• Home
  • Independent Voter News
  • Quizzes
  • Election Dissection
  • Sections
  • Events
  • Directory
  • About Us
  • Glossary
  • Opinion
  • Campaign Finance
  • Redistricting
  • Civic Ed
  • Voting
  • Fact Check
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Subscriptions
  • Log in
Leveraging Our Differences
  • news & opinion
    • Big Picture
      • Civic Ed
      • Ethics
      • Leadership
      • Leveraging big ideas
      • Media
    • Business & Democracy
      • Corporate Responsibility
      • Impact Investment
      • Innovation & Incubation
      • Small Businesses
      • Stakeholder Capitalism
    • Elections
      • Campaign Finance
      • Independent Voter News
      • Redistricting
      • Voting
    • Government
      • Balance of Power
      • Budgeting
      • Congress
      • Judicial
      • Local
      • State
      • White House
    • Justice
      • Accountability
      • Anti-corruption
      • Budget equity
    • Columns
      • Beyond Right and Left
      • Civic Soul
      • Congress at a Crossroads
      • Cross-Partisan Visions
      • Democracy Pie
      • Our Freedom
  • Pop Culture
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
  • events
  • About
      • Mission
      • Advisory Board
      • Staff
      • Contact Us
Sign Up
  1. Home>
  2. Voting>
  3. election security>

GOP has new election security bill for gridlocked House

Bill Theobald
January 30, 2020
Election security gridlock
stuartmiles99/Getty Images

House Republicans have proposed subjecting registration systems, electronic poll books and other election hardware to the same certification system that covers voting machines.

The legislation, introduced Wednesday, marks a rare if modest effort by the congressional GOP to impose more federal sway over the conduct of elections, which is largely left to the states and thousands of localities. It is almost certain to be ignored by the Democratic majority in the House, which is after much more comprehensive regulation.


The bill was proposed in the name of bolstering election security by Rodney Davis of Illinois, the GOP's senior member on the House Administration Committee, which has jurisdiction over election law, and the panel's two other Republicans.

It would be the first update of the law setting initial federal election standards, known as the Help America Vote Act, since its enactment almost two decades ago in response to the ballot disputes central to the intensely contested 2000 presidential election.

While the GOP measure has little chance in the House, it does contain some of the elements in the election security package, dubbed the SAFE Act, that Democrats pushed through the House with just a single GOP vote last summer. That legislation has not been considered in the Republican Senate.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

Davis, with co-sponsorship of more than 50 fellow Republicans, introduced an election security bill last June that had some of the same elements as his new bill. His previous legislation also called for more transparency in reporting cases of hacking into election systems, among other provisions. No action has been taken on that bill.

Davis said his new measure would direct the Election Assistance Commission to establish an advisory committee on setting guidelines for non-voting election hardware — and then require the commission to write those guidelines.

While the voting equipment guidelines written and administered by the commission are legally voluntary, many states now require their own machines be certified to the EAC standards.

The bill would also establish a new office to connect state and local elections officials with election administration and cybersecurity experts from across the country.

Non-voting equipment includes electronic poll books used to check in people when they arrive a voting site; online voter registration databases, and election night reporting systems.

Some of these systems were targeted by Russian hackers during the 2016 election. One of their few successes was breaking into the voter registration database for the state of Illinois and viewing personal information of thousands of voters. No registrations were removed or changed.

election security

Want to write
for The Fulcrum?

If you have something to say about ways to protect or repair our American democracy, we want to hear from you.

Submit
Get some Leverage Sign up for The Fulcrum Newsletter
Follow
Contributors

How a college freshman led the effort to honor titans of democracy reform

Jeremy Garson

Our poisonous age of absolutism

Jay Paterno

Re-imagining Title IX: An opportunity to flex our civic muscles

Lisa Kay Solomon

'Independent state legislature theory' is unconstitutional

Daniel O. Jamison

How afraid are we?

Debilyn Molineaux

Politicians certifying election results is risky and unnecessary

Kevin Johnson
latest News

How the anti-abortion movement shaped campaign finance law and paved the way for Trump

Amanda Becker, The 19th
10h

Podcast: Journalist and political junkie Ken Rudin

Our Staff
11h

A study in contrasts: Low-turnout runoffs vs. Alaska’s top-four, all-mail primary

David Meyers
23 June

Video: Team Democracy Urges Citizens to Sign SAFE Pledge

Our Staff
23 June

Podcast: Past, present, future

Our Staff
23 June

Video: America's vulnerable elections

Our Staff
22 June
Videos

Video: Memorial Day 2022

Our Staff

Video: Helping loved ones divided by politics

Our Staff

Video: What happened in Virginia?

Our Staff

Video: Infrastructure past, present, and future

Our Staff

Video: Beyond the headlines SCOTUS 2021 - 2022

Our Staff

Video: Should we even have a debt limit

Our Staff
Podcasts

Podcast: Did economists move the Democrats to the right?

Our Staff
02 May

Podcast: The future of depolarization

Our Staff
11 February

Podcast: Sore losers are bad for democracy

Our Staff
20 January

Deconstructed Podcast from IVN

Our Staff
08 November 2021
Recommended
Bridge Alliance intern Sachi Bajaj speaks at the June 12 Civvy Awards.

How a college freshman led the effort to honor titans of democracy reform

Leadership
abortion law historian Mary Ziegler

How the anti-abortion movement shaped campaign finance law and paved the way for Trump

Campaign Finance
Podcast: Journalist and political junkie Ken Rudin

Podcast: Journalist and political junkie Ken Rudin

Media
Abortion rights and anti-abortion protestors at the Supreme Court

Our poisonous age of absolutism

Big Picture
Virginia primary voter

A study in contrasts: Low-turnout runoffs vs. Alaska’s top-four, all-mail primary

Video: Team Democracy Urges Citizens to Sign SAFE Pledge

Video: Team Democracy Urges Citizens to Sign SAFE Pledge

Voting