Voluntary Voting System Guidelines

The Voluntary Voting System Guidelines (VVSG) are guidelines adopted by the United States Election Assistance Commission (EAC) for the certification of voting systems. The National Institute of Standards and Technology's Technical Guidelines Development Committee (TGDC) drafts the VVSG and gives them to the EAC in draft form for their adoption.

Voluntary Voting System Guidelines 2.0

The VVSG 2.0, also known as the VVSG Next Iteration, is an effort to completely re-write the 2005 VVSG, intended to address the next generation of voting systems. The TGDC prepared a draft of the VVSG 2.0, and the TGDC's draft was delivered to the Election Assistance Commission in August 2007, but have not yet been adopted by the Election Assistance Commission and work remains in progress to refine these guidelines. The guidelines contain new and expanded material in the areas of reliability and quality, usability and accessibility, security, and testing. The TGDC draft prohibits radio frequency (RF) wireless, address software independence and include improved requirements for the overall reliability of voter verifiable paper audit trail voting systems.

The TGDC draft guidelines require software independence for all voting systems, in order to allow the correct outcome of an election to be determined even in the face of software bugs or vulnerabilities. According to the TGDC draft, software independence can be achieved through the use of independent voter verifiable records (IVVR) or through the innovation class. Additionally, the TGDC draft recommends open-ended vulnerability testing (OEVT), a testing method designed to bring greater security to voting systems in the polling place.

Structure of the TGDC's Draft of the VVSG 2.0

The TGDC draft is divided into three main parts. It also includes an introduction and a glossary. The glossary can be found at the end of the document as "Appendix A" (Definition of Words with Special Meanings), and it indicates that the definitions provided there are special to the VVSG and may not conform to local or traditional usage.

Introduction - provides background information about voting system standards and guidelines; the purpose and scope; and an overview of new and expanded material.

Part I: Equipment Requirements – includes general core requirements for voting systems and voting devices. It includes security and audit architecture, usability, accessibility and privacy requirements, security requirements, and general core requirements.

Part II: Documentation Requirements – contains requirements that apply to the technical data package, voting equipment user documentation, the test plan, the test report, the public information package, and data for repositories.

Part III: Testing Requirements – this section describes the way voting system test laboratories are to determine if voting systems, voting devices and software meet the requirements of the VVSG.

History

Timeline

• 1990: Federal Election Commission adopts the federal government’s first set of voting system standards.
  • The National Association of State Election Directors (NASED) begins testing voting equipment against the 1990 standards; NASED, a non-governmental entity, voluntarily offers the service to the states
• 2002: FEC updates 1990 Voting System Standards. Federal government does not yet test voting equipment against these standards.
  • NASED begins testing voting systems against the 2002 standards
• 2002: Help America Vote Act (HAVA) creates the Election Assistance Commission
  • HAVA transfers the responsibility of developing voting system standards from the FEC to the EAC
  • HAVA requires EAC to set up the federal government’s first program to test voting equipment against the federal standards.
  • HAVA also tasked the EAC with establishing the federal government’s first voting system certification program.
  • HAVA renames the voting system standards, listing them as the voluntary voting system guidelines (VVSG)
• 2005: the Election Assistance Commission unanimously adopted the 2005 Voluntary Voting System Guidelines (VVSG), which significantly increase security requirements for voting systems and expand access, including opportunities to vote privately and independently, for individuals with disabilities.
• 2006: NASED terminates its voting system testing program
• 2007: EAC launches full testing and certification program
• 2015: The VVSG 1.1, an incremental revision to the 2005 VVSG that were first drafted in 2009, were unanimously approved by the Election Assistance Commission on March 31, 2015

External links

• Election Security