The Technical Guidelines Development Committee (the “Development Committee”) scheduled a plenary meeting that took place on March 29, 2006.

Ahead of the 2018 midterm elections, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) hosted an all-day summit to highlight a spectrum of issues that state and local election officials will face as they work to administer a secure, accessible and efficient 2018 Federal Election.

During the month of September, the EAC brought awareness to National Voter Registration Day by using a new Registration -> Participation campaign to highlight the importance of registering to vote, updating your current voter registration information, and why exercising the right to vote is fundamental to our democracy.

The EAC kicked off Cybersecurity Awareness Month with a live stream roundtable discussion on how to prevent cyberattacks and resources available for election officials developing incident response plans. The event brought together cybersecurity experts and local election officials who discussed the unique challenge hackers present, understanding what it means to be the target of a nation-state actor and the collaborative approach needed to update and strengthen jurisdictions’ cyber safeguards.

The Commission received presentations on Successful Ballot Design, including the Ballot Design Process from Start to Finish; Ballot Design Accessibility, and Usability; and Successful Designs for Optical-scan Ballots, Direct Recording Device Ballots and Paper Ballots.

The EAC Standards Board reviewed and provided comment on eight draft chapters of the Election Management Guidelines. The draft chapters contained recommendations and best practices regarding: absentee voting and vote by mail; acceptance testing; ballot building; contingency planning and change management; developing an audit trail; polling place and vote center management; pre-election and parallel testing; and uniformed and overseas voters.

The Commission hosted a voting advocates roundtable discussion of the Technical Guidelines Committee’s (TGDC) recommended Voluntary Voting System Guidelines. The discussion will be focused upon the following topics: (1)The development of a threat assessment; (2) The evaluation of innovative systems; (3) Open Ended Vulnerability Testing (OEVT); (4) testing of voting system software; (5) How best to strike the balance between usability and accessibility.

The Commission hosted an election official roundtable discussion of the TGDC's recommended Voluntary Voting System Guidelines. The discussion will be focused upon: (1)The usability and readability of the proposed standards; (2) The creation of a risk assessment for voting systems; (3) Stability of the standards vs. the need to create flexible standards that promote innovation;(4) Open Ended Vulnerability Testing (OEVT) and how it fits into the proposed standards.