Secure Elections Act
This bill gives the Department of Homeland Security primary responsibility within the federal government for sharing information about election cybersecurity incidents, threats, and vulnerabilities with federal entities and election agencies.
The Election Assistance Commission (EAC) shall establish an advisory panel of independent experts to develop guidelines on election cybersecurity, including standards for procuring, maintaining, testing, auditing, operating, and updating election systems.
The EAC shall award election system cybersecurity and modernization grants to states and election agencies to implement the advisory panel's guidelines. Grants shall be awarded to: (1) remediate vulnerabilities identified by a cybersecurity evaluation, (2) replace electronic voting systems that are not optical scanners that read paper ballots, and (3) reimburse states for statistical audits of ballots in close federal elections.