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 designed to address the next generation of voting systems. The TGDC prepared a first draft of the VVSG 2.0 which was delivered to the Election Assistance Commission in August 2007 and was most recently revised in 2021[1].
The guidelines contain new and expanded material in the areas of reliability and quality, usability and accessibility, security, and testing such as:
- Prohibits radio frequency (RF) wireless.
- 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. This 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.
- Include improved requirements for the overall reliability of voter verifiable paper audit trail voting systems.
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[2]
References
- ^ "VVSG 2.0" (PDF). Election Assistance Commission. 2/11/2021.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "Voluntary Voting System Guidelines - Voting Equipment - US Election Assistance Commission". www.eac.gov. Retrieved March 28, 2018.