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ELEC-004 — Federal Election Proceedings Integrity Act

A BILL

To establish an Anti-SLAPP-style special screening mechanism, discovery control, sensitive-material protection, and later-discovered improper-purpose sanctions for certain election proceedings in federal court, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the “Federal Election Proceedings Integrity Act.”

SEC. 2. PURPOSES.

(a) Anti-SLAPP-style adaptation.

This Act adapts the procedural logic of Anti-SLAPP laws to election proceedings in federal court. Anti-SLAPP laws recognize that litigation process can itself be used abusively to impose cost, delay, discovery burdens, reputational harm, or coercive pressure before a court reaches the merits. This Act applies that logic to election proceedings that seek election-disruptive relief or access to sensitive election material without an early particularized showing.

(b) Purposes.

The purposes of this Act are to—

  1. preserve access to good-faith election challenges and lawful election review;
  2. prevent federal courts from being used to delay certification, manufacture uncertainty, harass election personnel, or obtain unauthorized access to sensitive election materials without an early particularized showing;
  3. protect statutory election deadlines, ballot secrecy, voter privacy, chain of custody, voting-system security, and election finality;
  4. distinguish ordinary citizen reporting and authorized recount or contest procedures from election proceedings seeking coercive or disruptive relief; and
  5. provide sanctions where later-discovered evidence shows that an election proceeding was materially connected to a coordinated improper scheme.

SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

In this Act:

  1. Covered election proceeding means a civil action, motion, petition, application, subpoena, discovery demand, inspection demand, audit demand, or request for emergency relief filed in or issued by a federal court in relation to an election involving a federal office, if the proceeding seeks or would foreseeably cause election-disruptive relief.
  2. Election-disruptive relief means relief that would delay, enjoin, alter, decertify, nullify, or otherwise disturb voter eligibility lists, ballot preparation, voting procedures, counting, tabulation, auditing, recounting, canvassing, certification, appointment of presidential electors, transmission of election returns, or another statutory election deadline.
  3. Sensitive election material means ballots, ballot images, voter-identifiable data, election-management-system data, voting-system source code, tabulator or scanner data, security logs, chain-of-custody records, passwords, keys, security procedures, facility plans, or other election material whose disclosure, inspection, copying, or transfer may impair ballot secrecy, voter privacy, election security, or chain of custody.
  4. Special screening motion means a motion under section 5 to dismiss, narrow, stay, condition, or otherwise control a covered election proceeding.
  5. Improper purpose includes delay, harassment, knowingly false factual presentation, reckless disregard of contrary evidence, unauthorized access to sensitive election material, creation of a false predicate for disrupting certification or elector appointment, or other bad-faith use of federal judicial process.
  6. Good-faith report means a report of suspected election irregularity made to an election official, law-enforcement agency, prosecutor, candidate, political party, court, or other body authorized by law to receive such information, where the report does not itself seek election-disruptive relief or access to sensitive election material.

SEC. 4. SCOPE; PRESERVED PROCEEDINGS.

(a) Scope.

This Act applies only to covered election proceedings in federal court.

(b) Preserved proceedings and activity.

Nothing in this Act limits—

  1. a good-faith report;
  2. a ballot-specific voter remedy;
  3. a recount, audit, or contest conducted under state law without a request for federal election-disruptive relief;
  4. ordinary public-records requests subject to applicable privacy, security, and election-material protections;
  5. federal criminal investigation or prosecution; or
  6. the authority of a court to provide relief for a proven constitutional or statutory violation.

(c) Relief-based trigger.

This Act applies according to the relief sought or reasonably foreseeable procedural effect of the proceeding, not solely according to the identity of the filer.

(d) Specific federal statutory procedure.

This Act is a specific federal statutory procedure governing covered election proceedings in federal court. It shall operate alongside the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure where possible and shall control only to the extent of any inconsistency within its defined scope.

SEC. 5. SPECIAL MOTION TO SCREEN COVERED ELECTION PROCEEDING.

(a) Motion authorized.

A party, election official, governmental entity, affected candidate, affected voter, or custodian of sensitive election material may file a special screening motion in a covered election proceeding.

(b) Pre-election timing limitation.

A special screening motion may not be filed with respect to a future election scheduled to occur more than 180 days after the date of the motion, unless the motion is directed to a request for immediate access to sensitive election material or another present risk to ballot secrecy, voter privacy, chain of custody, or election security.

