ballot before the permanent voter-verifiable paper ballot is preserved in accordance with subparagraph (B).

“(iii) The voting system shall not preserve the voter-verifiable paper ballots in any manner that makes it possible, at any time after the ballot has been cast, to associate a voter with the record of the voter’s vote selections.

“(iv) The voting system shall prevent, through mechanical means or through independently verified protections, the modification or addition of vote selections on a printed or marked ballot at any time after the voter has been provided an opportunity to correct errors on the ballot pursuant to clause (ii).

“(B) PRESERVATION AS OFFICIAL RECORD.—The individual, durable, voter-verifiable paper ballot used in accordance with subparagraph (A) shall constitute the official ballot and shall be preserved and used as the official ballot for purposes of any recount or audit conducted with respect to any election for Federal office in which the voting system is used.

“(C) MANUAL COUNTING REQUIREMENTS FOR RECOUNTS AND AUDITS.—

“(i) Each paper ballot used pursuant to subparagraph (A) shall be suitable for a manual audit, and such ballots, or at least those ballots the machine could not count, shall be counted by hand in any recount or audit conducted with respect to any election for Federal office.

“(ii) In the event of any inconsistencies or irregularities between any electronic vote tallies and the vote tallies determined by counting by hand the individual, durable, voter-verifiable paper ballots used pursuant to subparagraph (A), the individual, durable, voter-verifiable paper ballots shall be the true and correct record of the votes cast.

“(D) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Congress that as innovation occurs in the election infrastructure sector, Congress should ensure that this Act and other Federal requirements for voting systems are updated to keep pace with best practices and recommendations for security and accessibility.”.

(b) Conforming amendment clarifying applicability of alternative language accessibility.—Section 301(a)(4) of such Act (52 U.S.C. 21081(a)(4)) is amended by inserting “(including the paper ballots required to be used under paragraph (2))” after “voting system”.

(c) Other conforming amendments.—Section 301(a)(1) of such Act (52 U.S.C. 21081(a)(1)) is amended—

(1) in subparagraph (A)(i), by striking “counted” and inserting “counted, in accordance with paragraphs (2) and (3)”;

(2) in subparagraph (A)(ii), by striking “counted” and inserting “counted, in accordance with paragraphs (2) and (3)”;

(3) in subparagraph (A)(iii), by striking “counted” each place it appears and inserting “counted, in accordance with paragraphs (2) and (3)”; and

(4) in subparagraph (B)(ii), by striking “counted” and inserting “counted, in accordance with paragraphs (2) and (3)”.

(a) In general.—Paragraph (3) of section 301(a) of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21081(a)(3)) is amended to read as follows:

“(3) ACCESSIBILITY FOR INDIVIDUALS WITH DISABILITIES.—

“(A) IN GENERAL.—The voting system shall—

“(i) be accessible for individuals with disabilities, including nonvisual accessibility for the blind and visually impaired, in a manner that provides the same opportunity for access and participation (including privacy and independence) as for other voters;

“(ii) (I) ensure that individuals with disabilities and others are given an equivalent opportunity to vote, including with privacy and independence, in a manner that produces a voter-verifiable paper ballot; and

“(II) satisfy the requirement of clause (i) through the use at in-person polling locations of a sufficient number (not less than one) of voting systems equipped to serve individuals with and without disabilities, including nonvisual and enhanced visual accessibility for the blind and visually impaired, and nonmanual and enhanced manual accessibility for the mobility and dexterity impaired; and

“(iii) if purchased with funds made available under title II on or after January 1, 2007, meet the voting system standards for disability access (as outlined in this paragraph).

“(B) MEANS OF MEETING REQUIREMENTS.—A voting system may meet the requirements of subparagraph (A)(i) and paragraph (2) by—

“(i) allowing the voter to privately and independently verify the permanent paper ballot through the presentation, in accessible form, of the printed or marked vote selections from the same printed or marked information that would be used for any vote tabulation or auditing;

“(ii) allowing the voter to privately and independently verify and cast the permanent paper ballot without requiring the voter to manually handle the paper ballot;

“(iii) marking ballots that are identical in size, ink, and paper stock to those ballots that would either be marked by hand or be marked by a ballot marking device made generally available to voters; or

“(iv) combining ballots produced by any ballot marking devices reserved for individuals with disabilities with ballots that have either been marked by voters by hand or marked by ballot marking devices made generally available to voters, in a way that prevents identification of the ballots that were cast using any ballot marking device that was reserved for individuals with disabilities.

