NIST and the Help America Vote Act (HAVA)

The 2002 Help America Vote Act has given NIST a key role in helping to realize nationwide improvements in voting systems. To assist the Election Assistance Commission with the development of voluntary voting system guidelines, HAVA established the Technical Guidelines Development Committee (TGDC) and directs NIST to chair the TGDC. NIST research activities include:

• security of computers, computer networks, and computer data storage used in voting systems;
• methods to detect and prevent fraud;
• protection of voter privacy; and
• the role of human factors in the design and application of voting systems, including assistive technologies for individuals with disabilities (including blindness) and varying levels of literacy
• the recommendation of testing laboratories to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC). The EAC, not NIST, certifies voting systems for use in elections.

More details of NIST's role in HAVA are available here.

Highlights

• Technical Guidelines Development Committee Meeting (July 8-9, 2010)
  
  
• Draft: Accessibility and Usability Considerations of Remote Voting Systems, Draft WhitePaper for the Technical Guidelines Development Committee, Released for Public Comment.
  
  
• Draft: NISTIR 7711 Security Best Practices for the Electronic Transmission of UOCAVA Election Materials, Released for Public Comment.
  
  
• Draft: Security Considerations for Remote Electronic UOCAVA Voting, Draft WhitePaper for the Technical Guidelines Development Committee, Released for Public Comment.
  
  
• Workshop on UOCAVA Remote Voting Systems (August 6-7, 2010)
  
  
• Draft: NISTIR 7682 Information Systems Security Best Practices for UOCAVA-Supporting Systems, Released for Public Comment
  
  
• Transcript of the December 9-10, 2009, TGDC Plenary Meeting
  
  
• Technical Guidelines Development Committee Meeting (December 9-10, 2009)
  
  
• Test Suites for Revised Section of VVSG 2005
  
  
• Common Data Format Workshop - Call for Participation (October 29-30, 2009)
  
  

• Proposed Revisions to 2005 Voluntary Voting System Guidelines (Draft VVSG Version 1.1)
  

• NIST is interested in state/jurisdiction election procedures for aspects of UOCAVA voting
  
  
• A Threat Analysis on UOCAVA Voting Systems