NIST Symposium on Voting Systems

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) are sponsoring a symposium to explore emerging trends in voting system technology on Feb. 26 – 28 in Gaithersburg.

“Our goal is to bring together a diverse group of attendees representing election officials, voting system manufacturers, test laboratories, standard developers, academics, and federal, state, and local government officials,” said Mary Brady, NIST Voting Program lead. “We’d like to encourage a lively discussion that will help inform standards and testing development.”

Discussion topics will cover:

• Trends in voting systems
• Web-based voting technologies
• How election officials, manufacturers and academics view the future of voting system technologies
• Alternative standard development processes for voting systems
• Alternative methods for voting system testing and certification at the federal and state level

Keynote sessions will include overviews of the voting technology landscape and product conformity assessment, as well as challenges in the standards and certification process and in balancing usability and security.

The 2002 Help America Vote Act (HAVA) gave NIST a key role in advancing nationwide improvements in voting systems. NIST chairs the Technical Guidelines Development Committee, which was established by HAVA, and which assists the EAC with the development of voluntary voting system guidelines.

NIST researchers study various aspects of voting and publish white papers and guidelines that cover human factors (usability and accessibility), security and voting technology, and regularly host workshops.

To view the symposium agenda, register and find instructions for viewing it via webcast, visit http://www.nist.gov/itl/csd/ct/future_voting.cfm. Symposium participants are encouraged to submit a poster or demonstration proposal for an evening session following the first day of the symposium. Proposals can be submitted to future-voting@nist.gov.

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