State Certification Meeting Wrap Up
from: Jessica Myers on
Jun 22, 2012
On June 14th and 15th, Ball State University’s Bowen Center for Public Affairs hosted the second annual State Certification Testing of Voting Systems National Conference in Indianapolis, IN. The first meeting on state certification was held in September 2011 at the Center for Election Systems at Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, Georgia. Participants found the event so useful, they began building a network of state officials and academics with whom to share information and advice. During that meeting, the participants decided the event should be repeated and expanded.
The primary goal of the conference was to provide a venue for practitioners and academics to share best practices; explore more efficient and effective methods of testing voting systems; and to identify common challenges and potential mitigations to those challenges. A secondary goal was to improve the quantity and quality of information that flows between the state, county, township and federal testing entities.
The topics addressed at this year’s conference were:
- Best Practices in State Certification
- Testing Legacy & Emerging Election Technologies (Plenary session)
- Certification in the States
- Coping with the High Cost of State Certification
- State Testing in the Lab and the Field
- New Directions in State Testing
- Challenges of Engineering Change Orders (ECOs)
- Future Directions in State Certification (Roundtable Discussion)
About 40 people registered for the conference this year, including representatives from state certification programs (11 states sent representatives), state examiners, test laboratories and local election officials. The EAC sent representatives from the Testing & Certification Division as well. One requirement of registration was participation in the conference, so most attendees submitted papers or presentations for the conference. All of the presentations will be available on the VSTOP website in the coming weeks.
The EAC thanks the following people for coordinating, hosting and inviting us to participate in this valuable and educational event:
- The Honorable Connie Lawson, Indiana Secretary of State
- Brad King, Co-Director, Indiana Election Division, Indiana Secretary of State’s Office
- Trent Deckard, Co-Director, Indiana Election Division, Indiana Secretary of State’s Office
- Dr. Ray Scheele, Co-Director, Bowen Center for Public Affairs, Ball State University; Co
- Director of State of Indiana Voting Systems Technical Oversight Program (VSTOP),Ball State University
- Dr. Sally Jo Vasicko, Co-Director, Bowen Center for Public Affairs, Ball State University
- Dr. Jay Bagga, Co-Director of State of Indiana Voting Systems Technical Oversight Program(VSTOP),Ball State University
- Dr. Joe Losco, Chair, Political Science Department, Ball State University
If you have additional questions, please contact Jessica Myers at jmyers@eac.gov or via Twitter (@EACgov).
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