Revises provisions relating to elections. (BDR 24-138)

A.B. 271

- *AB271*

ASSEMBLY BILL NO. 271–ASSEMBLYMEMBERS
GURR, DELONG, HIBBETTS; AND HANSEN

FEBRUARY 20, 2025
____________

Referred to Committee on Legislative Operations and Elections

SUMMARY—Revises provisions relating to elections.
(BDR 24-138)

FISCAL NOTE: Effect on Local Government: Increases or Newly
Provides for Term of Imprisonment in County or City
Jail or Detention Facility.
Effect on the State: Yes.

~

EXPLANATION – Matter in bolded italics is new; matter between brackets [omitted material] is material to be omitted.

AN ACT relating to elections; prohibiting the use of artificial
intelligence in equipment used for voting, ballot
processing or ballot counting; requiring certai n published
material that is generated through the use of artificial
intelligence or that includes a materially deceptive
depiction of a candidate to include certain disclosures;
prohibiting, with certain exceptions, the distribution of
synthetic media tha t contains a deceptive and fraudulent
deepfake of a candidate; providing penalties; and
providing other matters properly relating thereto.
Legislative Counsel’s Digest:
Existing law authorizes the use of mechanical voting systems that meet or 1
exceed certain federal and state standards. (NRS 293B.063 -293B.103) Section 5 of 2
this bill prohibits any equipment used for voting, ballot processing or ballot 3
counting from using artificial intelligence. 4
Existing law requires that certain statements and communications relating to an 5
election contain disclosures to provide the public with certain information relating 6
to the source or purpose of the statement or commun ication. (NRS 294A.347 -7
294A.3495) Section 7 of this bill requires any published material that: (1) expressly 8
advocates the election or defeat of a candidate or the passage or defeat of a ballot 9
question to include a disclosure; and (2) is generated through the use of artificial 10
intelligence to include a disclosure. Section 8 of this bill requires any published 11
material that: (1) expressly advocates the election or defeat of a candidate or the 12
passage or defeat of a ballot question to include a disclosure; and (2) includes a 13
materially deceptive depiction of a candidate to inc lude a disclosure. Section 9 of 14
this bill prohibits, under certain circumstances and with certain exceptions, a person 15

– 2 –

- *AB271*
from distributing synthetic media tha t the person knows or should know contains a 16
deceptive and fraudulent deepfake of the candidate. 17
Sections 2, 3 and 9 of this bill define certain terms used in this bill. 18
Section 4 of this bill indicates the placement of sections 2 and 3. 19

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEVADA, REPRESENTED IN
SENATE AND ASSEMBLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

Section 1. Chapter 293 of NRS is hereby amended by adding 1
thereto the provisions set forth as sections 2 and 3 of this act. 2
Sec. 2. “Artificial intelligence” means a machine -based 3
system that can, for a given set of human -defined objectives, make 4
predictions, recommendations or decisions influencing real or 5
virtual environments. 6
Sec. 3. “Ballot marking device” means a device which allows 7
a registered voter to mark a paper ballot which is subsequently 8
counted on an electronic tabulator, counting device or computer. 9
Sec. 4. NRS 293.010 is hereby amended to read as follows: 10
293.010 As used in this title, unless the context otherwise 11
requires, the words and terms defined in NRS 293.016 to 293.121, 12
inclusive, and sections 2 and 3 of this act have the meanings 13
ascribed to them in those sections. 14
Sec. 5. Chapter 293B of NRS is hereby amended by adding 15
thereto a new section to read as follows: 16
Any equipment used for voting, ballot processing or ballot 17
counting, including, without limitation, automatic tabulating 18
equipment and programs, ballot marking devices, electronic 19
devices used pursuant to NRS 293.269927 or 293C.26327 to check 20
signatures on mail ballots, mechanical recording devices, 21
mechanical voting systems and voting machines must not use 22
artificial intelligence. 23
Sec. 6. Chapter 294A of NRS is hereby amended by ad ding 24
thereto the provisions set forth as sections 7, 8 and 9 of this act. 25
Sec. 7. 1. Any published material that expressly advocates 26
the election or defeat of a candidate for a state or local office or 27
the passage or defeat of a ballot question in an election and is 28
generated through the use of artificial intelligence must include 29
the following disclosure on the published material: 30
31
This communication was generated using artificial 32
intelligence. 33
34
2. A person who willfully violates this section is guilty of a 35
misdemeanor. 36

