| As
part of its responsibilities under the Help America Vote
Act of 2002 (HAVA), the Commerce
Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology
(NIST) will hold a symposium on building trust and confidence
in voting systems at the agency’s Gaithersburg, Md.,
headquarters on Dec. 10-11, 2003. The two-day event will
bring together a host of people with an interest in election
technology, including federal, state and local election officials;
university researchers; independent testing laboratories;
election law experts; hardware and software vendors; and
others concerned about or involved with the latest developments
in voting systems.
Enacted
by Congress in October 2002, the HAVA legislation gave
NIST a key role in helping realize
nationwide improvements
in voting systems by January 2006.
NIST
plans to use the December symposium as a springboard for
its collaboration with the
election community prior to
the
implementation of the HAVA. The meeting agenda will include
four panel discussions on key issues for improving voting
systems:
- specification,
testability and qualification;
- security
and openness;
- usability
and accessibility; and
- next
steps/consensus issues.
World-renowned experts in the voting standards arena are
scheduled to take part in the symposium panels. Confirmed
participants include:
- Jim
Adler, founder, president and CEO of VoteHere, a manufacturer
of electronic voting systems;
- Donetta
Davidson, Colorado Secretary of State and treasurer,
National Association of Secretaries of State;
- David
Dill, professor of computer science at Stanford University,
and initiator of the VerifiedVoting.org Web site;
- Doug
Jones, authority on computer voting, voting history
expert, former chairman of the Iowa Board of Examiners
for Voting Machines and Electronic Voting Systems, and
associate
professor of computer science at the University of Iowa;
- Rebecca
Mercuri, electronic voting systems expert, assistant
professor of computer science at Bryn Mawr College
and research fellow at Harvard University’s John
F. Kennedy School of Government;
- Avi
Rubin, associate professor of computer science and technical
director
of the Information Security Institute
at Johns Hopkins University; and
- Tom
Wilkey, National Association of State Elections Directors,
and
former director, New York State Board of Elections.
NIST's Information
Technology Laboratory, which is hosting the symposium and
will coordinate NIST’s HAVA activities,
has considerable expertise in the technical areas that will
be the focus of the event. Additionally, NIST researchers
frequently work with colleagues in industry, academic institutions
and other government agencies to develop standards for emerging
and rapidly changing information technologies.
For more information on the Building Trust and Confidence
in Voting Systems symposium, including an online registration
form, go to http://vote.nist.gov.
As a non-regulatory
agency in the U.S. Department of Commerce’s
Technology Administration, NIST develops and promotes measurement,
standards and technology to enhance productivity, facilitate
trade and improve the quality of life. For more information,
visit www.nist.gov.
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