On August 31, 2007 NIST delivered the Technical Guidelines Development Committee (TGDC) Voluntary Voting System Guidelines (VVSG) Recommendations to the Election Assistance Commission (EAC). The EAC began a public comment period and conducted meetings with the EAC's Board of Advisors and Standards Board. The EAC identified six areas of research related to the VVSG in response to resolutions passed by those boards. The EAC asked NIST to conduct research on feasibility and scope of impact in these six areas.
This document contains reports on the research conducted by NIST. The six areas identified by the EAC are:
- Possible alternatives to the requirement of Software Independence;
- Possible standards for ballot on demand systems;
- Potential impact of the VVSG on vote by phone systems
- A feasibility study of the ramifications of the EAC separately testing and certifying components of a voting system, and requirements for interoperability between systems and systems components;
- Impact of early voting and vote centers on the VVSG; and
- Identification of "goal level requirements" in the VVSG and developing alternatives.