ELEC-007 — Election Administration Federal-Force Noninterference Act¶

A BILL¶

To prohibit federal personnel from participating in election administration, to preserve state and local civilian control over election operations, to permit narrowly limited non-election emergency response near election sites, to protect election materials from federal interference absent specific judicial safeguards, 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 “Election Administration Federal-Force Noninterference Act.”

SEC. 2. PURPOSES.¶

The purposes of this Act are to—

preserve civilian state and local control over election administration;
modernize the principle that federal troops, armed federal personnel, and federally directed forces should not be present in a manner that affects elections;
distinguish lawful non-election emergency response from prohibited election participation;
prevent federal emergency authority, law-enforcement authority, investigative authority, protective authority, or technical-assistance authority from being used as a pretext for federal election supervision;
protect voters, election workers, ballots, voting equipment, election records, and result-transmission materials from intimidation or unlawful interference;
permit narrowly limited federal assistance only in extraordinary non-election emergencies where state and local capacity is demonstrably inadequate; and
require notice, documentation, withdrawal, and judicial safeguards where federal presence or process intersects with election sites or election materials.

SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.¶

In this Act:

Covered election site means a polling place, ballot drop site, voter-registration processing site during an election period, counting center, tabulation center, canvassing site, recount site, audit site, certification site, election office, ballot-storage facility, voting-equipment storage facility, result-transmission site, or any place where ballots, voting equipment, pollbooks, tabulators, memory devices, election records, or presidential result-transmission documents are located, processed, counted, stored, reviewed, certified, or transmitted.
Covered election material means ballots, ballot images, voting equipment, tabulators, scanners, pollbooks, voter check-in devices, memory devices, removable media, election-management systems, chain-of-custody records, canvass records, certification records, recount records, audit records, election returns, presidential result-transmission documents, and any other record or item necessary to vote, count, tabulate, canvass, recount, audit, certify, preserve, or transmit election results.
Federal personnel means any officer, employee, agent, contractor, task-force member, military member, National Guard member in federal status, deputized federal officer, or other person acting under federal command, control, direction, funding, or operational authority.
Election-administration function means any act of administering, supervising, directing, controlling, observing for election-integrity purposes, interrupting, delaying, counting, recounting, canvassing, auditing, certifying, decertifying, validating, invalidating, transporting, seizing, inspecting, accessing, imaging, copying, retaining, or taking custody of any voting process, election proceeding, election decision, or covered election material. The term does not include lawful federal civil-rights monitoring, federal observer activity, or Department of Justice election monitoring authorized by the Voting Rights Act or other federal voting-rights law, provided that the activity is conducted without force, intimidation, direction of election officials, custody of election materials, or participation in an election-administration decision.
Non-election emergency function means an otherwise lawful law-enforcement, emergency-response, protective, medical, fire, explosives, cybersecurity, disaster-response, or technical-assistance function directed at an extraordinary emergency and not directed at administering, supervising, influencing, or participating in the election.
Extraordinary emergency means a specific, imminent, and objectively documented non-election emergency involving an active threat to life, serious bodily harm, active violence, credible explosive threat, fire, flood, structural collapse, hazardous-material incident, catastrophic infrastructure failure, or comparable physical emergency that state and local authorities cannot timely and adequately address without narrowly limited federal assistance. The term does not include alleged election fraud, suspected election irregularities, disputes over voter eligibility, disputes over ballot validity, delays in counting or reporting, certification disputes, poll-watcher or observer disputes, generalized public unrest, generalized concern about election integrity, or a request to inspect, verify, audit, secure, transport, preserve, or take custody of election materials.
State consent means a written request or written consent from the Governor or another statewide official expressly designated by state law to request federal emergency assistance for election-site safety or election-continuity purposes.

SEC. 4. GENERAL PROHIBITION ON FEDERAL ELECTION-ADMINISTRATION PARTICIPATION.¶

(a) Prohibition.¶

Except as expressly provided in this Act, federal personnel may not perform, direct, supervise, control, influence, or participate in any election-administration function.

