Certification of voting machines

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In the United States, electronic voting machines as used in federal, state, and local elections have come under public scrutiny and controversy. Voting machines, especially those that do not provide a Voter Verified Audit Trail, potentially allow undetectable, large-scale electoral fraud. Various levels of the US government require certification of voting machines. Recently,further focus on this issue was sparked in part by controversy over voting machine irregularities in the 2004 U.S. presidential election.

Contents

[edit] U.S. History

[edit] Work of Roy Saltman

In February 1975 an interagency agreement was formed with General Accounting Office’s Office of Federal Elections (predecessor to the Federal Election Commission) and the National Bureau of Standards (predecessor to the National Institute of Standards and Technology) resulting in a March 1975 report, Effective Use of Computing Technology in Vote-Tallying [1]. This report highlighted 'the lack of appropriate technical skills at the State and local level for developing or implementing written standards, against which voting system hardware and software could be evaluated.'

The U.S. Congress then directed the Federal Election Commission (FEC), in conjunction with the National Bureau of Standards to create engineering and procedural performance standards for voting systems. Another report, Voting System Standards: A Report on the Feasibility of Developing Voluntary Standards for Voting Equipment was produced in early 1984[2]. In July of 1984 the FEC armed with congressionaly appropriated funds began a six year task of creating the first national performance and test standards for punchcard, marksense, and direct recording electronic voting systems. The resulting body of work was the first set of voluntary Voting System Standards issued in 1990[3].

[edit] FEC and NASED

In addition to their involvement in the origins of US voting certification and testing, the FEC's Office of Election Administration and the NASED updated the initial Voting System Standards with the 2002 Voting System Standards/Guidelines.

The national testing effort was overseen by NASED’s Voting Systems Board, which is composed of election officials and independent technical advisors. NASED established a process for vendors to submit their equipment to an Independent Test Authority (ITA) for evaluation against the Standards. The NASED has compiled a list of Qualified Voting Systems 12-22-05(pdf)

[edit] EAC and VVSG

The U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) was established by the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA). Central to its role, the Commission serves as a national clearinghouse and resource for information and review of procedures with respect to the administration of Federal elections. According to the text of HAVA, the law was enacted to,

establish a program to provide funds to States to replace punch card voting systems, to establish the Election Assistance Commission to assist in the administration of Federal elections and to otherwise provide assistance with the administration of certain Federal election laws and programs, to establish minimum election administration standards for States and units of local government with responsibility for the administration of Federal elections, and for other purposes.

The EAC's Technical Guidelines Development Committee, Chaired by the Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), developed the 2005 Voluntary Voting System Guidelines, which significantly increase security requirements for voting systems and expand access, including opportunities to vote privately and independently, for individuals with disabilities. The guidelines will take effect in December 2007.

The voluntary guidelines provide a set of specifications and requirements against which voting systems can be tested to determine if the systems provide all of the basic functionality, accessibility and security capabilities required of these systems. In addition, the guidelines establish evaluation criteria for the national certification of voting systems.

During the 90-day public comment period, EAC received more than 6,000 comments on the proposed guidelines. Each comment was reviewed and considered by EAC in consultation with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the development of the final version. To view these comments and the proposed guidelines, go here.

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Roy G. Saltman. Final Project Report: Effective Use of Computing Technology in Vote-Tallying, prepared for the Clearinghouse on Election Administration (May 1975). URL= http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/NBS_SP_500-30.pdf
  2. ^ Saltman, R. G. 1988. Accuracy, integrity and security in computerized vote-tallying. Commun. ACM 31, 10 (Oct. 1988), 1184-1191. DOI= http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/63039.63041
  3. ^ Performance and Test Standards for Punchcard, Marksense, and Direct Recording Electronic Voting Systems, Federal Election Commission (1990). URL= http://josephhall.org/fec_vss_1990_pdf/FEC_1990_Voting_System_Standards.pdf

[edit] References and external links

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