“(C) SUFFICIENT NUMBER.—For purposes of subparagraph (A)(ii)(II), the sufficient number of voting systems for any in-person polling location shall be determined based on guidance from the Attorney General, in consultation with the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board established under section 502(a)(1) of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (29 U.S.C. 792(a)(1)) (commonly referred to as the United States Access Board) and the Commission.”.

(b) Specific requirement of study, testing, and development of accessible voting options.—

(1) STUDY AND REPORTING.—Subtitle C of title II of such Act (52 U.S.C. 21081 et seq.) is amended—

(A) by redesignating section 247 as section 248; and

(B) by inserting after section 246 the following new section:

(2) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of contents of such Act is amended—

(A) by redesignating the item relating to section 247 as relating to section 248; and

(B) by inserting after the item relating to section 246 the following new item:

“Sec. 247. Study and report on accessible voting options. ”.

(c) Clarification of accessibility standards under voluntary voting system guidance.—In adopting any voluntary guidance under subtitle B of title III of the Help America Vote Act (52 U.S.C. 21101 et seq.) with respect to the accessibility of the paper ballot verification requirements for individuals with disabilities, the Election Assistance Commission shall include and apply the same accessibility standards applicable under the voluntary guidance adopted for accessible voting systems under such subtitle.

(d) Permitting use of funds for protection and advocacy systems To support actions To enforce election-Related disability access.—Section 292(a) of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21062(a)) is amended by striking “; except that” and all that follows and inserting a period.

Section 301(a) of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21081(a)) is amended by adding at the end the following new paragraph:

(a) Study.—The Election Assistance Commission shall conduct a study of the best ways to design ballots used in elections for public office, including paper ballots and electronic or digital ballots, to minimize confusion and user errors.

(b) Report.—Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Election Assistance Commission shall submit to Congress a report on the study conducted under subsection (a).

Section 301(a) of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21081(a)), as amended by section 104, is further amended by adding at the end the following new paragraphs:

Section 301(d) of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21081(d)) is amended to read as follows:

(a) Availability of grants.—

(1) IN GENERAL.—Subtitle D of title II of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21001 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following new part:

(2) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of contents of such Act is amended by adding at the end of the items relating to subtitle D of title II the following:

(b) Qualified election infrastructure vendors.—

(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary, in consultation with the Chair, shall establish and publish criteria for qualified election infrastructure vendors for purposes of section 297A of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (as added by this Act).

(2) CRITERIA.—The criteria established under paragraph (1) shall include each of the following requirements:

(A) The vendor shall—

(i) be owned and controlled by a citizen or permanent resident of the United States or a member of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance; and

(ii) in the case of any election infrastructure which is a voting machine, ensure that such voting machine is assembled in the United States.

(B) The vendor shall disclose to the Secretary and the Chair, and to the chief State election official of any State to which the vendor provides any goods and services with funds provided under part 7 of subtitle D of title II of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (as added by this Act), of any sourcing outside the United States for parts of the election infrastructure.

(C) The vendor shall disclose to the Secretary and the Chair, and to the chief State election official of any State to which the vendor provides any goods and services with funds provided under such part 7, the identification of any entity or individual with a more than 5 percent ownership interest in the vendor.

(D) The vendor agrees to ensure that the election infrastructure will be developed and maintained in a manner that is consistent with the cybersecurity best practices issued by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency of the Department of Homeland Security.

(E) The vendor agrees to maintain its information technology infrastructure in a manner that is consistent with the cybersecurity best practices issued by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency of the Department of Homeland Security.

(F) The vendor agrees to ensure that the election infrastructure will be developed and maintained in a manner that is consistent with the supply chain best practices issued by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency of the Department of Homeland Security.

(G) The vendor agrees to ensure that it has personnel policies and practices in place that are consistent with personnel best practices, including cybersecurity training and background checks, issued by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency of the Department of Homeland Security.

