Preparing Election Administrators for AI Act

• Authority: United States Congress
• Parent authority: Federal government
• Jurisdiction: United States
• Collections: U.S. federal laws
• Most recent activity: Defunct
• Most recent activity date: 2025-01-03

Risk subdomain coverage

Good coverage — Comprehensive governance measures or mitigations with clear procedures relating to the risk subdomain are explicitly described.

• Disinformation, surveillance, and influence at scale

Minimal coverage — Brief mention but no specific mitigations, recommendations or governance measures relating to the risk subdomain are described.

• AI system security vulnerabilities
• False or misleading information
• Pollution of information ecosystem
• Fraud, scams, and targeted manipulation
• Governance failure

All other risk subdomains had no coverage in this document.

Risk Coverage Summary

The document has good coverage of approximately 4-5 subdomains, with strong focus on malicious actors and disinformation (4.1), misinformation (3.1, 3.2), AI system security (2.2), and governance failure (6.5). Coverage is concentrated in information integrity, election security, and governance domains.

Sector coverage

Good coverage — Comprehensive governance measures or mitigations with clear procedures relating to the sector are explicitly described.

• Public Administration (excl. National Security)

All other sectors had no coverage in this document.

Sectors Summary

This document primarily governs the Public Administration sector, specifically election administration offices at state and local levels. It does not regulate AI developers or deployers in other sectors, but rather provides voluntary guidelines for government election offices on managing AI risks and uses in election administration.

Legislative Status

Soft Law

Legislative Status Summary

This is a legislative act that mandates the creation of voluntary guidelines for election administration, with no binding enforcement mechanisms or penalties for non-compliance with the guidelines themselves.

Actors

Proposer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: United States Congress; Senator Amy Klobuchar; Senator Susan Collins; Committee on Rules and Administration
• Summary: The bill was introduced in the Senate by Senators Klobuchar and Collins, read twice and referred to the Committee on Rules and Administration, then reported by Senator Klobuchar with an amendment.

Target

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: State and local election offices; Election Assistance Commission
• Summary: The voluntary guidelines are specifically directed to State and local election offices to address AI use and risks in election administration. The EAC is also a target as it must conduct studies and develop guidelines.

Enforcer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: Election Assistance Commission
• Summary: The Election Assistance Commission is mandated to develop guidelines, conduct studies, and review/update guidelines. However, since the guidelines are voluntary, there is no traditional enforcement mechanism for compliance by election offices.

Monitor

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: Election Assistance Commission; National Institute of Standards and Technology
• Summary: The EAC is required to study the use and impacts of AI in the 2024 elections and report findings to Congress, State and local election offices, and the public. NIST provides consultation support.

AI Lifecycle Stages

Lifecycle stages covered by the documents, as defined in the OECD Framework for the Classification of AI Systems

• Deploy
• Operate and Monitor

AI Lifecycle Summary

The document does not focus on specific AI lifecycle stages but rather addresses the use and impacts of AI technologies in election administration broadly. It emphasizes operational monitoring and deployment contexts through studying AI use in elections and developing guidelines for election offices.

Technical Scope

Terms relating to technical scope that are mentioned or implicitly referenced in the document

No technical scope terms identified.

Technical Scope Summary

The document uses the general term 'artificial intelligence technologies' throughout without defining it or specifying particular types of AI systems, models, or technical characteristics. No compute thresholds, model types, or technical specifications are mentioned.