– 3 –

- *AB271*
Sec. 8. 1. Any published material that expressly advocates 1
the election or defeat of a candidate or the passage or defeat of a 2
ballot question in an election and includes a materially deceptive 3
depiction of the candidate must include the following disclosure 4
on the published material: 5
6
This material has been manipulated to include a materially 7
deceptive depiction of a candidate. 8
9
2. For the purposes of subsection 1, published material 10
includes a materially deceptive depiction of a candidate if: 11
(a) The published material has been manipulated to change 12
the physical appearance of a candidate or depict a candidate 13
performing an act that did not occur; or 14
(b) The published material includes an image of the candidate 15
that has been altered to change the saturation, brightness, 16
contrast, color or other visible quality of an image of the 17
candidate. 18
3. A person who willfully violates any provision of this 19
section is guilty of a misdemeanor. 20
Sec. 9. 1. Except as otherwise provided in this section, a 21
person shall not, within 90 days of an election at which a 22
candidate will appear on the ballot, distribute synthetic media that 23
the person knows or should know con tains a deceptive and 24
fraudulent deepfake of the candidate. 25
2. The provisions of subsection 1 do not apply to any of the 26
following: 27
(a) Any person who publishes synthetic media that includes a 28
clear and conspicuous disclaimer that the synthetic media includes 29
a deceptive and fraudulent deepfake of a candidate. 30
(b) A radio broadcasting station, a television broadcasting 31
station or a cable or satellite television operator that: 32
(1) Broadcasts synthetic media as part of a bona fide 33
newscast, interview, documentary or coverage of a bona fide news 34
event; and 35
(2) Indicates during the newscast, interview, documentary 36
or coverage of a bona fide news event that there are questions 37
about the authenticity of the image, audio recording or video 38
recording of the candidate in the synthetic media. 39
(c) Any Internet website that routinely carries news and 40
commentary of general interest or any regularly published 41
newspaper, magazine or other periodical of general circulation 42
that includes a disclosure on synthetic media that the image, audio 43
or visual recording of the candidate does not accurately represent 44
the speech or conduct of the candidate. 45

– 4 –

- *AB271*
(d) Any person who publishes synthetic media as part of 1
entertainment as a satire or parody. 2
(e) Any interactive computer service provider, cloud service 3
provider or Internet service provider. 4
3. Any candidate who is depicted in synthetic media that 5
contains a deceptive and fraudulent deepfake of the candidate may 6
seek an injunction or other equitable relief in district court. 7
4. Any person who violates a provision of this section is guilty 8
of a misdemeanor. 9
5. As used in this section: 10
(a) “Deceptive and fraudulent deepfake” means synthetic 11
media that: 12
(1) Depicts a candidate with the intent to injure the 13
reputation of the candidate or otherwise deceive a voter; and 14
(2) Does at least one of the following: 15
(I) Appears to a reasonable person to depict a real 16
natural person saying or doing something that did not occur in 17
reality; or 18
(II) Provides a reasonable person with a fundamentally 19
different understanding or impression of an appearance, action or 20
speech than a reasonable person would have from the unaltered, 21
original version of the appearance, action or speech. 22
(b) “Generative adversarial network” means a framework for 23
machine learning that uses adversarial training towards the 24
development of generative artificial intelligence. 25
(c) “Generative artificial intelligence” means a technology of 26
artificial intelligence that is capabl e of creating content such as 27
text, audio, image or video based on patterns learned from large 28
volumes of data rather than being explicitly programmed with 29
rules. 30
(d) “Synthetic media” means an image, audio recording or 31
video recording of the appearance, speech or conduct of a person 32
that has been intentionally manipulated with the use of generative 33
adversarial network techniques, artificial intelligence, generative 34
artificial intelligence or any other digital technology to create a 35
realistic but false ima ge, audio recording or video recording that 36
produces: 37
(1) A depiction that to a reasonable natural person is of a 38
real natural person in appearance, action or speech but that did 39
not actually occur in reality; and 40
(2) A fundamentally different understa nding or impression 41
of the appearance, action or speech of a person than what a 42
reasonable natural person would have from viewing or listening to 43
the unaltered original version of the image, audio recording or 44
video recording. 45

– 5 –

- *AB271*
Sec. 10. 1. This section becomes effective upon passage and 1
approval. 2
2. Sections 1 to 9, inclusive, of this act become effective: 3
(a) Upon passage and approval for the purpose of adopting any 4
regulations and performing any preparatory administrative tasks that 5
are necessary to carry out the provisions of this act; and 6
(b) On January 1, 2026, for all other purposes. 7

H