PRINTER'S NO. 128
No. 145 Session of 2001
INTRODUCED BY ORIE, LAUGHLIN, YOUNGBLOOD, PHILLIPS, DALEY,
STEIL, PRESTON, FAIRCHILD, WASHINGTON, PIPPY AND JOSEPHS,
JANUARY 23, 2001
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON STATE GOVERNMENT, JANUARY 23, 2001
AN ACT
1 Amending the act of June 3, 1937 (P.L.1333, No.320), entitled
2 "An act concerning elections, including general, municipal,
3 special and primary elections, the nomination of candidates,
4 primary and election expenses and election contests; creating
5 and defining membership of county boards of elections;
6 imposing duties upon the Secretary of the Commonwealth,
7 courts, county boards of elections, county commissioners;
8 imposing penalties for violation of the act, and codifying,
9 revising and consolidating the laws relating thereto; and
10 repealing certain acts and parts of acts relating to
11 elections," providing for Internet voting.
12 The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
13 hereby enacts as follows:
14 Section 1. The act of June 3, 1937 (P.L.1333, No.320), known
15 as the Pennsylvania Election Code, is amended by adding an
16 article to read:
17 ARTICLE XI-B
18 Internet Voting
19 Section 1101-B. Definitions.--As used in this article:
20 "Computer virus" means any type of computer program that
21 includes coding intended to cause damage or do something
22 malicious to a computer system such as corrupting files or
1 destroying or altering data.
2 "Denial of service attack" means an attack that generates
3 enough traffic to an Internet site that it denies service to
4 legitimate users.
5 "Internet voting machine" means a voting machine that allows
6 the elector to cast a ballot over the Internet by means of a
7 connection to an Internet voting system.
8 "Secretary" means the Secretary of the Commonwealth.
9 Section 1102-B. Powers and Duties.--The secretary shall
10 establish all standards and adopt all rules and regulations
11 required to be adopted under this article. The secretary shall
12 take all steps necessary to implement the Internet elections
13 services authorized by this article. The secretary shall report
14 to the General Assembly on the viability of Internet voting by
15 December 31 of every even-numbered year.
16 Section 1103-B. Authorization of Internet Voting at Polling
17 Places.--The secretary shall authorize and direct Internet
18 voting for registering or recording and computing the vote at
19 all elections and primaries held at polling places in that
20 county.
21 Section 1104-B. Installation of Internet Voting Machines.--
22 The county board of elections shall purchase, lease or otherwise
23 procure for each election district of such county, the
24 components of an Internet voting machine of a kind approved by
25 the secretary, and the board shall thereafter notify the
26 secretary, in writing, that they have done so.
27 Section 1105-B. Establishment of Standards and Process of
28 Approval for Internet Voting Systems.--(a) The secretary shall
29 establish rules and standards for Internet voting before
30 Internet voting may be implemented in this Commonwealth.
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1 (b) In order for Internet voting to be implemented, the
2 following provisions shall be validated:
3 (1) Provide for the secure identification and authentication
4 of any information transmitted on the system, including, but not
5 limited to, personal information required to be provided by
6 qualified electors.
7 (2) Provide for the secure identification and authentication
8 of all elections officials and electoral jurisdictions, their
9 servers, and all other related electronic equipment being used
10 by the elections officials and electoral jurisdictions
11 supervising and responsible for voting.
12 (3) Protect the privacy, integrity and anonymity of each
13 qualified elector's ballot.
14 (4) Prevent the casting of multiple ballots in any one
15 election cycle by any qualified elector.
16 (5) Provide protection against tampering, fraudulent use,
17 illegal manipulation or other abuse by voters, elections
18 officials or any other individual or group.
19 (6) Legibly convey all information mandated by law to be
20 included in the ballot for each qualified elector, including
21 lists of all candidates for office and all ballot measures
22 qualified to appear on the ballot, in any set or randomly
23 generated order mandated by law.
24 (7) Provide the means by which qualified electors may cast
25 write-in votes for candidates whose names do not appear on the
26 ballot.
27 (8) Provide uninterrupted, reliable availability during the
28 voting period established by law.
29 (9) Be readily accessible and easy to use for all qualified
30 electors.