(H) The vendor agrees to ensure that the election infrastructure will be developed and maintained in a manner that is consistent with data integrity best practices, including requirements for encrypted transfers and validation, testing and checking printed materials for accuracy, and disclosure of quality control incidents, issued by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency of the Department of Homeland Security.

(I) The vendor agrees to meet the requirements of paragraph (3) with respect to any known or suspected cybersecurity incidents involving any of the goods and services provided by the vendor pursuant to a grant under part 7 of subtitle D of title II of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (as added by this Act).

(J) The vendor agrees to permit independent security testing by the Election Assistance Commission (in accordance with section 231(a) of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 20971)) and by the Secretary of the goods and services provided by the vendor pursuant to a grant under part 7 of subtitle D of title II of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (as added by this Act).

(3) CYBERSECURITY INCIDENT REPORTING REQUIREMENTS.—

(A) IN GENERAL.—A vendor meets the requirements of this paragraph if, upon becoming aware of the possibility that an election cybersecurity incident has occurred involving any of the goods and services provided by the vendor pursuant to a grant under part 7 of subtitle D of title II of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (as added by this Act)—

(i) the vendor promptly assesses whether or not such an incident occurred, and submits a notification meeting the requirements of subparagraph (B) to the Secretary and the Chair of the assessment as soon as practicable (but in no case later than 3 days after the vendor first becomes aware of the possibility that the incident occurred);

(ii) if the incident involves goods or services provided to an election agency, the vendor submits a notification meeting the requirements of subparagraph (B) to the agency as soon as practicable (but in no case later than 3 days after the vendor first becomes aware of the possibility that the incident occurred), and cooperates with the agency in providing any other necessary notifications relating to the incident; and

(iii) the vendor provides all necessary updates to any notification submitted under clause (i) or clause (ii).

(B) CONTENTS OF NOTIFICATIONS.—Each notification submitted under clause (i) or clause (ii) of subparagraph (A) shall contain the following information with respect to any election cybersecurity incident covered by the notification:

(i) The date, time, and time zone when the election cybersecurity incident began, if known.

(ii) The date, time, and time zone when the election cybersecurity incident was detected.

(iii) The date, time, and duration of the election cybersecurity incident.

(iv) The circumstances of the election cybersecurity incident, including the specific election infrastructure systems believed to have been accessed and information acquired, if any.

(v) Any planned and implemented technical measures to respond to and recover from the incident.

(vi) In the case of any notification which is an update to a prior notification, any additional material information relating to the incident, including technical data, as it becomes available.

(C) DEVELOPMENT OF CRITERIA FOR REPORTING.—Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency shall, in consultation with the Election Infrastructure Sector Coordinating Council, develop criteria for incidents which are required to be reported in accordance with subparagraph (A).

(4) DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection:

(A) CHAIR.—The term “Chair” means the Chair of the Election Assistance Commission.

(B) CHIEF STATE ELECTION OFFICIAL.—The term “chief State election official” means, with respect to a State, the individual designated by the State under section 10 of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (52 U.S.C. 20509) to be responsible for coordination of the State’s responsibilities under such Act.

(C) ELECTION AGENCY.—The term “election agency” means any component of a State, or any component of a unit of local government in a State, which is responsible for the administration of elections for Federal office in the State.

(D) ELECTION INFRASTRUCTURE.—The term “election infrastructure” means storage facilities, polling places, and centralized vote tabulation locations used to support the administration of elections for public office, as well as related information and communications technology, including voter registration databases, voting machines, electronic mail and other communications systems (including electronic mail and other systems of vendors who have entered into contracts with election agencies to support the administration of elections, manage the election process, and report and display election results), and other systems used to manage the election process and to report and display election results on behalf of an election agency.

(E) SECRETARY.—The term “Secretary” means the Secretary of Homeland Security.

(F) STATE.—The term “State” has the meaning given such term in section 901 of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21141).

(a) In general.—Title III of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21081 et seq.) is amended by inserting after section 303 the following new section:

(b) Clerical amendment.—The table of contents for such Act is amended by inserting after the item relating to section 303 the following new item:

“Sec. 303A. Post-election audits.”.

(c) Study on post-Election audit best practices.—

(1) IN GENERAL.—The Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology shall establish an advisory committee to study post-election audits and establish best practices for post-election audit methodologies and procedures.

