Security Aspects of Electronic Voting

The Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002 was passed by Congress to encourage the upgrade of voting equipment across the United States. HAVA established the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) and the Technical Guidelines Development Committee (TGDC), chaired by the Director of NIST, was well as a Board of Advisors and Standard Board. HAVA calls on NIST to provide technical support to the EAC and TGDC in efforts related to human factors, security, and laboratory accreditation. To explore and research issues related to the security and transparency of voting systems, the TGDC established the Security and Transparency Subcommittee (STS).

The Cryptographic Technology Group of the Information Technology Laboratory’s Computer Security Division supports the activities of the EAC, TGDC, and STS related to voting equipment security. The Security Technology Group supports the TGDC’s development effort for the next generation of the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines (VVSG), focusing on developing a security architecture that addresses significant threats to voting systems and enhancing voting system auditability.