(b) No emergency conversion.¶

The existence of an emergency, threat, investigation, protective mission, federal-facility concern, or technical-assistance request shall not convert federal personnel into election administrators and shall not authorize federal personnel to make, influence, delay, or control any election-administration decision.

(c) Appearance of supervision.¶

Federal personnel may not be deployed, positioned, identified, or used in a manner that reasonably creates the appearance that the federal government is supervising, validating, invalidating, policing, or controlling voting, counting, canvassing, recounting, auditing, certification, or custody of election materials.

SEC. 5. NON-ELECTION EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE EXCEPTION.¶

(a) Exception.¶

Federal personnel may perform a non-election emergency function at or near a covered election site only if all requirements of this section are satisfied.

(b) Required predicates.¶

Before federal personnel may be deployed under this section, there must be—

state consent;
an extraordinary emergency;
a written finding that state and local authorities cannot timely and adequately address the specific emergency without federal assistance;
identification of the specific state or local capacity inadequacy requiring federal assistance;
a written scope order limiting the location, duration, personnel, mission, permitted actions, prohibited actions, command structure, reporting requirements, and termination trigger; and
confirmation that federal personnel will not perform any election-administration function.

(c) Scope limitation.¶

Federal assistance under this section shall be limited to the least intrusive non-election emergency function necessary to address the specific state-capacity inadequacy identified under subsection (b).

(d) Supportive role only.¶

Federal personnel deployed under this section may protect life, stabilize the emergency, provide technical assistance, assist in neutral emergency response, or perform other non-election functions within the written scope order. They may not administer, supervise, direct, observe for election-integrity purposes, interrupt, delay, count, recount, canvass, certify, audit, transport, seize, inspect, access, image, copy, retain, or take custody of covered election material or any election process.

(e) Automatic withdrawal.¶

Federal personnel deployed under this section shall withdraw from the covered election site when the emergency ends, state or local capacity is restored, the written scope order expires, state consent is withdrawn, or a court orders withdrawal, whichever occurs first.

SEC. 6. EXIGENT LIFE-SAFETY FALLBACK.¶

(a) Limited immediate action.¶

If prior state consent is impossible because of an imminent threat to life or serious bodily harm, federal personnel may enter or act near a covered election site only to stabilize the emergency and protect life.

(b) No election participation.¶

Action under this section does not authorize any election-administration function.

(c) Notice and withdrawal.¶

Within six hours after action under this section begins, the responsible federal official shall provide written notice to the Governor, chief state election official, state attorney general, chief local election official, and United States district court for the district in which the action occurred. Federal personnel shall withdraw unless state consent, a judicial order, or another lawful non-election emergency predicate is obtained.

SEC. 7. ELECTION-MATERIAL ACCESS AND JUDICIAL SAFEGUARDS.¶

(a) Separate judicial process required.¶

Federal personnel may not access, inspect, image, copy, transport, seize, retain, or take custody of covered election material unless authorized by a lawful court-issued writ, warrant, subpoena-enforcement order, or other judicial order satisfying this section, except for incidental physical movement necessary to protect life during an exigent emergency under section 6.

(b) Required findings.¶

A court may authorize access to covered election material only upon specific findings that—

there is probable cause or other applicable legal basis for the process sought;
the covered election material is specifically identified;
the request is not a pretext for election supervision or interference;
the action is necessary and cannot be accomplished through a less intrusive alternative;
the action will not materially disrupt voting, counting, canvassing, recounting, auditing, certification, or statutory election deadlines unless no alternative is adequate;
chain of custody, ballot secrecy, voter privacy, voting-system security, and election-record integrity will be preserved;
copying, imaging, inspection, or supervised access is insufficient before physical seizure or removal; and
notice has been provided to the chief state election official and chief local election official unless delayed notice is specifically justified by exigent circumstances.

(c) Protective conditions.¶

Any order under this section shall include conditions governing chain of custody, sealing, copying, imaging, physical custody, access logs, storage, return, nondisclosure of sensitive election-security information, and expedited return or substitution where election administration requires continued use of the material.

