Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) introduces the SAFE Act, a wide-ranging bill to secure elections that would “require use of software and hardware” by the election vote systems vendors.
The bill, HR 2722, in Section 203, contains an amendment to a 2002 law that would require “use of software and hardware for which information is disclosed by manufacturer,” and to be made “publicly available online.”
Relevant text follows:
SEC. 203. Requiring use of software and hardware for which information is disclosed by manufacturer.
(a) Requirement.—Section 301(a) of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21081(a)), as amended by sections 104 and 105, is amended by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
“(9) REQUIRING USE OF SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE FOR WHICH INFORMATION IS DISCLOSED BY MANUFACTURER.—
“(A) REQUIRING USE OF SOFTWARE FOR WHICH SOURCE CODE IS DISCLOSED BY MANUFACTURER.—
“(i) IN GENERAL.—In the operation of voting systems in an election for Federal office, a State may only use software for which the manufacturer makes the source code (in the form in which will be used at the time of the election) publicly available online under a license that grants a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, perpetual, sub-licensable license to all intellectual property rights in such source code, except that the manufacturer may prohibit a person who obtains the software from using the software in a manner that is primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or private monetary compensation that is unrelated to carrying out legitimate research or cybersecurity activity.
“(ii) EXCEPTIONS.—Clause (i) does not apply with respect to—
“(I) widely-used operating system software which is not specific to voting systems and for which the source code or baseline functionality is not altered; or
“(II) widely-used cybersecurity software which is not specific to voting systems and for which the source code or baseline functionality is not altered.
Source:
1. Official text of HR 2722:
https://www.congress.gov/116th-congress
2. Legislative history of HR 2722:
https://www.congress.gov/116th-congress/house-bill/
1. Why hasn’t the US insisted that the source code for electronic voting technology be publicly available online?
2. Why did this bill, which passed the house, die without a vote in the Senate?
Comments are closed.