FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Wednesday, April 26, 2017
Local Site Visits, Speakers from Departments of Defense, Homeland Security and Justice,
NASS, U.S. Postal Service, Google Shape Agenda
San Antonio, Tex. – Today members of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission’s (EAC) Standards Board gather in San Antonio to kick off their annual national meeting, a gathering to discuss the accessibility, accuracy and security of federal elections. The meeting begins this morning with a closed visit to the Wounded Warrior Treatment Center at Fort Sam Houston and an open tour of the Bexar County Election Office. The next two days will take place at the Westin and feature presentations from speakers from across the nation, including each of the EAC’s three commissioners and representatives from the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security and Justice, the U.S. Postal Service, the National Association of Secretaries of State and Google. The meeting is open to press and the public.
“We are thrilled to be in San Antonio this week. The Standards Board looks forward to productive discussions about some of the most important topics shaping our nation’s elections, ” said U.S. Election Assistance Commission Commissioner Christy McCormick, who is the board’s Designated Federal Officer. “Bexar County is the perfect place for board members to examine cutting-edge strategies to improve voter experience, best practices to safeguard election infrastructure, as well as ways to ensure election accessibility for overseas and military voters.”
The EAC Standards Board meeting in San Antonio takes place as news headlines are shaped by concerns stemming from alleged voting irregularities, cyberattacks, voter accessibility and aging election equipment across the country. It also follows the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s January 2017 decision to designate election systems as part of the nation’s critical infrastructure. The Standards Board meeting will tackle these timely issues and many others, including standards for the next generation of voting system certification guidelines, how best to serve military and overseas voters and how the EAC plans to support state and local election administrators in their work to improve voter experience and election procedures.
The EAC Standards Board was established under the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) and is comprised of 110 state and local election leaders representing each state and U.S. territory. Among its members are 55 state election officials selected by their respective chief state election official, and 55 local election officials selected through a process supervised by the chief state election official. HAVA prohibits any two members representing the same state to be members of the same political party.
Click here to view the meeting agenda and speakers list. Space is limited, so reporters wishing to attend are asked to reserve their spot by contacting Brenda Bowser Soder at [email protected] or 202-897-9285 (mobile). Soder is also available to coordinate all interview requests for specific speakers.
The U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) was established by the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA). It is an independent, bipartisan commission charged with ensuring secure, accurate and accessible elections by developing guidance to meet HAVA requirements, adopting voluntary voting system guidelines, and serving as a national clearinghouse of information on election administration. EAC also accredits testing laboratories and certifies voting systems, as well as administers the use of HAVA funds. For more information, visit www.eac.gov.