VotedBy VotedBy ⌕
Election Day · Tue, Nov 3See how your members of Congress voted →

H.R. 5131 · 114th Congress

VOTE Act of 2016

Key: what the circles and colors mean

Each circle is a bill. The ring fills as it moves through Congress:

IntroducedPassed one chamberPassed both chambersBecame law (gold)Resolution agreed to (full, dark)Failed or vetoed (gray)

Under the number: the Yea · Nay count of its final (or latest) recorded vote. On a member's page, the small badge is how that member voted: Y Yea / Aye, N Nay / No, P Present, – Not voting.

Gold and violet are only for Yea and Nay; they never mean a party. A member's party is the letter on their photo.

Never voted on. It didn't reach a floor vote before the 114th Congress ended, so it expired. A bill has to be introduced again to be considered in a new Congress.

13 cosponsors · 13 D

Verifying Optimal Tools for Elections Act of 2016 or the VOTE Act of 2016

What it does: CRS summary · Introduced in House · Apr 29, 2016

Verifying Optimal Tools for Elections Act of 2016 or the VOTE Act of 2016

This bill amends the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to direct the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) to make a payment to each eligible state in which a precinct used at least one outdated voting machine to administer the regularly scheduled federal general election held in November 2012.

A state shall use the funds from such a payment to replace outdated voting machines in qualifying precincts with voting machines that: (1) have never been used in any federal general election and are not outdated voting machines, or have been used only with respect to federal general elections held after November 2012; and (2) are auditable and meet specified requirements.

A state receiving such a payment shall ensure that all the outdated voting machines in its qualifying precincts have been replaced in time for the regularly scheduled federal general election in November 2018.

The EAC shall make grants to states for the education and training, through webinars or other appropriate means, of election officials and poll workers on matters including voting machine maintenance, pre- and post-election voting machine testing, and the development of contingency plans.

The EAC shall also make grants to state or local governments to conduct pilot testing with respect to, and carry out the implementation of, voting systems that use: (1) non-proprietary open source software, and (2) commercial or custom firmware and hardware.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) shall develop, or fund the development of, a common data format allowing for voting-equipment device interoperability.

A voting system used in a federal election in a state may not at any time during the election contain or use any election-dedicated voting system technology that is not deposited by the state with the NIST National Software Reference Library before the election.

Written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. All summary versions on Congress.gov

About this bill and sources

Official title: VOTE Act of 2016

Also known as: Verifying Optimal Tools for Elections Act of 2016

Latest action (Sep 30, 2016): Referred to the Subcommittee on Research and Technology.

Policy area: Government Operations and Politics · Origin: House · Introduced: Apr 29, 2016

Official page on Congress.gov · Bill text (GovInfo) · Status record (XML)

No recorded floor vote found.