CONTENTS

[1] Newsletter Highlights
[2] USACM Chair Testifies on Electronic Employment Verification
[3] USACM Applauds New Voting System Standards
[4] USACM Cautions Against Filtering
[5] Emergency E-Voting Legislation Goes Down In House
[6] Advanced Placement Computer Science Exams Change
[7] National Academies Releases Interim Report on Voter Registration
Databases
[8] About USACM
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We mentioned this last week, but are just getting to posting about the hearing on the blog.

On May 6, Eugene H. Spafford, chair of USACM, testified before the Social Security Subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee on electronic employment verification systems (EEVS). USACM has testified before on this issue, with Dr. Peter Neumann speaking to the same subcommittee on the same topic last June. Citing several potential problems, some already evident, in a pilot system (E-Verify) operated by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) to electronically check on employee work eligibility. Dr. Spafford urged Congress to include sufficient safeguards to ensure that both employers and employees are adequately protected from technical failures and abuses of the system.

Dr. Spafford identified three major concerns regarding E-Verify: the accuracy and timeliness of system results; the security and privacy protection afforded to information kept in the system; and the technical feasibility of multiple approaches to creating such a system. He added that these concerns are also applicable to related programs such as the REAL ID Act, which established standards for state-issued driver’s licenses, and US-VISIT, a U.S. immigration and border management system.
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We are doing a bit of catchup as we are behind on posting to the blog. On Monday USACM filed detailed comments with the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) on the draft 2007 Federal Voluntary Voting System Guidelines. Calling the standards a welcome step forward, USACM supported several important concepts in the draft – including software independence – and noted the improved accessibility and usability provisions.

So what are the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines? Some background might be useful to start.

The Help America Vote Act (HAVA) created the Technical Guidelines Development Committee (TGDC), staffed by NIST and chaired by its Director, to recommend Federal voting system standards to the EAC. These standards are used as the basis for certifying voting systems. While voluntary, many states have mandated vendors follow them.

Since HAVA was enacted the TGDC released the 2005 Voluntary Voting System Guidelines, which were an incremental update of the 2002 Federal Election Commission standards. The 2007 draft is a sweeping and fundamental change from the 2005 standards, incorporating several new important concepts such as software independence, innovation class, and open-ended vulnerability testing. Many of these concepts have been the subject of intense debate for the past year and were the focus of USACM’s comments.

The TGDC submitted the standards to the EAC last year, and the EAC has the power to modify, reject and/or adopt the standards. Monday was the end of the public comment period on the standards, and USACM commented on numerous parts of the draft. Below is a press release highlighting the major points and we encourage you to read the complete draft of our comments.

The EAC now has to process the reportedly 2000+ comments it received on the draft standards. In doing so, the EAC could adopt the TGDC draft as is, make changes, or reject the entire document. The first and the third scenarios seem unlikely, so we can expect the EAC to makes changes, but what they will be and in what time frame is anybody’s guess. Stay tuned to our blog for more coverage.

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Yesterday President Bush signed into law a bipartisan agreement providing supplemental funding for 2008. Most of the funding went toward operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, but Congress and the President agreed to include over $330 million to fund basic research at several Federal agencies. While the final figures are well below what the President originally proposed for 2008, this is still a win for science.

In May, I incorrectly predicted that this legislation was likely headed for a veto over budget politics. This is one of those cases where I’m glad to be wrong. Last year Congress flat funded several key physical science agencies in fiscal year 2008 (FY08) – namely the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Department of Energy Office of Science. Recognizing that the previous agreement shorted science funding, Congress and the President agreed to boost some of the agencies:

• $62.5 million for Department of Energy’s Office of Science
• $62.5 million for NASA
• $62.5 million for National Science Foundation
• $150 million for National Institutes of Health

Funding for the National Science Foundation is split 70/30 between education and research programs at the Foundation with $40 million going toward the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program, which “seeks to encourage talented science, technology, engineering, and mathematics majors and professionals to become K-12 mathematics and science teachers” and the balance presumably split among the research directorates.

Notably the National Institute of Standards and Technology did not receive any supplemental funding, which is disappointing.

Congress and the President did a lot of saber rattling over busting the budget and supporting the troops, but in the end they found a good old-fashioned compromise that at least patches some of the FY08 mess. What is heartening is that both parties thought science was enough of a priority to fund it among the many competing priorities clamoring for supplemental funding. Whether that holds in fiscal year 2009 funding fight is another matter entirely.

Representative Markey recently introduced the 21st Century Communications and Accessibility Act, HR 6320. This bill focuses on amending the Communications Act to ensure that new Internet-enabled telephone and video services and equipment are accessible to and usable by people with disabilities and closes existing gaps in telecommunications laws. These services would include captioning or video description service for streaming video, text support for emergency services and ensuring hearing aid compatibility for internet services. Congressman Markey provides a summary of the bill, in addition to the text of the legislation.

This bill is an interesting complement to the recent ACM Policy Statement on Internet Accessibility, which we released earlier this year. In that statement, we recommended the extension of accessibility standards while minimizing regulation, which appears to be a major goal of this bill. We will watch this bill closely as the year progresses.

Last week the Board of Advisors of the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) met over two days to discuss pending and new business. While this meeting (and most meetings of the EAC and its boards) covered many topics, the items having to do with the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines (VVSG) are worth passing along.

The staff at the National Institute of Standards and Technology was asked to investigate several technical questions related to the VVSG. They are:

Alternatives to Software Independence (SI)
Standards for Ballot-on-Demand systems
Impact of VVSG on vote-by-phone
Consequences of separately testing and certifying election system components
Impact of VVSG on early voting and vote centers
Alternatives to goal level requirements in the VVSG (requirements that state a goal but are not easily testable - if testable at all)

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