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NIST and the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) What is the Help America Vote Act? The Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002 (Public Law 107-252) was passed by Congress "to establish a program to provide funds to States to replace punch card voting systems, to establish the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) 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." What are NIST's roles under HAVA? HAVA established the Technical Guidelines Development Committee (TGDC) to assist the EAC with the development of voluntary voting system guidelines. HAVA directs the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to chair the TGDC and to provide technical support to the TGDC in the development of these voluntary guidelines. In addition HAVA directs NIST to conduct an evaluation of independent non-Federal laboratories to carry out the testing of voting systems and to submit recommendations of qualified laboratories to the EAC for accreditation. HAVA also charges NIST with monitoring and reviewing laboratories accredited by the EAC. NIST is a non-regulatory agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce. The EAC is an independent bipartisan agency charged with disbursing payments to states for replacement of voting systems and election administration improvements, adopting voluntary voting system guidelines, and serving as a national clearinghouse and resource of information regarding election administration. Who is on the TGDC? HAVA specifies that the TGDC should be comprised of 15 individuals, including the Director of NIST as the committee's chair. Several organizations appoint members, including the EAC's Standards Board and Board of Advisors, the Architectural and Transportation Barrier Compliance Board, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), and the National Association of State Election Directors (NASED). The current membership of the TGDC includes: Chair: Representing EAC Standards Board: Alice Miller, Democrat Representing EAC Board of Advisors: (Democratic Representative Vacant) Representing the Architectural and Transportation Barrier Compliance Board: Tricia Mason Representing ANSI: Representing NASED: Paul Miller Representing the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE):
Other Technical and Scientific Experts: Whitney Quesenbery Dr. Ronald Rivest Dr. Daniel Schutzer What has the TGDC accomplished so far? HAVA mandated that the first set of recommendations be written and delivered to the EAC nine months after the final approval of all TGDC members in August 2004. To meet this very aggressive schedule, the TGDC organized into 3 working subcommittees addressing the following areas of voting standards: core requirements and testing, human factors and privacy, and security and transparency. Over nine months, NIST scientists and the TGDC conducted workshops, meetings, and numerous teleconferences to gather input, pass resolutions, and review and approve NIST-authored material. This was done in a fully transparent process, with meetings conducted in public and draft materials available over the web. The resulting document, now known as the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines (VVSG 2005), was delivered on schedule to the EAC in May 2005. The VVSG 2005 built upon the strengths of the previous 2002Voting Systems Standards and enhanced areas needing improvement and added new material. The new material adds more formalism and precision to the requirements using constructs and language commonly used in rigorous, well-specified standards. This includes rules for determining conformance to the standard and a glossary for clarifying terms, which is very important when one considers that each voting jurisdiction may define terms differently. The new material focuses primarily on usability, accessibility, and security. The usability section includes requirements on voting system controls, displays, font sizes, lighting, and response times. It also requires voting systems to alert voters who make errors such as overvoting so as to reduce the overall number of spoiled ballots. The accessibility section is greatly expanded from the previous material and includes requirements for voters with limited vision and other disabilities. It also addresses the privacy of voters who require assistive technology or alternative languages on ballots. The new section on security includes the first Federal standard for Voter Verified Paper Audit Trails (VVPAT). Many states require that their voting systems include a voter verified paper trail. The VVSG 2005 takes no position regarding the implementation of VVPAT and neither requires nor endorses them. If states choose to implement VVPAT, the VVSG's requirements help to ensure that their VVPAT systems are usable, accessible, reliable and secure, and that the paper record is useful to election officials for audits of voting equipment. The security section also addresses software distribution, setup validation, and wireless. The TGDC-approved version of the VVSG 2005 was sent to the EAC in May 2005. Following that, the EAC conducted a 90-day public review and received thousands of comments; NIST provided technical assistance to the EAC in addressing these comments. The EAC published the final VVSG on December 13, 2005. This version included changes to the TGDC-approved version, reflecting the EAC's additional review. The VVSG 2005 is accessible on line at: http://www.eac.gov/vvsg_intro.htm. Will the VVSG 2005 be updated? HAVA requires that the VVSG be updated no less than every four years. Immediately after completing its work on the VVSG 2005, NIST and the TGDC began work on the next iteration of the VVSG, currently planned for delivery to the EAC by September 2007. The EAC will then begin a formal public review process of the next VVSG document. The next VVSG builds upon the VVSG 2005 but takes a fresh look at many of the requirements. It will be a larger, more comprehensive standard, with more thorough treatments of security areas and requirements for equipment integrity and reliability. The TGDC will consider for inclusion in the next VVSG updated requirements for for usability based on performance benchmarks. It will consider updated requirements for documentation and data to be provided to testing laboratories, and for testing laboratory reports on voting equipment. The requirements will be structured so as to improve their clarity to vendors and their testability by testing laboratories. Has NIST evaluated and recommended testing laboratories to the EAC for accreditation? NIST's National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program (NVLAP) has delivered three recommendations to the EAC of laboratories that are competent to serve as voting systems testing laboratories based on international standards for testing and calibration laboratories. After further review, the EAC has accredited these laboratories: iBeta Quality Assurance, InfoGard Laboratories Inc., and SysTest Labs LLC. Additional laboratories are undergoing evaluation by NVLAP assessors. All NVLAP documents related to the testing laboratory assessment process are publicly available at: http://vote.nist.gov/LabRec.htm. HAVA mandates that the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) assume federal responsibility for accrediting voting system test laboratories and certifying voting equipment. How do I learn more? For information on the VVSG development process, see our website at http://vote.nist.gov. For information on the Test Laboratory Accreditation Progam, see the EAC web site at http://www.eac.gov. Date
created: 07/30/03
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