Protect American Voters Act
This bill establishes a specified technology committee and unit within the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) to address the security of election technology.
Specifically, the bill establishes the Emerging Election Technology Committee to advise the EAC on voluntary guidelines for election officials on the use of nonvoting election technology. Nonvoting election technology refers to the technology used in the administration of federal elections which is not used directly in the casting, counting, tabulating, or collecting of ballots or votes (e.g., electronic pollbooks or election result reporting systems). The EAC must (1) take into account the recommendations of the technology committee and adopt such voluntary guidelines, and (2) review and update such guidelines every two years.
The bill also establishes the Election Cyber Assistance Unit to provide state and local election officials with access to risk management, resiliency, and technical support services provided by election administration and cybersecurity experts.