FACT SHEET Testing and Certification Program

For more than a decade, the EAC’s Testing and Certification Program has assisted state and local election officials by providing timely and accurate voting machine testing. This program is a requirement of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002, legislation that created the EAC and mandated that the Commission provide certification, decertification, and recertification of voting systems, as well as the accreditation of voting system testing laboratories. This legislation marked the first time the federal government provided oversight for these activities, a step that allowed states to procure new certified voting systems without the added expense of independent testing and certification.