PRINTER'S NO. 2620
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA
HOUSE BILL
No.
2053
Session of
2024
INTRODUCED BY M. MACKENZIE, R. MACKENZIE, BERNSTINE, GLEIM,
GREINER, HAMM, KAUFFMAN, KRUPA, MOUL, ROWE, RYNCAVAGE,
SCHEUREN, WARNER, RADER AND GILLEN, FEBRUARY 22, 2024
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON STATE GOVERNMENT, FEBRUARY 22, 2024
AN ACT
Amending the act of June 3, 1937 (P.L.1333, No.320), entitled
"An act concerning elections, including general, municipal,
special and primary elections, the nomination of candidates,
primary and election expenses and election contests; creating
and defining membership of county boards of elections;
imposing duties upon the Secretary of the Commonwealth,
courts, county boards of elections, county commissioners;
imposing penalties for violation of the act, and codifying,
revising and consolidating the laws relating thereto; and
repealing certain acts and parts of acts relating to
elections," in voting machines, further providing for
examination and approval of voting machines by the Secretary
of the Commonwealth, for requirements of voting machines and
for preparation of voting machines by county election boards.
The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
hereby enacts as follows:
Section 1. Sections 1106, 1107 and 1111 of the act of June
3, 1937 (P.L.1333, No.320), known as the Pennsylvania Election
Code, are amended by adding subsections to read:
Section 1106. Examination and Approval of Voting Machines by
the Secretary of the Commonwealth.--
* * *
(g) Examination shall include testing of all software
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required for the voting machine's operation, the ballot reader,
the digital printer, the fail-safe operations, the counting
center environmental requirements and the equipment reliability
estimate.
(h) For the purposes of examining the voting machine, the
Secretary of the Commonwealth shall employ or contract for the
services of at least one individual who is an expert in one or
more fields of data processing, mechanical engineering and
public administration and shall require from the individual a
written report of the individual's examination.
(i) Within thirty days after completing the examination and
upon approval of any electronic or electromechanical voting
machine, the Secretary of the Commonwealth shall make and
maintain a report on the machine, together with a written or
printed description and drawings and photographs clearly
identifying the machine and the operation of the machine. As
soon as practicable after the filing, the Department of State
shall send a notice of certification and upon request a copy of
the report to county boards of elections in this Commonwealth.
The report under this subsection shall be a public record under
the act of February 14, 2008 (P.L.6, No.3), known as the "Right-
to-Know Law."
(j) After a voting machine has been approved by the
Secretary of the Commonwealth, any change or improvement in the
machine must be approved by the Secretary of the Commonwealth
prior to the adoption of the change or improvement by a county.
If the change or improvement does not comply with the
requirements of this act, the Secretary of the Commonwealth
shall suspend sales of the equipment or machine in this
Commonwealth until the equipment or machine complies with the
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requirements of this act.
(k) The Secretary of the Commonwealth shall examine and
approve all electronic or electromechanical devices used in the
casting, processing or tabulation of ballots or in the recording
of electors, including ballot sorters, envelope extractors,
ballot scanners and electronic pollbooks.
(l) The examination and approval under subsection (k) shall
ensure that the device conforms with standards to provide
timeliness and accuracy in the casting and counting of ballots
or in the recording of electors.
Section 1107. Requirements of Voting Machines.--No voting
machine shall, upon any examination or reexamination, be
approved by the Secretary of the Commonwealth, or by any
examiner appointed by him, unless it shall, at the time, satisfy
the following requirements:
* * *
(u) It shall immediately reject a ballot where the number of
votes for an office or question exceeds the number which the
elector is entitled to cast or where the tabulating equipment
reads the ballot as a ballot with no votes cast.
(v) It shall be capable of providing records from which the
operation of the voting machine may be audited.
(w) It shall be capable of recording votes from ballots of
different political parties from the same precinct, for a
primary election.
(x) It shall be manufactured in the United States and sold
by a vendor with a primary place of business within the United
States.
(y) It shall utilize open-source software code.
(z) It shall fully comply with the Voluntary Voting System
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Guidelines 2.0 adopted by the United States Election Assistance
Commission on February 10, 2021.
(z.1) The requirements of subsections (u), (v), (w), (x),
(y) and (z) shall apply only to voting machines newly examined
or approved by the Secretary of the Commonwealth after 2025. No
voting machines purchased by a county prior to 2025 shall be
decertified on the basis of noncompliance with subsection (u),
(v), (w), (x), (y) or (z).
