PRESS RELEASE
February 10, 2020
Silver Spring, MD – During Friday’s Technical Guidelines Development Committee (TGDC) conference call meeting, the committee unanimously voted to provide the EAC with recommendations on the VVSG 2.0 Requirements. As discussed during the meeting, the TGDC’s proposed VVSG 2.0 Requirements are expected to be submitted to the EAC Acting Executive Director, Mona Harrington by March 1. Prior to consideration for final adoption by the Commission, the EAC must first submit them to the EAC Standards Board and Board of Advisors for review, as well as solicit public comments and hold a public hearing on the record. Meetings of the EAC Standards Board and Board of Advisors are expected to take place in April 2020.
The TGDC assists the EAC in developing the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines (VVSG). The chairperson of the TGDC is the director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The TGDC is composed of 14 other members appointed jointly by EAC and the director of NIST, including state and local election officials, individuals with technical and scientific expertise in voting systems, and representatives from the Access Board, American National Standards Institute, and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
"We commend the Technical Guidelines Development Committee for unanimously voting to provide the EAC with recommendations on the VVSG 2.0 Requirements on Friday," said EAC Chairwoman Christy McCormick. "Following this important step, we are committed to expeditiously advancing the VVSG 2.0 toward adoption through the process outlined in the Help America Vote Act."
"Friday's unanimous vote by the TGDC was an essential step forward in the process of adopting the next generation of federal voting system guidelines," added EAC Vice Chair Ben Hovland, who has served as the EAC's designated federal official for the TGDC for the past year. "We are incredibly grateful to TGDC Chair Dr. Walter Copan, the election officials and technical experts who serve on the TGDC, and the NIST staff who support them, for the dedication, thoughtfulness, and expertise they brought to this critical task."
VVSG 2.0 is envisioned to be the third version of national-level voting system standards. VVSG 2.0 offers a new approach to the organization of the guidelines and seeks to address the next generation of voting equipment. It contains new and expanded material in many areas, including reliability and quality, usability and accessibility, security, and testing.
Friday's vote follows efforts in recent years to advance the VVSG 2.0 Principles and Guidelines, which are 15 principles and related guidelines that form the core of VVSG 2.0 and are supported by the Requirements. The latest draft of the VVSG 2.0 Requirements can be found here. The TGDC provided the EAC with recommendations on the VVSG 2.0 Principles and Guidelines in September 2017. The EAC Standards Board and Board of Advisors recommended the VVSG 2.0 Principles and Guidelines for adoption in April 2018. The EAC solicited public comments on the VVSG 2.0 Principles and Guidelines from February to June 2019, and held three public hearings on them in April and May 2019.
# # #
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.