Coffman Wants Shift to Federal Testing of Voting Equipment

As Feds gear up certification process, state should step aside

Denver, December 27, 2007 – Secretary of State Mike Coffman announced today that he wants legislation to be introduced next month in the General Assembly that will move Colorado away from certifying electronic voting equipment and rely instead on the United States Elections Assistance Commission (EAC) to do the job.

“The testing of electronic voting equipment is extremely important. Now that the EAC is ready to take over the responsibility for the testing of voting equipment, Colorado should not duplicate the Commission’s efforts,” said Coffman.

The Help America Vote Act (HAVA) was passed in 2002 creating the federal Elections Assistance Commission (EAC) along with a mandate for the newly formed agency to establish standards for electronic voting equipment and to supervise a federal certification process that would give assurances to the states that their voting equipment met standards of reliability, were secure, and could accurately count every vote.

Since the passage of HAVA, the National Association of State Election Directors (NASED) assumed responsibility for certifying electronic voting equipment. However, the EAC now has the ability to perform these functions.

Russ Ragsdale, Broomfield City and County Clerk, has been serving for the last 3 years in an advisory role to the EAC as a representative of Colorado election officials.

“There has been little focus on the certification process at the federal level until the creation of the EAC. The EAC has now been able to bring resources to bear such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology to help develop a process that states can have confidence in,” said Ragsdale.

On December 13, 2005, the EAC adopted the 2005 Voluntary Voting Systems Guidelines (2005 VVSG); a set of standards that all voting system manufacturers seeking federal certification must meet. Early in 2007 the EAC began accrediting Voting System Testing Labs (VSTLs) that will perform the testing of systems against the new standards. The EAC is expected to issue their first certifications for voting equipment in early 2008.

Coffman wants legislation that would allow his office to accept federal certification of electronic voting equipment and would only require him to test for Colorado specific election issues that might not be covered in the federal certification process.