H.R. 3646

Reducing Barriers for Military Voters Act

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I

117th CONGRESS

1st Session

H. R. 3646

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

May 28, 2021

Mr. Wilson of South Carolina (for himself, Mr. Ryan, Ms. Stefanik, Mr. Kim of New Jersey, Mr. Turner, Mr. Vela, Mr. Jackson, Mr. Brown, and Mr. Timmons) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on House Administration

A BILL

To direct the Presidential designee under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act to develop and implement a plan to provide end-to-end electronic voting services for absent uniformed services voters under such Act who are deployed or mobilized to locations with limited or immature postal service.

1.

Short title

This Act may be cited as the Reducing Barriers for Military Voters Act.

2.

Providing end-to-end electronic voting services for absent uniformed services voters in locations with limited or immature postal service

(a)

Plan

(1)

Development

In consultation with the Chief Information Officer of the Department of Defense, the Presidential designee under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (52 U.S.C. 20301 et seq.) shall develop a plan for providing end-to-end electronic voting services (including services for registering to vote, requesting an electronic ballot, completing the ballot, and returning the ballot) in participating States for absent uniformed services voters under such Act who are deployed or mobilized to locations with limited or immature postal service (as determined by the Presidential designee).

(2)

Specifications

The Presidential designee shall include in the plan developed under paragraph (1)—

(A)

methods to ensure that voters have the opportunity to verify that their ballots are received and tabulated correctly by the appropriate State and local election officials;

(B)

methods to generate a verifiable and auditable vote trail for the purposes of any recount or audit conducted with respect to an election; and

(C)

an assessment of whether commercially available technologies may be used to carry out any of the elements of the plan.

(3)

Consultation with State and local election officials

The Presidential designee shall develop the plan under paragraph (1) in consultation with appropriate State and local election officials to ensure that the plan may be implemented successfully in any State which agrees to participate in the plan.

(4)

Use of contractors

To the extent the Presidential designee determines to be appropriate, the Presidential designee may include in the plan developed under paragraph (1) provisions for the use of contractors to carry out any of the elements of the plan.

(5)

Submission

Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Presidential designee shall submit the plan developed under paragraph (1) to the Committees on Armed Services of the House of Representatives and Senate.

(b)

Implementation

The Presidential designee shall implement the plan—

(1)

for a trial group of voters in participating States for elections for Federal office held in 2024; and

(2)

for all such voters in participating States for elections for Federal office held in 2026 and any succeeding year.