Standards Board Newsletter 

October 2015 

Volume 2, Issue 5 

Executive Board of the Standards Board

Brad King, IN State, Chair 

Sandi Wesolowski, WI Local, Vice-Chair 

Edgardo Cortes, VA State, Secretary 

Mark Goins, TN State 

Paul Lux, FL Local 

Gary Poser, MN State 

Jerry Schwarting, SD Local 

Rey Valenzuela, AZ Local 

Vacancy, State Representative 

U.S. Election Assistance Commission 

1335 E West Highway • Suite 4300 • Silver Spring, MD 20910

www.eac.gov 
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Letter from the Chair

When Theory Met Practice...

For many of us, next Tuesday (November 3, 2015) will be a day when all of our careful planning, testing, and thorough 

maintenance of our voting systems will be put to the test. Whether you will be administering a statewide election or a municipal 

election, or assisting others in doing so, a successful Election Day from our perspective will certainly include smoothly 

functioning voting equipment. 

It is true that “better Standards mean better Elections.” Our ongoing efforts to ensure that voting systems are carefully designed 

to reduce the possibility of malfunctions or mistakes by manufacturers, election officials, poll workers, and voters means that 

each of us will have growing confidence that the ballots as cast, canvassed, and certified will accurately reflect the intent of the 

electorate. 

Best wishes to everyone for Election Day!

Brad King, Chair 

Standards Board Executive Board Meets October 15 

Decides on Southern California Location for April 15, 2016 Meeting 

During its monthly conference call, the Executive Board set Friday, April 15, 2016 as a firm date for the next full meeting of the 

Standards Board, and determined that the meeting would take place at a site in southern California. 

During its next conference call, the Executive Board hopes to receive information from EAC staff concerning locations such as 

San Diego and Long Beach, and to make a final decision regarding the meeting’s location. 

The members were advised by its Designated Federal Officer, Chairwoman Christy McCormick, that Commissioner Matt 

Masterson had indicated that the Standards Board will have substantive business to conduct at that meeting as a result of the 

ongoing work of the TGDC. The meeting agenda will also include consideration of Bylaws amendments and an election to fill an 

Executive Board vacancy. 

The Executive Board was also informed that the Council of State Governments (CSG) and the Federal Voting Assistance 

Program (FVAP) had created a working group to begin review of Section B of the EAVS Survey, which contains questions 

related to military and overseas voters. The Standards Board’s own EAVS Committee (Sandy Wesolowski, Chair; Gary Poser 

and Lynn Bailey) will plan to work with CSG and FVAP to consider revisions to the post-2018 version of the Survey. The Board 

was advised that CSG and FVAP are particularly interested in participation by local election administrators in this part of the 

EAVS review. Any Standards Board member is encouraged to contact our EAVS Committee members if you are interested this 

project. 
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VVSG Committee Meets; Discusses TGDC and VVSG 1.1 Working Groups

The monthly conference call of the Standards Board VVSG Committee took place on October 19. Committee members received 

an update from Bob Giles and Paul Lux regarding the TGDC. The next TGDC meeting is now scheduled for early February 2016 

(rather than December 2015). 

Bob noted that NIST had announced the creation of NIST-EAC Public Working Groups designated as “Election Cycle Groups for 

the development of VVSG requirements” and “Constituency Groups for informing the election cycle groups”. The Election Cycle 

Groups will focus on Pre-Election, Election, and Post-Election requirements. The Constituency Groups will address Cyber 

Security; Human Factors including Accessibility and Usability; Interoperability; and Testing & Certification. Bob indicated that the 

Election Cycle Working Groups planned to create a TWiki page, open to election officials and the general public, to facilitate 

discussion of the requirements. He also reported that although the Public Working Groups had not yet conducted meetings, work 

to organize them was underway. Bob explained that the Constituency Groups were designed to provide input to the work of the 

Election Cycle Groups regarding VVSG requirements. 

To learn more about these NIST-EAC Public Working Groups, see http://www.nist.gov/itl/vote/nist-voting-public-workinggroups.cfm#

The VVSG Committee discussed its own Working Groups, and considered how these Groups might interact with the NIST-EAC 

Working Groups. Paul reported that Brandon Johnson (State SD) was now employed in the private sector, and that as a result, 

the TGDC Liaison post was vacant. Robert Dezmelyk noted that the Usability and Accessibility Working Group had a similar 

scope as the NIST-EAC Human Factors, while A.J. Starling indicated that the Security Working Group would address some 

issues likely to be considered by the NIST-EAC Cyber Security Group. Members discussed how the work of the 

Verifiability/Auditability/Software Independence Working Group related to the NIST-EAC Testing & Certification Working Group. 

Paul reported that he was preparing a letter to Dr. May of NIST regarding the VVSG Working Groups, and would send out a final 

draft to VVSG Committee members. 

Announcements 

Standards Board VVSG Committee Conference Call

• Monday, November 16, 2015, 1 p.m. EST. 

Executive Board Conference Call

• Thursday, November 19, 2015, 3 p.m. EST 

Technical Guidelines Development Committee Meeting

• February 9-10, 2016, at NIST, 100 Bureau Drive, Gaithersburg, MD 

Standards Board Nominating Committee Meeting

• TBD 

Standards Board Full Membership Meeting

• Friday, April 15, 2016, Southern California location TBD 

Thanks to Amy Miller from the Indiana Secretary of State's office for her assistance with the production of this newsletter.