(2) ADVISORY COMMITTEE.—The Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology shall appoint individuals to the advisory committee and secure the representation of—

(A) State and local election officials;

(B) individuals with experience and expertise in election security;

(C) individuals with experience and expertise in post-election audit procedures; and

(D) individuals with experience and expertise in statistical methods.

(3) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There are authorized to be appropriated such sums as are necessary to carry out the purposes of this subsection.

Subparagraph (J) of section 2001(3) of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 601(3)) is amended by inserting “, including election infrastructure” before the period at the end.

(a) Inclusion under voluntary voting system guidelines.—Section 222 of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 20962) is amended—

(1) by redesignating subsections (a), (b), (c), (d), and (e) as subsections (b), (c), (d), (e), and (f), respectively;

(2) by inserting after the section heading the following:

“(a) Voluntary voting system guidelines.—The Commission shall adopt voluntary voting system guidelines that describe functionality, accessibility, and security principles for the design, development, and operation of voting systems, electronic poll books, and remote ballot marking systems.”; and

(3) by adding at the end the following new subsections:

“(g) Initial guidelines for electronic poll books and remote ballot marking systems.—

“(1) ADOPTION DATE.—Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of the Election Security Act of 2022, the Commission shall adopt initial voluntary voting system guidelines for electronic poll books and remote ballot marking systems.

“(2) SPECIAL RULE FOR INITIAL GUIDELINES.—The Commission may adopt initial voluntary voting system guidelines for electronic poll books and remote ballot marking systems without modifying the most recently adopted voluntary voting system guidelines for voting systems.

“(h) Definitions.—In this section:

“(1) ELECTRONIC POLL BOOK DEFINED.—The term ‘electronic poll book’ means the total combination of mechanical, electromechanical, or electronic equipment (including the software, firmware, and documentation required to program, control, and support the equipment) that is used—

“(A) to retain the list of registered voters at a polling location, or vote center, or other location at which voters cast votes in an election for Federal office; and

“(B) to identify registered voters who are eligible to vote in an election.

“(2) REMOTE BALLOT MARKING SYSTEM DEFINED.—The term ‘remote ballot marking system’ means an election system that—

“(A) is used by a voter to mark their ballots outside of a voting center or polling place; and

“(B) allows a voter to receive a blank ballot to mark electronically, print, and then cast by returning the printed ballot to the elections office or other designated location.”.

(b) Providing for certification of electronic poll books and remote ballot marking system.—Section 231(a) of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 20971(a)) is amended, in each of paragraphs (1) and (2), by inserting “, electronic poll books, and remote ballot marking systems” after “software”.

(a) Requiring States To submit reports.—Title III of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21081 et seq.) is amended by inserting after section 301 the following new section:

(b) Clerical amendment.—The table of contents of such Act is amended by inserting after the item relating to section 301 the following new item:

“Sec. 301A. Pre-election reports on voting system usage.”.

(a) Requirement.—Section 301(a) of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21081(a)), as amended by section 104 and section 106, is further amended by adding at the end the following new paragraph:

“(10) VOTING MACHINE REQUIREMENTS.—

“(A) MANUFACTURING REQUIREMENTS.—By not later than the date of the regularly scheduled general election for Federal office occurring in November 2024, each State shall seek to ensure to the extent practicable that any voting machine used in such election and in any subsequent election for Federal office is manufactured in the United States.

“(B) ASSEMBLY REQUIREMENTS.—By not later than the date of the regularly scheduled general election for Federal office occurring in November 2024, each State shall seek to ensure that any voting machine purchased or acquired for such election and in any subsequent election for Federal office is assembled in the United States.

“(C) SOFTWARE AND CODE REQUIREMENTS.—By not later than the date of the regularly scheduled general election for Federal office occurring in November 2024, each State shall seek to ensure that any software or code developed for any voting system purchased or acquired for such election and in any subsequent election for Federal office is developed and stored in the United States.”.

(b) Conforming amendment relating to effective date.—Section 301(d)(1) of such Act (52 U.S.C. 21081(d)(1)), as amended by section 107, is amended by striking “paragraph (2)” and inserting “subsection (a)(10) and paragraph (2)”.