PRESS RELEASE
May 14, 2020
Silver Spring, MD – The U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) will host a virtual public hearing on Wednesday, May 20, 2020 from 1:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. ET to discuss the proposed Voluntary Voting System Guidelines 2.0 (VVSG 2.0) Requirements. The hearing will include testimony from a panel of election technology manufacturers who will provide assessments of the proposed guidelines and speak to the feasibility of the new requirements. A second panel consisting of experts from voting system testing labs will discuss the proposed guidelines with regard to cybersecurity, security analysis, and testing.
Commissioners will also hear from members of the public who wish to offer verbal testimony on the VVSG 2.0 Requirements. Public testimony during the hearing will be limited to five minutes maximum per person. Those interested in providing public testimony, may contact Jerome Lovato ([email protected]) including full name and phone number no later than 5:00 p.m. ET on May 19, 2020.
The public hearing will be livestreamed on the EAC’s YouTube Channel and more information will be available on the event page.
The recommended requirements for the VVSG 2.0 were developed with the support of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) following the Technical Guidelines Development Committee’s (TGDC) unanimous vote to provide the EAC with recommendations for the VVSG 2.0 Requirements on February 7, 2020. These recommendations were submitted to the EAC’s Acting Executive Director on March 9, 2020.
On March 11, 2020, the EAC submitted the proposed VVSG 2.0 Requirements to the EAC’s Standards Board and Board of Advisors for review. On March 24, 2020, the EAC initiated a 90-day public comment period for the VVSG 2.0 Requirements, which will run through June 22, 2020. Those who wish to review the VVSG 2.0 Requirements document, as recommended by the TGDC, and submit comments, may do so via regulations.gov.
This is the third public hearing on the VVSG 2.0 Requirements. The first public hearing was held virtually on March 27, 2020, and the second public hearing was held virtually on May 6, 2020. For more information regarding the first two hearings, including video recordings of each, please visit the EAC page for hearing one and for hearing two.
Upon adoption, VVSG 2.0 would be the fifth iteration of national-level voting system standards. The Federal Election Commission published the first two sets of federal standards in 1990 and 2002. The EAC then adopted Version 1.0 of the VVSG on December 13, 2005. In an effort to update and improve version 1.0 of the VVSG, on March 31, 2015, the EAC commissioners unanimously approved VVSG 1.1.
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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.