Should States Only be Able to Use Election Systems Vendors That Are Owned by Americans? (H.R. 6435)
Do you support or oppose this bill?
What is H.R. 6435?
(Updated April 7, 2021)
This bill ― the Election Vendor Security Act ― would prohibit States from entering into agreements with vendors for the provision, support, or maintenance of election systems if the vendors are owned or controlled by persons who aren’t U.S. citizens, or legal permanent residents. Vendors would be required to disclose whether they use foreign-made parts in their product. Additionally, vendors would have to adhere to cybersecurity best practices developed by the Election Assistance Commission (EAC)and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and report known or suspected cybersecurity threats to state authorities and EAC and DHS within 10 days.
Argument in favor
By prohibiting state from entering into agreements with vendors who may be from, or based-in a foreign country we can help ensure that American elections aren't undermined by foreign governments.
Argument opposed
This type of increased scrutiny as to which vendors individual states use in elections could hike the cost of conducting elections by individual states.
Impact
Voters; government vendors; and election agencies.
Cost of H.R. 6435
A CBO estimate of this bill is unavailable.
Additional Info
In-Depth: Sponsoring Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) introduced this bill to enhance the security of U.S. elections by prohibiting states from using election system vendors owned by non-U.S. citizens:
“We know that Russian hackers targeted and hacked into our election systems in 2016. These attacks exposed serious national security vulnerabilities in our election infrastructure, including voter registration databases and the private networks of election technology vendors. We also know from American intelligence that Russian interference poses a continuing threat to our voting systems. But our GOP colleagues have refused to take action to safeguard our elections ahead of the 2018 midterms. We urge all our colleagues to take this threat seriously and to pass the Election Vendor Security Act without delay.”
Raskin serves on the Committee on House Administration, which oversees the EAC, the only federal agency charged with making elections more secure, accessible, accurate, and transparent.
“I want to thank Rep. Raskin for his steadfast commitment to safeguarding our nation’s election systems and for introducing this legislation,”said Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD). “Protecting the integrity of our election systems must be a top priority of Congress. The intelligence community made clear that Russia interfered in the 2016 election. President Trump’s continuing failure to address this threat to our democracy requires that Congress do everything in its power to ensure that our states are prepared and our election systems are secure for the 2018 election.”
This legislation has the support of 25 cosponsors, all of whom are Democrats.
Media:
Summary by Lucas McConnell
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