New York Codes, Rules and Regulations › Title 9 - EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT › Subtitle V - State Board of Elections › Part 6210 - Routine Maintenance and Testing of Voting Systems, Operational Procedures, and Standards for Determining Valid Votes › Section 6210.2 - Routine testing of voting systems

Current through Register Vol. 46, No. 28, July 10, 2024
(a) Testing of
				all voting systems shall be conducted by the county board before the use of the
				system in any election and at such other times of the year as prescribed by
				these regulations. Testing procedures shall be approved by the State Board. The
				voting system shall be tested to determine that the system is functioning
				correctly and that all system equipment, including but not limited to hardware,
				memory, and report printers, are properly integrated with the system and are
				capable of properly performing in an election. Testing, other than
				pre-qualification testing, shall be conducted by casting manual votes and may
				include the casting of simulated votes.
(b) All voting equipment owned by a county
				board of election shall be tested at least once every calendar year. All other
				voting equipment that has not undergone pre-qualification testing prior to use
				in any election in the calendar year shall be tested no later than December
				31st of the calendar year. Such tests are in addition to vendor-prescribed
				maintenance tasks and diagnostic tests, conducted by the county board. Whenever
				a voting system is to be tested for pre-qualification purposes, such test must
				be conducted while the voting system is in election mode. Votes cast for
				pre-qualification test purposes shall be manually cast using all of the devices
				available to voters on election day (i.e.: audio, key pads and or pneumatic
				switches, and/or alternate language displays).
(c)
Testing shall include the comparison of software installed on
				  the delivered system to certified software, via the use of a Secure Hash
				  Signature Standard (SHS) Validation Program, as described in Federal
				  Information Processing Standards Publication 180-2 issued by the National
				  Institute Standards Technology (This publication is available electronically by
				  accessing the NIST website . Alternatively, copies of NIST computer security
				  publications are available from: National Technical Information Service (NTIS),
				  5285 Port Royal Road, Springfield, VA 22161.)
Testing shall consist of the re-calibration of equipment, as
				  appropriate, pursuant to recommendations made in vendor's maintenance
				  documentation, and the casting of a test deck by voting the minimum number of
				  ballots, determined pursuant to the requirements of section
				  6210.8  of
				  this Part, to ensure that all voting positions for each ballot configuration
				  are tested. Votes cast for the purposes of this section shall be cumulative
				  ballots cast on each piece of equipment.
(1) If the system does not accurately count
				the votes from the test deck cast manually, simulated, or both, (aside from
				those that were deliberately designed to fail), or the calibration test, the
				cause or causes for the error or errors shall be ascertained and corrected. The
				voting system shall be retested until there are two consecutive error-free
				tests before the system is approved for use in the count of actual ballots. The
				commissioners of the county board or their designees shall certify that they
				have reviewed and verified the results of said testing. The summary results of
				all tests, including all inaccurate test results, their causes and the actions
				taken to correct them, as well as the results of all errorless counts, shall be
				entered upon the maintenance log. Maintenance logs are to be kept as a
				permanent record of the county board. All other documentation and/or test
				decks, simulation cartridges and any test data including but not limited to
				copies of ballot programming used for required maintenance tests shall be
				maintained in secure locked storage for two years after the election, pursuant
				to Election Law section
				3-222.