Electronic voting

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released, on Oct. 21, a study on government efforts to improve electronic voting. In 2002 Congress passed the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) which authorized funding for state and local governments to improve election administration, including increased use of electronic voting systems. HAVA also established the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) to support election improvements.

GAO did this study because concerns have been raised about the security and reliability of electronic voting. GAO recommends that EAC collaborate with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to improve voting system standards and continually update voting system software, establish time frames for a national voting system certification program, and improve management support to state and local election officials for sharing information on problems and vulnerabilities of voting systems.

ELECTIONS: Federal Efforts to Improve Security and Reliability of Electronic Voting Systems Are Under Way, but Key Activities Need to Be Completed
     Full Report (PDF, 1.2MB, 107p.)
     Highlights (PDF, 44KB, 1p.)
     Abstract (HTML)
     All from GAO

Help America Vote Act (HAVA) (PL 107-252)
     (PDF, 212KB, 66p., from GPO)