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1 (10) Be usable by qualified electors with disabilities,
2 consistent with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
3 (Public Law 101-336, 104 Stat. 327 § 12101).
4 (11) Be capable of being upgraded as technology improves.
5 (12) Be capable of archiving votes, allowing recounts and of
6 being audited as to contents, results and process at a
7 sufficient level to guarantee the integrity of the system and
8 the public's confidence in its integrity.
9 (13) Be capable of transmitting encrypted information over a
10 secure network.
11 (14) Be capable of establishing an Internet website that
12 securely receives ballots, provides ballots to qualified
13 electors that reflect the elections in their electoral
14 jurisdictions and is maximally resistant to being interrupted or
15 shut down by denial of service, computer virus or other attacks.
16 (15) Be capable of tabulating ballots cast to its Internet
17 website.
18 (16) Be capable of providing qualified electors with
19 receipts showing that their votes have been received without
20 alteration, validated as coming from a qualified elector who has
21 not yet cast a ballot and stored for counting.
22 (c) The secretary shall:
23 (1) Approve a sufficient number of Internet voting systems
24 for use within this Commonwealth to ensure adequate bidding
25 opportunities.
26 (2) Approve that Internet voting is fit to implement.
27 Section 1106-B. Election Day Procedures and the Process of
28 Voting.--(a) The following procedures will be applicable for
29 the conduct of the election at the election district:
30 (1) At least one hour before the time set for the opening of
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1 the polls at each election, the county board shall deliver to
2 each election district a sealed copy of a clean operating system
3 contained on suitable write-once media approved and provided by
4 the secretary for use in starting the Internet voting machines.
5 (2) The members of the district election board shall arrive
6 at the polling place at least one-half hour before the opening
7 of the polls. Prior to the commencement of the election, the
8 district election board shall inspect the district components of
9 the Internet voting system to see that they are in proper
10 working order and shall break the seal of the operating system
11 and insert it into the Internet voting machine and start the
12 machine.
13 (3) A qualified elector who wishes to utilize the Internet
14 voting machine procedure shall be permitted to vote at any
15 polling place within the elector's county of residence.
16 (4) A qualified elector shall retire to one of the voting
17 booths in which the Internet voting machines are located.
18 (5) The elector shall visit the Internet balloting web page
19 for his county and authenticate himself to that server by
20 entering any personal information required for authentication
21 and request a ballot.
22 (6) The server shall send an image of the appropriate ballot
23 back to the elector.
24 (7) The elector shall mark the ballot with the keyboard,
25 mouse or touch screen if the machine is so equipped.
26 (8) When the elector is finished making his choices, he
27 shall click a button on the screen to send the ballot. A screen
28 will then be displayed that shows all of the elector's choices
29 for verification. When the elector confirms the selections, the
30 ballot is encrypted and sent to the central vote server. If the
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1 elector does not confirm the selections, the ballot is reset and
2 he has the option of remarking the ballot.
3 (9) When the vote server receives the ballot, it will verify
4 that it has been sent from a qualified elector who has not yet
5 voted and has not been altered in any form during transmission.
6 (10) Once the vote has been verified, the server will send
7 feedback to the voter acknowledging that the vote has been
8 accepted.
9 (11) The server then separates the vote from the
10 identification of the elector and stores the vote for counting.
11 (12) After the polls close for the day, the county elections
12 officials, one being from each party, shall enter their separate
13 decryption keys so that the ballots can be decrypted and
14 canvassed.
15 Section 1107-B. Tampering with Internet Voting System.--Any
16 election officer or other person who shall unlawfully tamper
17 with or injure or attempt to injure any component of an Internet
18 voting system to be used at any primary or election, or who
19 shall prevent or attempt to prevent the correct operation and
20 communication of such a system, or any unauthorized person who
21 shall make or have in his possession a decryption key to an
22 Internet voting system to be used or being used in any primary
23 or election, shall be guilty of a felony and, upon conviction
24 thereof, shall be sentenced to pay a fine of not less than fifty
25 thousand dollars ($50,000) and not to exceed one hundred
26 thousand dollars ($100,000), or to undergo an imprisonment of
27 not less than ten years, but not more than twenty years, or
28 both, at the discretion of the court.
29 Section 2. This act shall take effect in 60 days.
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