PRINTER'S NO. 2149
No. 1533 Session of 2000
INTRODUCED BY WAGNER, BELAN, STAPLETON, COSTA, MELLOW AND
BOSCOLA, SEPTEMBER 27, 2000
REFERRED TO STATE GOVERNMENT, SEPTEMBER 27, 2000
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 the utilization of Internet voting
12 systems.
13 The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
14 hereby enacts as follows:
15 Section 1. The act of June 3, 1937 (P.L.1333, No.320), known
16 as the Pennsylvania Election Code, is amended by adding an
17 article to read:
18 ARTICLE XI-B
19 Internet Voting Systems
20 Section 1101-B. Definitions.--As used in this article:
21 "Clean operating system" means a copy of a computer operating
22 system that has been provided by the Secretary of the
1 Commonwealth and is certified by the secretary to be free of any
2 malicious software coding that could disrupt or invalidate an
3 election.
4 "Computer virus" means any type of computer program that
5 includes coding intended to cause damage or do something
6 malicious to a computer system such as corrupting files or
7 destroying or altering data.
8 "Decryption key" means an electronic key used by county
9 election officials to decrypt the encrypted ballots into a plain
10 text form that is convenient for canvassing.
11 "Denial of service attack" means an attack that generates
12 enough traffic to an Internet site that it denies service to
13 legitimate users.
14 "Internet voting machine" means a voting machine that allows
15 the elector to cast a ballot over the Internet by means of a
16 connection to an Internet voting system.
17 "Internet voting system" means a secure networked electronic
18 election system, as described in section 1105-B.
19 "PIN" means a personal identification number issued by the
20 Secretary of the Commonwealth for use in counties utilizing
21 Internet voting systems.
22 "Secretary." The Secretary of the Commonwealth.
23 Section 1102-B. Powers and Duties.--(a) The secretary shall
24 establish all standards and adopt all rules and regulations
25 required to be adopted by the secretary under this article.
26 (b) The secretary, utilizing the best and most secure method
27 available, shall generate a data base of unique PINs for each
28 county that will be using an Internet voting system to assign to
29 electors.
30 (c) The secretary shall design and certify a clean operating
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1 system for use in the Internet voting systems that shall be
2 easily and readily usable by the election districts. At least
3 twenty days prior to the election, the secretary shall provide
4 to the counties a sufficient number of copies of the operating
5 system for each polling place within the counties.
6 Section 1103-B. Authorization of Internet Voting Systems for
7 Use at Polling Places.--Any county may, by a majority vote of
8 its commissioners, authorize and direct the use of an Internet
9 voting system for registering or recording and computing the
10 vote at all elections and primaries held at polling places in
11 that county.
12 Section 1104-B. Installation of Internet Voting Systems.--
13 (a) The county board shall purchase, lease or otherwise procure
14 for each election district of such county, the components of an
15 Internet voting system of a kind approved by the secretary. The
16 board shall notify the secretary in writing that they have
17 selected and purchased an approved Internet voting system.
18 (b) The installation throughout the county of the Internet
19 voting system adopted by the county board shall follow the
20 procedures established in section 1104-A.
21 Section 1105-B. Establishment of Standards and Process of
22 Approval for Internet Voting Systems.--(a) The secretary shall
23 establish standards that an Internet voting system is required
24 to satisfy before the Internet voting system may be issued a
25 permit by the secretary authorizing its use for an elections
26 purpose authorized by this article.
27 (b) To qualify for use in an election, an Internet voting
28 system must demonstrate the existing capacity to do all of the
29 following:
30 (1) Provide for the secure identification and authentication
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1 of any information transmitted on the system, including, but not
2 limited to, personal information required to be provided by
3 qualified electors.
4 (2) Provide for the secure identification and authentication
5 of all elections officials and electoral jurisdictions, their
6 servers, and all other related electronic equipment being used
7 by the elections officials and electoral jurisdictions
8 supervising and responsible for voting.
9 (3) Protect the privacy, integrity and anonymity of each
10 qualified elector's ballot.
11 (4) Prevent the casting of multiple ballots in any one
12 election cycle by any qualified elector.
13 (5) Provide protection against tampering, fraudulent use,
14 illegal manipulation or other abuse by voters, elections
15 officials or any other individual or group.
16 (6) Legibly convey all information mandated by law to be
17 included in the ballot for each qualified elector, including
18 lists of all candidates for office and all ballot measures
19 qualified to appear on the ballot, in any set or randomly
20 generated order mandated by law.
21 (7) Provide the means by which qualified electors may cast
22 write-in votes for candidates whose names do not appear on the
23 ballot.
24 (8) Provide uninterrupted, reliable availability during the
25 voting period established by law.
26 (9) Be readily accessible and easy to use for all qualified
27 electors.
