95TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
State of Illinois
2007 and 2008
SB1188

 

Introduced 2/8/2007, by Sen. Don Harmon

 

SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:
 
10 ILCS 5/23-15.1

    Amends the Election Code. With respect to electronic voting systems, provides for the availability to the public by the vendor of the system's ballot counting technology information.


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FISCAL NOTE ACT MAY APPLY

 

 

A BILL FOR

 

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1     AN ACT concerning elections.
 
2     Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
3 represented in the General Assembly:
 
4     Section 5. The Election Code is amended by changing Section
5 23-15.1 as follows:
 
6     (10 ILCS 5/23-15.1)
7     Sec. 23-15.1. Production of ballot counting code and
8 attendance of witnesses. Citizens have the right to know how
9 their votes are counted. Technology shall not be used in a
10 voting system that interferes with this right to know.
11     "Publicly disclosed" technology refers to hardware and
12 software whose design details have been made public and are
13 freely available for public inspection. In addition, the vendor
14 of publicly disclosed technology grants to the public the right
15 to test the technology and publish the test results.
16     The technology disclosure package is an electronic file
17 that contains all the documents required to show exactly how
18 the system works.
19     Voting system technology includes components specifically
20 designed or modified for the voting application, as well as
21 components that are general purpose commodity items (sometimes
22 called COTS for "commercial-off-the-shelf"). The vendor is not
23 expected to reveal the inner workings of unmodified COTS

 

 

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1 components. However, all unmodified COTS components must be
2 identified by manufacturer, model, and revision. In addition,
3 all product data sheets, manuals, and other publicly available
4 documentation should be included for unmodified COTS
5 components in the technology disclosure package.
6     All hardware and software components created or modified
7 for the voting application must have complete documentation,
8 including software source code, in the technology disclosure
9 package.
10     The vendor is not required to freely provide hardware to
11 the public for testing purposes, but the technology disclosure
12 package shall be sufficiently detailed such that competent
13 engineers with the correct tools can fully recreate the
14 hardware and software systems.
15     All contracts executed by any election authority within the
16 State of Illinois that include the purchase of voting equipment
17 shall include the following provisions for public disclosure of
18 technology as described in this Section; the vendor must make
19 arrangements to have a complete technology disclosure package
20 available for free public download on a public disclosure
21 website, which may be operated by a government or private
22 entity, to make publicly disclosed technology available for
23 free download to the public. In the event that the public
24 disclosure service becomes unavailable from the vendor's
25 chosen provider, the vendor must agree to make arrangements for
26 public disclosure with another entity within 30 days from the

 

 

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1 time the service becomes unavailable from the original public
2 disclosure service provider.
3 All voting-system vendors shall, within 90 days after the
4 adoption of rules or upon application for voting-system
5 approval, place in escrow all computer code for its voting
6 system with the State Board of Elections. The State Board of
7 Elections shall promulgate rules to implement this Section. For
8 purposes of this Section, the term "computer code" includes,
9 but is not limited to, ballot counting source code, table
10 structures, modules, program narratives, and other human
11 readable computer instructions used to count ballots. Any
12 computer code submitted by vendors to the State Board of
13 Elections shall be considered strictly confidential and the
14 intellectual property of the vendors and shall not be subject
15 to public disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act.
16     The State Board of Elections shall determine which software
17 components of a voting system it deems necessary to enable the
18 review and verification of the computer. The State Board of
19 Elections shall secure and maintain all proprietary computer
20 codes in strict confidence and shall make a computer code
21 available to authorized persons in connection with an election
22 contest or pursuant to any State or federal court order.
23     In an election contest, each party to the contest may
24 designate one or more persons who are authorized to receive the
25 computer code of the relevant voting systems. The person or
26 persons authorized to receive the relevant computer code shall

 

 

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1 enter into a confidentiality agreement with the State Board of
2 Elections and must exercise the highest degree of reasonable
3 care to maintain the confidentiality of all proprietary
4 information.
5     The State Board of Elections shall promulgate rules to
6 provide for the security, review, and verification of computer
7 codes. Verification includes, but is not limited to,
8 determining that the computer code corresponds to computer
9 instructions actually in use to count ballots. The State Board
10 of Elections shall hire, contract with, or otherwise provide
11 sufficiently qualified resources, both human and capital, to
12 conduct the reviews with the greatest possible expectation of
13 thoroughness, completeness, and effectiveness. The resources
14 shall be independent of and have no business, personal,
15 professional, or other affiliation with any of the system
16 vendors currently or prospectively supplying voting systems to
17 any county in the State of Illinois. Nothing in this Section
18 shall impair the obligation of any contract between a
19 voting-systems vendor and an election authority that provides
20 access to computer code that is equal to or greater than that
21 provided by this Section.
22 (Source: P.A. 93-574, eff. 8-21-03; 94-645, eff. 8-22-05.)