NOC 09-02

The EAC’s Program Manual states in part, “Participation [in testing] includes but is not limited to the observation of testing by the Manufacturer.” The purpose of this statement is to reiterate that under no circumstances can a voting system manufacturer be present in the testing room while certification testing is being conducted. This prohibition is in place to ensure that the conformance testing being conducted is an independent evaluation of the system to the standards without influence or interference by the manufacturer. The EAC does recognize that in some cases there is value in allowing manufacturers to witness a particular test or a re-creation of a test in order to allow them to comment on the proper system set up or operation. However, any such participation must be (1) at the discretion of the VSTL, (2) supervised by the VSTL and (3) clearly documented in order to maintain laboratory independence.- halting an active certification test and bringing the manufacturer into the testing room for a re-creation of the test being performed- creating for the manufacturer either a closed circuit video feed or a web cam feed to allow for real-time correspondence during testing- supervised access prior and during the testing to perform unscheduled and non-routine maintenance