Election Security Bills Finally Progressing in Congress

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.eweek.com/security/election-security-bills-finally-progressing-in-congress

By Wayne Rash
eWeek.com
January 08, 2019

After years of contention about real and imagined security attacks on U.S. 
elections, the U.S. House of Representatives is expected to consider and then 
pass H.R. 1, also known as the "For the People Act of 2019," which includes 
provisions that would improve election security and help states improve their 
voting systems, as well as require transparency in political activities and 
strengthen ethics rules.

If passed, the bill would provide money so that states could replace their 
existing insecure voting machines, as well as require breach notification and 
set security standards for voting machines purchased using the federal funds. A 
primary feature of the new standards would be a requirement that voting 
machines use paper ballots.

A similar bill was introduced in the U.S. Senate late in 2017 but was never 
considered. That bill was S.2261, the Secure Elections Act. This was a 
bipartisan bill, and the sponsors have said that they intend to reintroduce it 
early in the new Congress. The Senate bill does not require paper ballots, but 
rather requires some from of paper audit trail, including a printout created by 
a voting machine.

While H.R. 1 has a number of provisions in common with the Senate bill, the 
chances of it passing the Senate are remote. Partly this is because the bill 
contains a vast array of provisions, some of which are certain to meet 
opposition in the Senate. Those include the requirement for paper ballots, 
which have met with opposition based on a reluctance in the Senate to place 
restrictions on elections, which under the U.S. Constitution are conducted by 
the states.

[...]



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