(c) No post-election cutoff.

No fixed post-election time limit applies to a special screening motion. After the election occurs, a special screening motion may be filed in any covered election proceeding that seeks or materially relates to election-disruptive relief, counting, tabulation, auditing, recounting, canvassing, certification, elector appointment, election contest, validity of the election result, or access to sensitive election material.

(d) Time for filing.

Subject to subsections (b) and (c), a special screening motion shall be filed as soon as practicable. A court may permit later filing for good cause or where the election-disruptive character of the proceeding becomes apparent after filing.

(e) Required early showing.

Upon filing of a special screening motion, the party seeking election-disruptive relief or access to sensitive election material shall make a prima facie showing of legal authority, timeliness, particularized material facts, admissible evidence or a verified factual proffer, materiality, remedy fit, necessity of any intrusive process or sensitive-material access, and absence of improper purpose.

(f) Court action.

If the required showing is not made, the court shall dismiss, deny, narrow, stay, condition, or otherwise control the proceeding or request to the extent necessary to prevent election-disruptive relief, unauthorized access to sensitive election material, or abuse of judicial process.

SEC. 6. AUTOMATIC STAY OF INTRUSIVE PROCESS.

(a) Stay.

Upon filing of a special screening motion, discovery, subpoenas, inspections, audits, forensic access, equipment access, ballot access, source-code access, and access to sensitive election material shall be stayed until the court resolves the motion.

(b) Narrow exception.

The court may authorize limited discovery or inspection before resolving the motion only upon a finding that the discovery or inspection is narrowly tailored, necessary to test a specific colorable and material claim, and subject to adequate protection for ballot secrecy, voter privacy, chain of custody, and election security.

SEC. 7. EMERGENCY RELIEF FINDINGS.

A court may not issue a temporary restraining order, preliminary injunction, stay, impoundment order, certification delay, elector-appointment delay, extraordinary audit order, or other election-disruptive relief unless the court makes written findings that the movant is substantially likely to succeed on a legally authorized claim, the alleged defect is material, irreparable injury is not primarily caused by the movant's delay, no narrower lawful remedy is adequate, the relief is compatible with applicable federal election deadlines or necessary to remedy a proven violation of federal law, and the relief will not unnecessarily impair voters, election personnel, ballot secrecy, voter privacy, chain of custody, or election security.

SEC. 8. SENSITIVE ELECTION MATERIAL PROTECTION.

A court authorizing access to sensitive election material shall enter a protective order that limits access to persons with a demonstrated need, prohibits unauthorized disclosure, preserves ballot secrecy and chain of custody, prevents disclosure of source code, credentials, security logs, keys, facility plans, or exploitable security information except under secure conditions, requires secure storage and return or destruction of copies, and imposes sanctions for violation.

SEC. 9. FEES, COSTS, AND SANCTIONS AT SCREENING OR DISPOSITION.

(a) No automatic penalty for losing.

A party may not be sanctioned under this Act solely because an election claim, motion, petition, or request is denied.

(b) Sanctions authorized.

The court may award reasonable attorney's fees, costs, public costs, or other appropriate sanctions if it finds that a filing, request, subpoena, discovery demand, or emergency-relief request was frivolous, knowingly unsupported, presented for improper purpose, materially based on false factual allegations, legally foreclosed by binding authority, maintained after a defect was identified, or used to harass, delay, or obtain unauthorized access to sensitive election material.

(c) Additional authority preserved.

This Act supplements and does not limit Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 28 U.S.C. § 1927, contempt authority, disciplinary referrals, inherent judicial power, or any other sanction authority.

SEC. 10. LATER-DISCOVERED IMPROPER-PURPOSE SANCTIONS.

(a) Independent post-disposition motion.

A motion under this section is an independent post-disposition motion for sanctions and ancillary relief. The motion may be filed whether or not a special screening motion under section 5 was previously filed, granted, denied, withdrawn, or resolved on other grounds.

(b) Ancillary jurisdiction after termination.

The court retains ancillary jurisdiction to resolve a motion under this section after dismissal, remand, voluntary dismissal, settlement, denial of emergency relief, final judgment, or other termination of the covered election proceeding.

(c) Time for motion.

Within one year after final disposition of a covered election proceeding, or within 180 days after discovery of material evidence of improper purpose, whichever is later, a party, governmental entity, election official, affected candidate, affected voter, or custodian of sensitive election material may move for sanctions under this section.

