This month, the EAC is highlighting:
- 2024 EAC Annual Report
- Submit Your Entries for the Clearinghouse Awards by February 14!
- New EAC Report: Election Security Grant Report
- ESTEP Guidance for Pre-Election Testing
- Field Services Project Reports
- Event: February 19: EAC Technology Hearing
- TGDC Information Meeting Recap
- EAC Training for Election Officials Now Available
The EAC’s 2024 Annual Report Is Now Available
The EAC’s Annual Report highlights the extensive achievements of the agency and the wide range of ways the EAC Commissioners and staff support election officials and the millions of voters who cast a ballot in 2024.
Highlights from the report include:
- The EAC formally approved the Election Supporting Technology Evaluation Program (ESTEP) as a permanent program and launched a certification program to test and certify electronic poll books. Pilot evaluation programs were also put into development for election night reporting platforms, electronic ballot delivery systems, and voter registration systems.
- The EAC’s Testing and Certification program has three systems in VVSG 2.0 testing - VotingWorks Vx Suite 4.0, Hart InterCivic’s Verity Vanguard 1.0, and Smartmatic’s VSR1 2.1.
- The EAC’s Field Services Program conducted post-certification quality monitoring tasks of voting equipment, including 54 hash verification requests, training to local election officials on hash validation best practices, and completion and documentation of two projects in Douglas County, Nebraska, and Hawaii.
- The EAC distributed $55 million in HAVA Election Security Grants and awarded a total of $1 million in Help America Vote Act College Program grants to 21 recipients from across the country.
- EAC training resources were expanded with over 1,100 election officials from 33 states and territories participating online or in-person on topics like accessibility for voters with disabilities, communications, poll worker training, federal election laws, standard operating procedures, managing stress in the workplace, and more.
- Commissioners traveled to 36 states and four territories to meet with election officials and share information on the EAC. International relations were also a focus, with the commissioners traveling to 10 countries and the EAC hosting international election officials and representatives.
- An EAC study, “Voting Experiences Since HAVA: Perspectives of People with Disabilities,” showed that election officials’ significant efforts to serve all voters. The gap for participation between voters with and without disabilities is narrowing, but there is still work to be done to close this gap.
Details about these programs and more are available in the full report on the EAC’s website.
Submit Your Entries for the 2024 Clearinghouse Awards by February 14!
The deadline to submit an entry for the 2024 National Clearinghouse Awards competition, is this Friday!
Jurisdictions of all sizes are encouraged to submit their work. The entries will be judged based on innovation, sustainability, outreach, cost-effectiveness, replicability, and the generation of positive results. Please send any questions to [email protected].
Election Security Grant Report
The EAC released the report “Measuring the Impact of Recent Grants to Election Administrators Under the Help America Vote Act," which provides insight on the impact of federal Election Security Grants disbursed by the EAC since 2018. Overall, it found these federal funds have facilitated significant improvements in physical security, cybersecurity, voter accessibility, poll worker training, and communication with constituents. Election officials also noted that providing increased funding to election officials consistently would enable them to provide even better service to their voters.
A couple of key takeaways are:
- States spent over $638 million (about 63%) of the over $1 billion in Election Security funds. Over 98% of the remaining funds are budgeted for planned activities.
- States have spent about $343 million (about 56%) of Election Security funds on voting equipment and cybersecurity to ensure safe, secure, and trustworthy elections.
Funding mechanisms for elections vary significantly from one jurisdiction to another. In general, elections are funded primarily by local governments, with some funding provided by state and federal support.
Read the full report.
ESTEP Guidance for Pre-Election Testing
Various election offices throughout the U.S. have a legal obligation to conduct pre-election testing on voting systems. In recent years, this has grown to include other election-supporting technologies. However, there are very few resources available to election officials to adapt to these new technologies.
To address this, the EAC’s Election Supporting Technology Evaluation Program (ESTEP) collaborated with various stakeholders to develop baseline guidance for conducting pre-election testing on election supporting technologies, including:
Election officials can view these and other resources on ESTEP’s Pre-Election Testing Guidance webpage.
This guidance is not designed to be exhaustive or all-inclusive. Election officials should develop pre-election test procedures in alignment with jurisdictional election laws or rules, and directives from their chief election officials. In some cases, affiliated system manufacturers/developers may provide additional guidance on system-specific testing recommendations.
Field Services Project Reports
In partnership with the Nebraska Secretary of State’s office and Douglas County Election Commission, the EAC Field Services Program performed a review of their voting system on July 15-17, 2024, and published the results in the “Douglas County Nebraska Project Report.” Field Services also worked in partnership with the Hawaii Office of Elections on July 25-30, 2024, and published the findings in the “State of Hawaii Project Report.”
The purpose of these reviews was to confirm that the system is identical to the system certified by the EAC. They observed and verified procedures, reviewed certification conformance, observed and documented hash verification, observed the security of the facility and physical voting system, and offered suggestions based on observations.
The reports conclude that Douglas County’s and Hawaii’s systems have no findings, observations, or issues that could potentially impact the security of the system as deployed.
Event: February 19: EAC Election Technology Hearing
On February 19, join the EAC for the public hearing “Case Studies on the New Initiatives in the EAC’s Election Technology Division” in the agency’s Washington, DC, hearing room. During the meeting, EAC staff will provide updates on the agency’s Election Supporting Technology Evaluation Program (ESTEP) and recent efforts from the Field Services Program. Other panelists include election officials and election technology vendors.
This event will be livestreamed on the EAC's YouTube channel at 1 p.m. ET. If you plan to attend in person, register here. Registration is not required to watch the livestream.
TGDC Information Meeting Recap
On Tuesday, January 14, 2025, the EAC’s Technical Guidelines Development Committee (TGDC) held an information session at the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence.
At the meeting, the committee heard updates from the EAC Testing and Certification Program, including updates on the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines (VVSG) 2.0, and the Voluntary Electronic Poll Book Certification Program. Members also heard from the EAC’s Field Services Program, which assists states and local jurisdictions in the verification of EAC-certified fielded voting systems on an ongoing basis.
A transcript of the TGDC meeting is available upon request by emailing [email protected]. Visit eac.gov to learn more about the TGDC.
EAC Training for Election Officials Now Available
The EAC recently held in-person trainings on communications in Mississippi and Idaho, and another training on chain of custody in Ohio.
For more information on the training options and topics available from the EAC, and how to request a training for your election jurisdiction, visit eac.gov/request-eac-speaker.