28 (10) Be usable by qualified electors with disabilities,
29 consistent with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
30 (Public Law 101-336, 104 Stat. 327 § 12101).
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1 (11) Be capable of being upgraded as technology improves.
2 (12) Be capable of archiving votes, allowing recounts and of
3 being audited as to contents, results and process at a
4 sufficient level to guarantee the integrity of the system and
5 the public's confidence in its integrity.
6 (13) Be capable of transmitting encrypted information over a
7 secure network.
8 (14) Be capable of establishing an Internet website that
9 securely receives ballots, provides ballots to qualified
10 electors that reflect the elections in their electoral
11 jurisdictions and is maximally resistant to being interrupted or
12 shut down by denial of service, computer virus or other attacks.
13 (15) Be capable of tabulating ballots cast to its Internet
14 website.
15 (16) Be capable of providing qualified electors with
16 receipts showing that their votes have been received without
17 alteration, validated as coming from a qualified elector who has
18 not yet cast a ballot and stored for counting.
19 (c) The secretary shall approve and certify a sufficient
20 number of systems for use within this Commonwealth to ensure
21 adequate bidding opportunities.
22 (d) The secretary shall:
23 (1) Examine each proposed Internet voting system.
24 (2) Perform the tests necessary to establish that the
25 Internet voting system conforms to the standards adopted by the
26 secretary pursuant to this section.
27 (3) Approve and certify that the Internet voting system is
28 fit for use and issue a permit authorizing its use.
29 (4) Deny approval and certification of the Internet voting
30 system which denial shall specify in writing the reasons
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1 therefore within thirty days of the submission of the request
2 for approval.
3 (e) Once the secretary has approved and certified an
4 Internet voting system, the system shall be designated as
5 approved by the secretary for use by electors in all electoral
6 jurisdictions within this Commonwealth.
7 Section 1106-B. Election Day Procedures and the Process of
8 Voting.--(a) In any county which uses an Internet voting
9 system, the following procedures will be applicable for the
10 conduct of the election at the election district:
11 (1) At least one hour before the time set for the opening of
12 the polls at each election, the county board shall deliver to
13 each election district a sealed copy of a clean operating system
14 contained on suitable write-once media approved and provided by
15 the secretary for use in starting the Internet voting machines.
16 (2) The members of the district election board shall arrive
17 at the polling place at least one-half hour before the opening
18 of the polls. Prior to the commencement of the election, the
19 district election board shall inspect the district components of
20 the Internet voting system to see that they are in proper
21 working order and shall break the seal of the operating system
22 and insert it into the Internet voting machine and start the
23 machine.
24 (3) A qualified elector who wishes to utilize the Internet
25 voting machine procedure shall be permitted to vote at any
26 polling place within the elector's county of residence.
27 (4) A qualified elector, after receiving his PIN from
28 district election officials, shall retire to one of the voting
29 booths in which the Internet voting machines are located.
30 (5) The elector shall visit the Internet balloting web page
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1 for his county and authenticate himself to that server by
2 entering his PIN and any personal information required for
3 authentication and request a ballot.
4 (6) The server shall send an image of the appropriate ballot
5 back to the elector.
6 (7) The elector shall mark the ballot with the keyboard,
7 mouse or touch screen if the machine is so equipped.
8 (8) When the elector is finished making his choices, he
9 shall click a button on the screen to send the ballot. A screen
10 will then be displayed that shows all of the elector's choices
11 for verification. When the elector confirms the selections, the
12 ballot is encrypted and sent to the central vote server. If the
13 elector does not confirm the selections, the ballot is reset and
14 he has the option of remarking the ballot.
15 (9) When the vote server receives the ballot, it will verify
16 that it has been sent from a qualified elector who has not yet
17 voted and has not been altered in any form during transmission.
18 (10) Once the vote has been verified, the server will send
19 feedback to the voter acknowledging that the vote has been
20 accepted.
21 (11) The server then separates the vote from the
22 identification of the elector and stores the vote for counting.
23 (12) After the polls close for the day, the county elections
24 officials, one being from each party, shall enter their separate
25 decryption keys so that the ballots can be decrypted and
26 canvassed.
27 Section 1107-B. Tampering with Internet Voting System.--Any
28 election officer or other person who shall unlawfully tamper
29 with or injure or attempt to injure any component of an Internet
30 voting system to be used at any primary or election, or who
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1 shall prevent or attempt to prevent the correct operation and
2 communication of such a system, or any unauthorized person who
3 shall make or have in his possession a decryption key to an
4 Internet voting system to be used or being used in any primary
5 or election, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon
6 conviction thereof, shall be sentenced to pay a fine not
7 exceeding five thousand dollars ($5,000) or to undergo an
8 imprisonment of not less than seven years, or both, at the
9 discretion of the court.
10 Section 2. This act shall take effect in 60 days.
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