EAC - Voluntary Voting System Guidelines

Name : | Thad Hall
Organization : | Department of Political Science, University of UT
Post Date : | 9/30/2005
General Comments
Comment : | Why is it important for the VVSG to cover voter registration? It is important because voter registration is the point at which, historically, it has been easiest to disenfranchise voters. VR is also one of the places where questions about fraud are often raised. And with VR increasingly involving dynamic electronic systems, the issues of security, interoperability, quality assurance, and functional requirements that are the centerpiece of the VVSG are critical as well to VR. VR is moving from being a people process to an electronic process; therefore, you need standards, certification, and testing of these electronic processes. Voter registration files are the backbone of the election administration process, and we are running the risk that these electronic databases may not be reliable, secure or private. A failure in a VR database would be much more catastrophic than a failure of a voting system, since VR is the first part of the voting chain. You simply cannot run an election in the United States without accurate and well-managed voter-registration data. [Statements submitted at EAC public hearing, July 28, 2005, Pasadena]