Section 1111. Preparation of Voting Machines by County
Election Boards.--
* * *
(g) On any day not more than thirty-five days before the
commencement of voting, the county election board shall have the
automatic tabulating equipment publicly tested to ascertain that
the equipment will correctly count the votes cast for all
offices and on all measures. If the ballots to be used at the
polling place on election day are not available at the time of
the testing, the county election board may conduct an additional
test not more than ten days before election day. Public notice
of the time and place of the test shall be given at least forty-
eight hours prior to the test by publication on the county
election board's publicly accessible Internet website and once
in one or more newspapers of general circulation in the county
or, if there is no newspaper of general circulation in the
county, by posting the notice in at least four conspicuous
places in the county. The county election board shall provide
written notice to each candidate for election of the time and
location of the public preelection test. The test shall be open
to representatives of the political parties, the press and the
public and shall be video recorded and broadcast simultaneously
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on a publicly accessible Internet website. Each political party
may designate one person with expertise in the computer field
who shall be allowed in the central counting room when tests are
being conducted and when the official votes are being counted.
The designee may not interfere with the normal operation of the
canvassing board.
(h) For electronic or electromechanical voting machines
configured to tabulate mail-in or absentee ballots at a central
or regional site, the public testing shall be conducted by
processing a preaudited group of ballots so produced as to
record a predetermined number of valid votes for each candidate
and on each measure and to include one or more ballots for each
office which have activated voting positions in excess of the
number allowed by law in order to test the ability of the
automatic tabulating equipment to reject the votes. If an error
is detected, the cause of the error shall be corrected and an
errorless count shall be made before the automatic tabulating
equipment is approved. The test shall be repeated and errorless
results must be achieved immediately before the start of the
official count of the ballots and again after the completion of
the official count. The programs and ballots used for testing
shall be sealed and retained under the custody of the county
election board.
(i) For electronic or electromechanical voting machines
configured to include electronic or electromechanical tabulation
devices which are distributed to the precincts, all or a sample
of the devices to be used in the election shall be publicly
tested. If a sample is to be tested, the sample shall consist of
a random selection of at least ten per cent of the devices. The
test shall be conducted by processing a group of ballots,
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causing the device to output results for the ballots processed
and comparing the output of results to the results expected for
the ballots processed. The group of ballots shall be produced so
as to record a predetermined number of valid votes for each
candidate and on each measure and to include for each office one
or more ballots which have activated voting positions in excess
of the number allowed by law in order to test the ability of the
tabulating device to reject such votes.
(j) If a tested tabulating device is found to have an error
in tabulation, it shall be deemed unsatisfactory. For each
device deemed unsatisfactory, the county election board shall
take steps to determine the cause of the error, shall attempt to
identify and test other devices that could reasonably be
expected to have the same error and shall test a number of
additional devices sufficient to determine that each device is
satisfactory. Upon deeming a device unsatisfactory, the county
election board may require all devices to be tested or may
declare that all devices are unsatisfactory.
(k) If the operation or output of any tested tabulation
device, such as spelling or the order of candidates on a report,
is in error, the problem shall be reported to the county
election board, which shall determine if the reported problem
warrants the county election board deeming the device
unsatisfactory.
(l) At the completion of testing under this section, the
county election board, the representatives of the political
parties and the candidates or the candidate's representatives
who attended the test shall witness the resetting of each device
that passed to a preelection state of readiness and the sealing
of each device that passed in such a manner as to secure its
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state of readiness until the opening of the polls.
(m) The county election board shall execute a written
statement providing the tabulation devices tested, the results
of the testing, the protective counter numbers, if applicable,
of each tabulation device, the number of the seal securing each
tabulation device at the conclusion of testing, any problems
reported to the county election board as a result of the testing
and whether each device tested is satisfactory or
unsatisfactory. The written statement under this subsection
shall be a public record under the act of February 14, 2008
(P.L.6, No.3), known as the "Right-to-Know Law."
(n) Any tabulating device deemed unsatisfactory shall be
recoded, repaired or replaced and shall be made available for
retesting. The device must be determined by the county election
board to be satisfactory before the device may be used in an
election. The county election board shall announce at the close
of the first testing the date, place and time that an
unsatisfactory device will be retested or may, at the option of
the county election board, notify by telephone each individual
who was present at the first testing as to the date, place and
time that the retesting will occur.
(o) Records shall be kept of all preelection testing of
electronic or electromechanical tabulation devices used in an
election. The records shall be present and available for
inspection and reference during public preelection testing by
any individual in attendance during the testing. The need of the
county election board for access to the records during the
testing shall take precedence over the need of other attendees
to access such records so that the work of the county election
board will not be delayed or hindered. Records of testing shall
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include, for each device, the name of each person who tested the
device and the date, place, time and results of each test.
Records of testing shall be retained as part of the official
records of the election in which any device was used and shall
be public records under the "Right-to-Know Law."
(p) The county election board shall submit a copy of all
records required under this section to the Department of the
Auditor General.
Section 2. This act shall take effect in 60 days.
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