(d) No supervisory authority.¶

A court order under this section authorizes only the specific evidence-preservation or law-enforcement action ordered. It does not authorize federal personnel to supervise, direct, pause, resume, validate, invalidate, count, recount, canvass, audit, certify, or decertify any election process.

(e) Court-process savings clause.¶

Nothing in this Act prohibits federal personnel from executing a lawful court-issued writ, warrant, subpoena-enforcement order, or other judicial order, provided that execution of the order does not authorize federal personnel to perform an election-administration function except to the limited extent expressly required by the order and consistent with any chain-of-custody, voter-privacy, ballot-secrecy, and election-security safeguards imposed by the issuing court or applicable law.

SEC. 8. PROHIBITED CONDUCT; INCIDENTAL-CONTACT SAFE HARBOR.¶

(a) Prohibited conduct.¶

It shall be unlawful for federal personnel or any person acting under color of federal authority to—

enter a covered election site for the purpose of supervising, monitoring, influencing, or controlling election administration;
visibly patrol, station, or deploy at a covered election site in a manner not authorized by this Act;
question voters, poll workers, election officials, observers, or canvassers about election choices, eligibility, vote counting, ballot handling, or certification decisions except pursuant to lawful process and outside active election administration where feasible;
direct any election official to stop, start, pause, resume, alter, certify, decertify, count, recount, reject, accept, transport, disclose, or withhold any vote, ballot, record, material, canvass, or certification;
use a non-election emergency or investigation as a pretext to observe election administration, access election materials, or influence election decisions;
take custody of covered election material except under section 7; or
represent, expressly or implicitly, that federal personnel are supervising, validating, invalidating, certifying, decertifying, or controlling the election.

(b) Incidental-contact safe harbor.¶

No person shall be liable under this Act solely because federal personnel, while acting in good faith and performing an otherwise lawful non-election function, inadvertently or unavoidably encounter, overhear, observe, or have incidental contact with an election process, election personnel, voters, observers, or covered election material, provided that the federal personnel—

did not intend to influence, supervise, control, delay, or participate in election administration;
did not invoke federal authority to affect an election-administration decision;
disengaged from any election-administration matter as soon as practicable;
did not access, inspect, image, copy, transport, seize, retain, or take custody of covered election material except as authorized by section 6 or 7;
did not disclose or use nonpublic election information obtained through the incidental contact except as required by lawful process or necessary to address the non-election emergency; and
documented and reported any material incidental contact to the responsible federal supervisor and, where feasible, the chief state or local election official.

(c) Safe harbor limitations.¶

The safe harbor in subsection (b) does not apply to intentional, reckless, repeated, pretextual, or avoidable conduct; conduct undertaken to observe or investigate election administration without lawful authority; or conduct that materially affects voting, counting, canvassing, auditing, certification, custody of election materials, or any other election-administration function.

SEC. 9. NOTICE, REPORTING, AND RECORDKEEPING.¶

(a) Public notice.¶

Whenever federal personnel are deployed under section 5 or act under section 6, the responsible federal official shall issue public notice as soon as doing so will not materially endanger life, safety, or a legitimate non-election law-enforcement operation.

(b) Contents.¶

The notice shall identify the covered election site or general location, nature of the emergency, state consent or exigent predicate, state-capacity inadequacy identified, mission scope, participating federal entities, start time, expected duration, and whether any covered election material was affected.

(c) After-action report.¶

Within 14 days after federal personnel withdraw, the responsible federal official shall provide an after-action report to the Governor, chief state election official, state attorney general, chief local election official, relevant congressional committees, and the public.

(d) Sensitive information.¶

Classified, law-enforcement-sensitive, cybersecurity-sensitive, personal-privacy, or election-security-sensitive information may be redacted or summarized in unclassified form.

(e) Records preserved.¶

Federal entities shall preserve deployment orders, scope orders, communications, access logs, body-camera footage where available, incident reports, chain-of-custody records, notices, and after-action reports.

SEC. 10. EXPEDITED JUDICIAL REVIEW.¶

(a) Cause of action.¶

A state, Governor, chief state election official, state attorney general, local election official, affected candidate, political party, affected voter, or custodian of covered election material may bring a civil action for declaratory or injunctive relief against violation of this Act.

