Draft UOCAVA Security Best Practices Documents

Draft UOCAVA Security Best Practices Documents, NISTIR 7711 and NISTIR 7682, released for public comment -

  NIST is pleased to announce the release of two draft documents on security best practices for UOCAVA voting for public comment. This includes Draft NISTIR 7711:Security Best Practices for the Electronic Transmission of Election Materials for UOCAVA Voters, and Draft NISTIR 7682:Information System Security Best Practices for UOCAVA-Supporting Systems. These documents were originally released for public comment in 2010 and were updated based on the comments NIST received.     These two draft documents serve as companion documents to one another. Draft NISTIR 7711 covers security best practices and considerations for electronic transmission of UOCAVA election materials. The intended audience for Draft NISTIR 7711 is election officials who are considering the use of electronic mail or Web sites to expedite transmission of voter registration materials and blank ballots.    Draft NISTIR 7682 provides general computer security best practices for IT professionals charged with configuring and administering IT systems used to support UOCAVA voting. Jurisdictions should consult Draft NISTIR 7682, and other NIST computer security guidelines, for general computer security best practices prior to deploying and using an IT system to support voter registration, ballot request, and blank ballot delivery activities. The recommended security practices in these documents are intended to be complementary, each focusing on different issues for their intended audiences.    NIST requests public comments on both documents by May 15, 2011. Please submit all comments to uocava-voting [at] nist.gov (uocava-voting[at]nist[dot]gov).