MEDIA ADVISORY:
April 26-28, 2017
April 26-28: San Antonio Hosts Upcoming
U.S. Election Assistance Commission Standards Board Meeting
Local Site Visits, Speakers from Departments of Defense, Homeland Security and Justice, NASS, U.S. Postal Service, Google Shape Agenda
San Antonio, Tex. – Members of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission’s (EAC) Standards Board will meet in San Antonio from April 26-28 to discuss the accessibility, accuracy and security of federal elections. The meeting will include a closed visit to the Wounded Warrior Treatment Center at Fort Sam Houston and an open tour of the Bexar County Election Office. It will also feature presentations from speakers from across the nation, including each of the EAC’s three commissioners and representatives from the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security and Justice, the U.S. Postal Service, the National Association of Secretaries of State and Google. The meeting is open to press and the public.
The EAC Standards Board meeting in San Antonio will take place as news headlines are shaped by concerns stemming from alleged voting irregularities, cyberattacks, voter accessibility and aging election equipment across the country. It also follows the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s January 2017 decision to designate election systems as part of the nation’s critical infrastructure. The Standards Board meeting will tackle these timely issues and many others, including standards for the next generation of voting system certification guidelines, how best to serve military and overseas voters and how the EAC plans to support state and local election administrators in their work to improve voter experience and election procedures.
The EAC Standards Board was established under the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) and is comprised of 110 state and local election leaders representing each state and U.S. territory. Among its members are 55 state election officials selected by their respective chief state election official, and 55 local election officials selected through a process supervised by the chief state election official. HAVA prohibits any two members representing the same state to be members of the same political party.
Click here to review the agenda and list of speakers. Space is limited, so reporters wishing to attend are asked to reserve their spot by contacting Brenda Bowser Soder at [email protected] or 202-897-9285 (mobile). In addition, Soder will coordinate all interview requests for specific speakers.
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The U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) was established by the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA). It is an independent, bipartisan commission charged with ensuring secure, accurate and accessible elections by developing guidance to meet HAVA requirements, adopting voluntary voting system guidelines, and serving as a national clearinghouse of information on election administration. EAC also accredits testing laboratories and certifies voting systems, as well as administers the use of HAVA funds. For more information, visit www.eac.gov.