US Congress House Bill 5816 (Prior Session Legislation)

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June 18 2012 - Referred to the Subcommittee on Technology and Innovation.
Pending: House Subcommittee on Technology and Innovation Committee
Text: Latest bill text (Introduced) [PDF]

Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2011 [sic] - Amends the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) to revise requirements for the audit capacity of voting systems, particularly those for a permanent paper record. Requires the voting system to require the use of an individual, durable, voter-verified paper ballot of the voter's vote that shall be marked and made available for inspection by the voter before the voter's vote is cast and counted, and which shall be counted by hand or read by an optical scanner or other counting device. Requires the voting system to provide the voter with an opportunity to correct any system-made error in the voter-verified paper ballot before it is permanently preserved. Requires each paper ballot used to be: (1) suitable for a manual audit, and (2) counted by hand in any recount or audit conducted with respect to any federal election. Sets forth a special rule for treatment of disputes when paper ballots have been shown to be compromised. Requires the Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) to make grants to eligible entities to study, test, and develop accessible ballot voting, verification, and casting mechanisms and devices and best practices to enhance the accessibility of paper ballot voting and verification mechanisms for individuals with disabilities, for voters whose primary language is not English, and for voters with difficulties in literacy. Specifies additional voting system requirements and prohibitions. Requires the NSF Director to make grants to eligible entities to conduct research on the development of election-dedicated voting system software. Makes available additional funding to enable states to meet the costs of the requirements imposed by this Act. Provides for complaints to the Attorney General by persons aggrieved by violations of HAVA. Requires each state to administer audits of federal election results, without advance notice to the precincts selected, consisting of random hand counts of the voter-verified paper ballots. Makes an exception from this requirement for elections in which the winning candidate had no opponent or received 80% or more of the vote total. Prescribes requirements for determination of the number of ballots counted under the audit. Prescribes the process for administering audits. Requires the Election Auditor of a state, as soon as practicable after the completion of an audit, to submit the results to the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) for publication. Prohibits certification of the results of any election until completion of audits. Provides for payments to states for the costs of conducting audits. Exempts from this Act any election for which a recount under state law will commence before certification of the election results. Repeals the EAC's exemption from certain federal government contracting requirements.

Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2011

Rep Holt, Rush D.	Rep Ackerman, Gary L.	Rep Altmire, Jason	Rep Andrews, Robert E.
Rep Becerra, Xavier	Rep Bishop, Sanford D., Jr.	Rep Bishop, Timothy H.	Rep Blumenauer, Earl
Rep Boswell, Leonard L.	Rep Braley, Bruce L.	Rep Brown, Corrine	Rep Butterfield, G. K.
Rep Capps, Lois	Rep Capuano, Michael E.	Rep Cardoza, Dennis A.	Rep Carson, Andre
Rep Castor, Kathy	Rep Chandler, Ben	Rep Clay, Wm. Lacy	Rep Cohen, Steve
Rep Costello, Jerry F.	Rep Courtney, Joe	Rep Crowley, Joseph	Rep Cummings, Elijah E.
Rep Davis, Danny K.	Rep DeFazio, Peter A.	Rep DeGette, Diana	Rep DeLauro, Rosa L.
Rep Doggett, Lloyd	Rep Doyle, Michael F.	Rep Edwards, Donna F.	Rep Ellison, Keith
Rep Eshoo, Anna G.	Rep Farr, Sam	Rep Frank, Barney	Rep Garamendi, John
Rep Green, Gene	Rep Grijalva, Raul M.	Rep Gutierrez, Luis V.	Rep Hahn, Janice
Rep Hastings, Alcee L.	Rep Himes, James A.	Rep Hinchey, Maurice D.	Rep Holden, Tim
Rep Honda, Michael M.	Rep Israel, Steve	Rep Jackson, Jesse L., Jr.	Rep Kaptur, Marcy
Rep Keating, William R.	Rep Kissell, Larry	Rep Larsen, Rick	Rep Larson, John B.
Rep Lee, Barbara	Rep Levin, Sander M.	Rep Lewis, John	Rep Loebsack, David
Rep Lowey, Nita M.	Rep Maloney, Carolyn B.	Rep Matsui, Doris O.	Rep McCarthy, Carolyn
Rep McCollum, Betty	Rep McDermott, Jim	Rep McGovern, James P.	Rep McIntyre, Mike
Rep Meeks, Gregory W.	Rep Miller, George	Rep Moore, Gwen	Rep Moran, James P.
Rep Nadler, Jerrold	Rep Napolitano, Grace F.	Rep Norton, Eleanor Holmes	Rep Olver, John W.
Rep Pallone, Frank, Jr.	Rep Perlmutter, Ed	Rep Peters, Gary C.	Rep Pingree, Chellie
Rep Polis, Jared	Rep Rangel, Charles B.	Rep Richmond, Cedric L.	Rep Rothman, Steven R.
Rep Sanchez, Linda T.	Rep Sanchez, Loretta	Rep Sarbanes, John P.	Rep Schakowsky, Janice D.
Rep Schiff, Adam B.	Rep Schwartz, Allyson Y.	Rep Scott, Robert C. "Bobby"	Rep Serrano, Jose E.
Rep Shuler, Heath	Rep Slaughter, Louise McIntosh	Rep Smith, Adam	Rep Stark, Fortney Pete
Rep Thompson, Bennie G.	Rep Tierney, John F.	Rep Towns, Edolphus	Rep Van Hollen, Chris
Rep Walz, Timothy J.	Rep Wasserman Schultz, Debbie	Rep Watt, Melvin L.	Rep Waxman, Henry A.
Rep Woolsey, Lynn C.

Date	Chamber	Action
2012-06-18	House	Referred to the Subcommittee on Technology and Innovation.
2012-05-24	House	Referred to the Subcommittee on Elections.
2012-05-17	House	Referred to House Science, Space, and Technology
2012-05-17	House	Referred to House House Administration
2012-05-17	House	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.

HB5799 (Related) 2012-09-26 - Referred to the Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training.
HB6246 (Related) 2012-08-02 - Referred to the Subcommittee on Technology and Innovation.
SB3608 (Related) 2012-09-21 - Read twice and referred to the Committee on Rules and Administration.

Type	Source
Summary	http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d112:HN05816:@@@L&summ2=m&
Text	http://gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-112hr5816ih/pdf/BILLS-112hr5816ih.pdf