[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 61 (Wednesday, March 31, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Pages 16088-16090]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-7199]
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ELECTION ASSISTANCE COMMISSION
Notice: Request for Substantive Comments on the EAC's Proposed
Requirements for the Testing of Pilot Voting Systems To Serve UOCAVA
Voters
AGENCY: United States Election Assistance Commission.
ACTION: Request for public comment on proposed requirements for the
testing of
[[Page 16089]]
pilot voting systems to be used to serve UOCAVA voters.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) is publishing
for public comment a set of proposed requirements for the testing of
pilot voting systems to be used by jurisdictions to serve Uniformed and
Overseas voters.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Background: The Uniformed and Overseas
Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) of 1986 protects the right to
vote in Federal elections for this defined category of citizens. UOCAVA
sets out federal and state responsibilities to assist these voters in
exercising their voting rights. The Secretary of Defense is the
presidential designee responsible for the Federal functions of the Act.
The Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) administers this law on
behalf of the Secretary of Defense and works cooperatively with other
Federal agencies and state and local election officials to carry out
its provisions.
UOCAVA legislation was enacted before the advent of today's global
electronic communications technology. Consequently it relied on U.S.
domestic and military mail systems as well as foreign postal systems
for the worldwide distribution of election materials. By the mid-1990s
it became apparent that the mail transit time and unreliable delivery
posed significant barriers for many UOCAVA citizens, preventing them
from successfully exercising their right to vote. At the same time the
Internet was being widely adopted by businesses, governments and the
general public. Therefore it was a natural development for FVAP and
states to consider the potential of the Internet as an alternative to
the ``by-mail'' UOCAVA process.
FVAP sponsored Voting Over the Internet (VOI), a small pilot
project for the November 2000 general election, to examine the
feasibility of using Internet technology. Four states participated in
this experiment, which enabled voters to use their own personal
computers to securely register to vote, request and receive absentee
ballots, and return their voted ballots. Following the successful
completion of the VOI project, in the Fiscal Year 2002 National Defense
Authorization Act (section 1604 of Pub. L. 107-107:115 Stat. 1277),
Congress instructed the Secretary of Defense to carry out a larger
demonstration project for the November 2002 general election. This
project was to be ``carried out with participation of sufficient
numbers of absent uniformed services voters so that the results are
statistically significant''.
Since there was not sufficient time to define and implement a large
project for 2002, the project was planned for implementation for the
November 2004 election. Seven states agreed to participate and worked
with FVAP to develop system requirements and operating procedures.
However, the Secure Electronic Registration and Voting Experiment
(SERVE) was cancelled before it was deployed due to concerns raised by
several computer scientists. These individuals contended that the use
of personal computers over the Internet could not be made secure enough
for voting and consequently called for the project to be terminated.
The Department of Defense, citing a lack of public confidence in the
SERVE system, decided the project could not continue under these
circumstances.
In response to this development, the Fiscal Year 2005 National
Defense Authorization Act (section 567 of Pub. L. 108-375;118 Stat.
119) repealed the requirement for the Secretary of Defense to conduct
an electronic voting demonstration project ``until the first regularly
scheduled general election for federal office which occurs after the
Election Assistance Commission (EAC) notifies the Secretary that the
Commission has established electronic absentee voting guidelines and
certifies that it will assist the Secretary in carrying out the
project''. Pursuant to this legislation, in September 2005, the EAC
requested its voting system advisory group, the Technical Guidelines
Development Committee (TGDC), to add this subject on their research
agenda; however the request was declined.
Since that time legislation dealing with a number of UOCAVA voting
issues were under consideration by Congress. Ultimately, passed as part
of the Fiscal Year 2010 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)
(section 581 of Pub. L. 111-84), the Military and Overseas Voters
Empowerment Act contains a provision allowing the Secretary of Defense
to establish one or more pilot programs to test the feasibility of new
election technology for UOCAVA voters. This provision requires the EAC
and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to
provide best practices or standards to support these pilot programs,
``in accordance with electronic absentee voting guidelines established
under'' the earlier FY2005 NDAA. In December 2009, the EAC directed the
TGDC to begin this work as a top research priority. The EAC expects
this work to result in the comprehensive set of remote electronic
voting system guidelines as mandated by the FY2005 NDAA. The TGDC has
been tasked to consider the full range of remote voting architectures,
including instances where the voter can use his own personal computer
for voting. The pilot testing requirements, that the EAC is currently
developing, will be provided to the TGDC as the basis and starting
point for their research and deliberations.
