Voting machine makers blast EAC certification program

An election industry trade group has called for a revamping of the voting system certification process now administered by the federal Election Assistance Commission, calling the regulatory process “a broken system that treats the regulated industry more as an adversary and less as a key stakeholder.”

A report released Wednesday by the Election Technology Council, titled “Broken: The Regulatory Process for the Voting Industry,” calls for the EAC to recognize the makers of voting systems as a regulated industry and to give it a voice in developing certification requirements. It criticizes the commission’s handling of the certification process, pointing out that no voting system has yet been certified more than a year into the program.

Commission Chair Rosemary E. Rodriguez acknowledged the concerns but offered no comfort in a written statement.

“We take our responsibility to certify voting systems very seriously, and we will take the time necessary to thoroughly review them,” Rodriguez said. “Simply put, the EAC will not sacrifice the integrity of the certification process for expediency.”

Although ETC sees voting system manufacturers as a regulated industry under the certification scheme, the Election Assistance Commission is not technically a regulatory agency and the certification process it administers is voluntary. However, some 40 states require some degree of certification for voting systems, most of them using the federal Voluntary Voting System Guidelines adopted by the EAC.

The EAC was created by the Help America Vote Act in the wake of the disputed 2000 presidential election. It assumed responsibility for the certification of voting systems, which formerly was handled by an organization of state election officials, and a Technical Guidelines Development Committee created a new set of certification guidelines. Voting systems manufacturers are not represented on the committee. The EAC has accredited a number of independent laboratories to certify systems against the voluntary guidelines.

Because of problems with paper and mechanical voting systems in the 2000 election, many jurisdictions began moving to computerized touch-screen systems. But these direct recording electronic systems themselves have become controversial as questions were raised about the security and reliability of the proprietary hardware and software and the ability to meaningful recounts with an independent audit trail. A number of electronic systems have been decertified by some states.