Sec. 2. National Institute of Standards and Technology
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The Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, in collaboration with the National Science Foundation as appropriate, shall carry out a program of research on voting systems, including— the cybersecurity of different components of such systems; end-to-end verifiable systems; internet-enabled voting; the accessibility and usability of different components of such systems; voter privacy and data protection; methods for auditing elections; the interoperability of system technologies; means for providing voters with the ability to easily check whether a ballot sent by mail has been dispatched to the voter and whether the voter’s marked ballot has been received and accepted by the appropriate election official; the reliability of various approaches to voter authentication; and such other areas of research as the Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology determines to be appropriate and related to the security and integrity of elections for Federal office.
The Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology shall make an award to an institution of higher education or an eligible nonprofit organization (or a consortium thereof) to establish a Center of Excellence in Election Systems. The Director shall ensure that the Center of Excellence includes a collaboration of institutions of higher education, nonprofit organizations, private sector entities, and State and local election officials. The purpose of the Center of Excellence shall be to— conduct measurement research and statistical analyses to inform the development of standards for technologies and processes that contribute to more secure, fair, and accessible elections; test and evaluate the security, usability, and accessibility of the technologies of voting systems, including the accessibility of poll book data by voters; research testing methods that could be used for the certification of voting system technologies; educate and train students studying in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields to conduct measurement science and standards research relevant to such systems; and foster collaboration among academic researchers, private sector vendors of election technology, and State and local election officials.
An institution of higher education or an eligible nonprofit organization (or a consortium thereof) seeking funding under this subsection shall submit an application to the Director at such time, in such manner, and containing such information as the Director may require. Each application under subparagraph
(A)shall include a description of— how the Center will work with other research institutions, industry partners, and State or local election officials to identify the measurement, testing, and standards needs of voting systems and to leverage the expertise of election practitioners; and how the Center will promote active collaboration among researchers in multiple disciplines involved in ensuring the security and integrity of such systems. Each Center established under this section is authorized to carry out activities for a period of 5 years, renewable for an additional 5 years at the discretion of the Director. There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section $12,000,000 for each of the fiscal years 2021 through 2025.