(b) Venue.¶

An action under this section may be brought in the United States district court for the district where the covered election site or covered election material is located, or in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

(c) Expedition.¶

The court shall expedite the action to the greatest practicable extent.

(d) Relief.¶

The court may order withdrawal of federal personnel, prohibit election-administration participation, enforce chain-of-custody safeguards, require return or preservation of covered election material, require notice or reporting, or grant other narrow relief necessary to enforce this Act.

SEC. 11. RELATION TO OTHER LAW.¶

Nothing in this Act shall be construed to—

prohibit otherwise lawful non-election emergency response consistent with this Act;
prohibit ordinary state or local law-enforcement election-site safety functions;
authorize federal personnel to participate in election administration;
limit stricter protections under state law;
impair lawful civil-rights enforcement conducted without federal election-administration participation;
impair lawful criminal investigation conducted outside active election administration or under the safeguards of this Act;
prohibit execution of a lawful court-issued writ, warrant, subpoena-enforcement order, or other judicial order, subject to section 7;
prohibit federal personnel from registering to vote, voting, standing in line to vote, assisting family or household members as permitted by ordinary election law, appearing at a polling place in a personal capacity, or engaging in lawful civic activity in the same manner as other citizens, provided that they do not invoke federal authority, act under color of federal office, or perform official duties while doing so;
authorize any action prohibited by the Posse Comitatus Act or other federal law;
limit 18 U.S.C. § 592 except to provide additional protections; or
authorize federal personnel to direct, supervise, or control a state or local election official.

SEC. 12. PERSONAL-CAPACITY VOTING APPEARANCE.¶

(a) Civilian attire where reasonably practicable.¶

Federal personnel appearing at a polling place, ballot drop site, voter-registration site, or other voting location solely in a personal capacity shall, where reasonably practicable, appear in civilian attire.

(b) No indicia of federal authority.¶

Federal personnel appearing in a personal capacity shall not display official insignia, tactical gear, official credentials, marked federal vehicles, visible weapons, or other indicia of federal authority in a manner that would reasonably create the appearance of federal election supervision, intimidation, or official presence.

(c) No denial or invalidation of vote.¶

Nothing in this section shall be construed to deny, burden, condition, or abridge the right of federal personnel to vote. A violation of this section shall not invalidate the individual's ballot.

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¶

The controlling rule is that federal agents may respond to a non-election emergency; they may not become part of the election.
The emergency exception is not an election-participation exception.
The extraordinary emergency definition is intentionally limited to concrete non-election emergencies and excludes election-administration disputes, generalized election-integrity concerns, and requests to inspect or secure election materials.
The incidental-contact safe harbor protects good-faith inadvertent or unavoidable contact, but not intentional, reckless, pretextual, repeated, or election-affecting conduct.
Federal personnel retain ordinary personal voting rights and lawful personal civic rights, subject to ordinary election law, ethics rules, agency rules, and the prohibition on invoking federal authority.
Federal personnel should appear in civilian attire when voting in person where reasonably practicable and must not display official indicia in a manner suggesting federal election supervision or intimidation; this rule does not deny the right to vote or invalidate any ballot.
Lawful court-issued writs, warrants, subpoena-enforcement orders, and other judicial orders remain executable, but they do not authorize election-administration participation beyond the order's express terms and required safeguards.
State consent is necessary but not sufficient; there must also be a documented state-capacity inadequacy.
Election-material access requires separate judicial safeguards.
The civil-rights monitoring carveout is intended to preserve lawful Voting Rights Act observers and Department of Justice election monitoring while preventing federal-force presence or federal control over election administration.

Source Notes¶

This draft should be reviewed against 18 U.S.C. § 592, the Posse Comitatus Act, National Guard authorities, federal civil-rights enforcement including Voting Rights Act observer and monitoring authorities, election-crime enforcement, emergency-response law, federalism principles, state emergency-management law, Hatch Act principles, and federal employee voting-rights protections.