Project Summary: Since 2008, several states have enacted
legislation enabling them to conduct electronic voting projects for
UOCAVA voters, beginning with the 2010 elections. To be prepared to
support the states with these projects, in July 2009 the EAC convened a
UOCAVA Working Group to consider how to adapt the EAC's Testing and
Certification Program to accommodate UOCAVA pilot systems. It was
concluded that two products were needed: (1) A modified set of system
testing requirements; and (2) a revised testing and certification
process. It was determined that a working group would assist the EAC in
drafting the testing requirements and EAC staff would adapt the
certification process to accommodate the UOCAVA pilot program.
The EAC UOCAVA Working Group has taken much the same approach as
the state pilot project working groups. The source materials drawn on
for this effort included: the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines (VVSG)
1.0 ; the VVSG 1.1; the VVSG 2.0; the VOI, SERVE; FIPS; and NIST
Special Publications. One significant difference in the EAC Working
Group approach was the technology scope covered by the requirements.
The VOI, SERVE and Okaloosa system requirements were tailored
specifically for the particular system implementations developed for
those projects. However, since many different types of remote voting
systems could be submitted to the EAC certification program, the EAC
Working Group defined generic system requirements to provide for system
design flexibility.
Pilot projects are small in scale and short in duration.
Consequently, certification for pilot systems needs to be quicker and
less expensive than the regular process currently used for conventional
systems with an expected life of more than 10 years. Nevertheless,
since actual votes will be cast using the voting systems utilized in
the pilot project, the certification process must retain sufficient
rigor to provide reasonable assurance that the pilot systems will
operate correctly and securely.
There is a fundamental dichotomy in complexity in remote voting
architectures: those where the voting
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platform is controlled (e.g., provided by the election jurisdiction);
and those where it is not controlled (e.g., the voter uses his own
personal computer). Since the EAC plans to have the pilot certification
process ready for implementation during the first half of 2010, it was
decided that the EAC would focus its efforts on controlled platform
architectures servicing multiple jurisdictions. This is a highly secure
remote voting solution and the Okaloosa Project provides an
implementation example for reference. Defining requirements for this
class of system architecture was determined to provide a reasonable
test case that could be completed within the available timeframe. In
addition, most of the core system processing functions are the same for
both types of architectures, so a substantial number of requirements
will carry over as this work is expanded to include other methods of
remote electronic voting.
The UOCAVA Pilot requirements document contains testable
requirements for the following areas:
(1) Functional Requirements.
(2) Usability.
(3) Software.
(4) Security.
(5) Quality Assurance.
(6) Configuration Management.
(7) Technical Data Package.
(8) Systems Users Manual.
DATES: Comments must be received on or before 4 p.m. EST on April 15,
2010.
Submission of Comments: The public may submit comments through one
of the two different methods provided by the EAC: (1) e-mail
submissions to [email protected]; (2) by mail to Voluntary
Voting System Guidelines Comments, U.S. Election Assistance Commission,
1201 New York Ave., NW., Suite 300, Washington, DC 20005.
In order to allow efficient and effective review of comments the
EAC requests that:
(1) Comments refer to the specific section that is the subject of
the comment.
(2) General comments regarding the entire document or comments that
refer to more than one section be made as specifically as possible so
that EAC can clearly understand to which portion(s) of the documents
the comment refers.
(3) To the extent that a comment suggests a change in the wording
of a requirement or section of the guidelines, please provide proposed
language for the suggested change.
All comments submitted will be published at the end of the comment
period on the EAC's Web site at http://www.eac.gov. This publication
and request for comment is not required under the rulemaking,
adjudicative, or licensing provisions of the Administrative Procedures
Act (APA). It is a voluntary effort by the EAC to gather input from the
public on the EAC's administrative procedures for certifying voting
systems to be used in pilot projects. Furthermore, this request by the
EAC for public comment is not intended to make any of the APA's
rulemaking provisions applicable to development of this or future EAC
procedural programs.
An electronic copy of the proposed guidance may be found on the
EAC's Web site at http://www.eac.gov.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Matthew Masterson, Phone (202) 566-
3100, e-mail [email protected].
Alice Miller,
Chief Operating Officer, U.S. Election Assistance Commission.
[FR Doc. 2010-7199 Filed 3-30-10; 8:45 am]
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