Should Federal Agencies Fund Research About the Security & Integrity of Voting Systems? (H.R. 4990)

What is H.R. 4990?

(Updated October 4, 2020)

This bill would direct the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), National Science Foundation (NSF), and other agencies to support research on voting systems.

Under this bill, the NIST would be required to: 

• Collaborate with the NSF to carry out research related to the security and integrity of voting systems; 
  
• Make an award to a higher education institution or nonprofit organization to establish a Center of Excellence in Election Systems; 
  
• Establish and make available common data format specifications for auditing, voter registration, and other elements of voting systems.

In addition to collaborating with the NIST on voting systems research, the NSF would be required to:

• Collaborate with other agencies to award basic research grants for understanding cyber and other threats to voting systems and to inform the development of technologies, processes, and policies ensuring more secure, fair and accessible elections; and
  
• Award grants to higher education institutions or nonprofit organizations to establish at least one multidisciplinary center for elections system research and education.

To understand the effectiveness of these efforts, the General Accountability Office (GAO) would be required to report on the extent to which NIST’s efforts to assist in the development of voluntary voting systems guidelines result in market-ready standardized voting equipment and software, among other measures.

This bill would also update the definition of “voting system” under US code — which currently refers only to voting machine, voting machine software, and the maintenance of voting machines and software — to include new technologies used in electronic election systems:

• Any technology or process for “collecting, storing, or transmitting” voter data for federal elections;
  
• Voter registry databases and online interfaces;
  
• Vote auditing systems; and
  
• “Chain-of-custody” of data throughout voting systems.
  

Argument in favor

There is broad consensus among lawmakers, election administrators, and researchers that the U.S. election system is vulnerable to hacking, manipulation and interference from malicious actors. As election systems become increasingly reliant on electronic, rather than paper, systems, addressing their cyber vulnerabilities is paramount to ensuring elections’ integrity. By giving the NIST and NSF funding resources to support their own and grant-funded researchers’ work on election security, this bill takes an important first step towards addressing U.S. election security.

Argument opposed

By focusing on the federal government, this bill misidentifies the correct actors to engage in election security efforts. Since U.S. states, not the federal government, administer elections and manage election systems, it is states — not the federal government — that should be in charge of determining how to fund election security efforts. Similarly, as U.S. voting systems and technologies are produced by the private sector, it — not higher education institutions or nonprofit organizations, as this bill suggests — should be responsible for researching and combating cyber and other threats to election security.

Impact

Voting systems; states; elections; higher education institutions; nonprofit organizations conducting voting systems research; National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST); National Science Foundation (NSF); and the General Accountability Office (GAO).

Cost of H.R. 4990

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that this bill would cost $108 million to implement over the 2020-2025 period.

Additional Info

In-Depth: Sponsoring Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) introduced this bill to give the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) new resources to conduct research to promote the security and modernization of U.S. voting systems:

“There are few things more central to American democracy than the safety and security of our elections, where citizens from all walks of life can cast their vote and know it will be counted. The election security hearing I held [in summer 2019] underscored the urgent need for federal research and resources to combat the growing threats against the technologies that have become essential to our elections. I’m introducing this bill with my colleagues to help states arm themselves with strategies to prevent interference and the resources and support to ensure voting systems are reliable and secure.”

After this bill’s committee passage, Rep. Sherrill added:

“Election security is a bipartisan concern, and our committee is working together to address vulnerabilities with our voting systems. Our democracy only works if all eligible citizens can participate in elections and be confident that their ballots have been accurately cast and counted. The Election Technology Research Act of 2019 will help to ensure that the technical underpinnings of our election architecture are solid.”

Original cosponsor Rep. Anthony Gonzalez (R-OH) adds:

“With new threats facing our electoral system, it is absolutely imperative that we continue to modernize and improve our election security. Ohio has long been a leader when it comes to election practices, and this bill will update federal laws to reflect today’s technology and encourage innovation on the state and local level to secure our election systems.”

Last year, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) resisted several Democrat-led legislative attempts to pass election reform and security legislation. Explaining his position, he contended that these efforts were partisan, and that they lacked Republican support.

This legislation passed the Committee on Science, Space and Technology by unanimous voice vote and was discharged by the Committee on House Administration. It has the support of 12 bipartisan cosponsors, including nine Democrats and three Republicans.

Of Note: Technology plays a significant role in today’s election process. In 37 states and the District of Columbia, online voter registration is allowed and a transition from paper to electronic poll books has been underway for several years.

Despite technology’s increasing role in elections, current law does not allow the NIST — which has long carrier out research on cybersecurity, privacy, and other topics relevant to voting systems and elections technology — to make recommendations to the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) with respect to the security of online voter registration systems or databases, e-poll books, or numerous other systems used before and after the casting of a vote.

Concerns around the security of voting infrastructure have been an increasing topic of interest in Congress since 2016, when Russian intelligence officers were able to hack into an Illinois State Board of Elections database that included millions of voters’ registration information. According to former special counsel Robert Mueller, Russian election interference also included accessing at least one Florida county’s network via spear-fishing emails sent to more than 120 accounts used by Florida election officials.

Some election security proposals center on the importance of encouraging state and private sector collaboration on this issue, rather than federal government efforts. Because state collaboration on technology plays a significant role in addressing domestic threats to elections and the private sector plays a significant role in addressing both domestic and international threats, there is a case to be made that states and the private sector, rather than the federal government, should be the primary parties involved in election security efforts.

Media:

• Sponsoring Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) Press Release
  
• House Committee on Science, Space and Technology Committee Report
  
• The Hill
  
• Government Technology (Context)