April 12, 2004

The Honorable DeForest Soaries, Jr.,
Chair
U.S. Election Assistance Commission
1225 New York Avenue, NW
Suite 1100
Washington, DC 20005

Dear Chairman Soaries:

The Members of the National Committee on Voting Integrity (NCVI) would like to thank the U.S. Election Assistance Commission for its efforts to improve the accuracy, reliability and integrity of our nation’s elections process. The NCVI brings together experts on voting issues from across the country to promote a constructive dialogue among computer scientist, elections administrators, policymakers, the media and the public on the best methods for achieving a voter verified balloting system for domestic elections.

Soon the U.S. Election Assistance Commission will make known its choices to fill the fourteen positions of the Technical Guidelines Development Committee (TGDC), which will be chaired by the Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Unfortunately, Congress’ fiscal year 2004 appropriations did not fund NIST to do work on e-voting technology standards as directed by the Help America Vote Act Law, and in fact cut the Computer Science research laboratory division, the function area that would have done much of this work, by 4% from fiscal year 2003 funding levels. For this reason, the TGDC may have to rely more heavily on the expertise of its members to develop standards for voting system guidelines, which must include security of computers, computer networks, computer data storage used in voting systems, computerized list, methods of detecting and preventing fraud, privacy protection, human factors in the design and application of voting systems, and remote access voting.

The National Committee for Voting Integrity would like to strongly encourage the U.S. Election Assistance Committee to fill the four technical positions on the TGDC, which are designated for individuals with scientific expertise relating to voting system and voting equipment with individuals who are readily identified as leaders in key fields of study related to program correctness and verification, software engineering, security, high reliability systems, and human factors. Because computer technologist throughout the United States have shown a great deal of interest in the subject of computerized voting and the application of information technology to our nation’s elections process the range of experts to fill the positions on the TGDC is very broad. However, the number of individuals who are known to have significant research and development experience in the fields related to electronic voting technology makes the pool of potential appointees to the

For this reason, the Committee would like to offer its assistance to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission by submitting the following list for your consideration in the selection of the Technical Guidelines Development Committee:

David Dill
David Jefferson
Doug Jones
Vincent Lipsio
Rebecca Mercuri
Peter Neumann
Ron Rivest
Avi Rubin
Barbara Simons
Bruce Schneier
David Wagner
Dan Wallach

In keeping with the goal of elections administration in this nation we must preserve accuracy, insure privacy, and the proper tabulation of all ballots cast by voters regardless of their physical condition, language of origin or literacy skill. If the National Committee for Voting Integrity can be of further assistance, or should you have questions, please contact Lillie Coney, National Coordinator for the Committee on Voting Integrity at 202-483-1140 ext. 111.

Sincerely,
Peter Neumann, PhD
Chair
National Committee for Voting Integrity

cc: Commissioner Gracia M. Hillman, Vice Chair
Commissioner Paul S. DeGregorio
Commissioner Raymundo Martinez III

BACKGROUND:
The National Committee for Voting Integrity (NCVI) brings together experts on voting issues from across the country to promote constructive dialogue among computer scientists, elections administrators, policymakers, the media and the public on the best methods for achieving a voter verified balloting system for use in U.S. elections.

Return to the Home Page