ACCURATE Principal Investigators

Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. Preface A Center for Correct, Usable, Reliable, Auditable and Transparent Elections (ACCURATE), 1 a multi-institution, multidisciplinary, academic research project funded by the National Science Foundation's (NSF) " CyberTrust Program, " 2 is pleased to provide these comments on the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines to the Election Assistance Commission (EAC). ACCURATE was established to improve election technology. ACCURATE conducts research investigating software architecture, tamper-resistant hardware, cryptographic protocols and verification systems as applied to electronic voting systems. Additionally, ACCURATE is evaluating voting system usability and how public policy, in combination with technology, can better facilitate voting nationwide. Since receiving NSF funding in 2005, ACCURATE has made a number of important contributions to the science and policy of electronic voting. 3 The ACCURATE Center has published groundbreaking results in cryptography, usability, and verification of voting systems. ACCURATE has also been actively contributing to the policy discussion through regulatory filings, through testimony and advising decisionmakers as well as conducting policy research. 4 ACCURATE researchers have participated in running elections and assisting election officials in activities such as unprecedented technical evaluation of voting systems and redesigning election procedures. 5 Finally, the education and outreach mission of ACCURATE has flourished through the development of numerous undergraduate and graduate classes and the creation of the premier venue for research involving voting systems. 6 With experts in computer science, systems, security, usability, and technology policy, and knowledge of election technology, procedure, law and practice, ACCURATE is uniquely positioned to provide helpful guidance to the EAC as it attempts to strengthen the specifications and requirements that ensure the functionality, accessibility, security, privacy and equality of our voting technology. We welcome this opportunity to further assist the EAC and hope this process continues the collaboration between the EAC and independent, academic experts in order to sustain improvements in election systems and procedures. 5 ACCURATE researchers have participated in the comprehensive voting system evaluations sponsored by the States of California and Ohio. We reference these in Section 2. 6 For more on our educational output, please see those sections of our Annual Reports (see note 3). The joint USENIX/ACCURATE Workshop on Electronic Voting Technology (EVT), colocated with the USENIX Security Symposium , was started in 2006 and continues to attract high caliber voting …