S. 5124: Stop Harassment and Intimidations in Elections through Legal Defenses (SHIELD) Our Elections Act

This bill would make several changes related to federal elections, especially election interference, ballot security, and ballot tracking.

Election interference and voter intimidation

The bill would let a person who is harmed by certain federal election-interference crimes seek a court order to stop or prevent the conduct. Specifically, it creates a private right to go to federal court for declaratory or injunctive relief if someone violates existing federal laws covering:

• sending troops to polling places,
• interference by armed forces,
• intimidation of voters, and
• certain election-related violations under the Voting Rights Act and the National Voter Registration Act.

The bill also says a court may award reasonable attorney fees, litigation expenses, and costs to the winning party, except that the United States would not be eligible for those fee awards under this section.

Longer time to bring some criminal cases

The bill would extend the time limit for prosecuting certain election-interference crimes. For the laws listed above, prosecutors would generally have up to 9 years after the offense to file charges. This would apply to crimes involving troops at polls, interference by armed forces, voter intimidation, and related offenses under the Voting Rights Act and the National Voter Registration Act.

Limits on seizure of ballots and election records

The bill would add new restrictions on when state or federal law enforcement can seize election records, papers, or equipment used in federal elections. In general, those materials could not be seized before any recount, audit, or legal challenge over the election has been fully resolved.

There is an exception: a federal district judge could allow seizure if there is clear and convincing evidence that the records or equipment are at risk of being destroyed. If that happens, the materials would be kept in joint custody rather than taken entirely out of election officials’ control. The person controlling the materials would also have to:

• keep a chain-of-custody record, and
• allow the election official access to the seized materials.

Grant program for ballot tracking

The bill would create a grant program for states to build or improve ballot-tracking systems for mail-in and absentee ballots. The Election Assistance Commission would be allowed to give states money to cover the cost of establishing and running these programs.

To qualify, a state program would need to let election officials track and confirm receipt of ballots and let voters see information about their own ballots. The system would need to provide voters with information such as:

• when a registration or absentee-ballot request was received,
• when the request was sent to the voter,
• when the completed application was received and its status,
• when a ballot was sent and when it was out for delivery, and
• whether the ballot was accepted and counted, or if not, why it was not counted.

The bill says that information about whether ballots were sent and whether they were counted must be made available quickly, generally within one day after the decision is made. It also says states must make certain ballot-status information available to political parties and voter registration organizations, at cost, to help return or fix mail ballots during the return period.

States would generally have to make the information available online, but if an election office does not have a website, it could use a toll-free phone number instead.

Funding

The bill authorizes $50 million for fiscal year 2027 for the ballot-tracking grant program, and the money would remain available until spent.

Relevant Companies

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