(d) Standard.

The court may impose sanctions if clear and convincing evidence shows that the proceeding, filing, subpoena, discovery request, inspection demand, audit demand, or request for emergency relief was materially presented, maintained, coordinated, or used for an improper purpose.

(e) Relevant evidence.

Relevant evidence may include communications, funding arrangements, concealed coordination, inconsistent public and court representations, knowingly false factual assertions, fundraising representations, links to certification delay, links to elector-appointment disruption, or efforts to create a false predicate for governmental action.

(f) Relief.

Sanctions may include attorney's fees, public costs, restitution for election-administration expenses, referral to disciplinary authorities, civil penalties where authorized by law, restrictions on future emergency election filings absent leave of court, protective orders, and referral to prosecuting authorities where criminal conduct may be implicated.

(g) Due process.

No sanctions may be imposed under this section without notice, an opportunity to respond, and an evidentiary hearing where material facts are disputed.

SEC. 11. EXPEDITED APPEAL.

An appeal from an order granting or denying election-disruptive relief, denying a special screening motion, authorizing access to sensitive election material, or imposing sanctions under this Act shall be expedited to the greatest practicable extent.

SEC. 12. RULES OF CONSTRUCTION.

Nothing in this Act shall be construed to prohibit a good-faith election challenge, alter the substantive elements of a federal claim, create federal jurisdiction where jurisdiction is otherwise absent, require a state court to adopt this Act, prevent a state from enacting a parallel or more protective state procedure, or limit lawful criminal investigation or prosecution. This Act shall not be construed to require dismissal or sanctions solely because a party loses an election claim, advances a nonfrivolous argument for changing law, or seeks relief for a proven constitutional or statutory violation.

SEC. 13. SEVERABILITY.

If any provision or application of this Act is held invalid, the remainder shall not be affected.

Budgetary Impact Statement

Administrative workload is possible; no new appropriation is specified.

Note: Preliminary ARRP assessment only; not a CBO, OMB, agency, or legislative-counsel score.

Drafting Notes

  • This draft regulates federal-court procedure and relief in election proceedings; it does not attempt to commandeer state courts.
  • The proposal is Anti-SLAPP-style: it adapts early screening, discovery stay, burden clarification, fee-shifting, and sanctions to election-disruptive proceedings.
  • The special motion is motion-invoked, not automatic.
  • A pre-election timing bar prevents the motion from being filed for elections more than 180 days away, except where immediate sensitive-material access or a present security/privacy risk is at issue.
  • The draft imposes no fixed post-election cutoff; post-election availability depends on functional relation to the election result, election administration, or sensitive election material.
  • Section 10 is expressly independent of the special screening motion and survives termination of the underlying proceeding.
  • Section 4(d) responds to Berk v. Choy, 607 U.S. ___ (2026), by making clear that the screening mechanism is intended as a congressional federal-court procedure, not as a court-created pleading gloss or state-law affidavit screen displaced by Rules 8 and 12. A later legislative-counsel pass should decide whether to codify this Act in title 28.
  • The July 3, 2026 ELEC-004 boundary cleanup did not expand this draft to regulate federal criminal search warrants, grand-jury process, law-enforcement interviews, or ordinary federal criminal investigations. Section 4(b)(5) remains intentional. Federal criminal investigative pressure on election-related civic organizations, election officials, ballots, voter data, or voting infrastructure is now treated as an ELEC-014 drafting question requiring Fourth Amendment, Rule 41, grand-jury, DOJ-politicization, voting-rights, and election-chilling review.

Source Notes

  • The draft should be reviewed for Rules Enabling Act, Article III, First Amendment, Petition Clause, Elections Clause, Article II, Electoral Count Reform Act, federal jurisdiction, and separation-of-powers issues. Current procedure-authority sources include Berk v. Choy, 28 U.S.C. § 2072, 28 U.S.C. § 2074, and the official Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
  • Source review should include Rule 11 and Rule 26(c) in the official Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 28 U.S.C. § 1927, and Petition Clause cases distinguishing baseless litigation from reasonably based but unsuccessful litigation, including Bill Johnson's Restaurants, Inc. v. NLRB and BE&K Construction Co. v. NLRB.
  • The Ohio Organizing Collaborative FBI-search source leads should be treated as ELEC-014 source-development material, not as direct support for this bill's current federal-court screening mechanism.