[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 39 (Thursday, March 22, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E426]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


       INTRODUCTION OF THE ELECTION VOTING STANDARDS ACT OF 2001

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JAMES A. BARCIA

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 22, 2001

  Mr. BARCIA. Mr. Speaker, today, I am introducing the Election Voting 
Standards Act of 2001. Representatives Lynn Rivers, John Larson, Nick 
Lampson, Mark Udal and Anthony Weiner join me in sponsoring this 
legislation.
  I am not going to re-hash the flaws in voting equipment that were so 
publicly exposed in the last election. Our goal with this legislation 
is to offer a method to improve the accuracy, integrity, and security 
of voting products and systems used in Federal elections.
  This legislation establishes a Commission led by the National 
Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to develop performance-
based standards for all voting equipment and systems. These voluntary 
performance-based standards would be technology neutral, but would set 
a minimum level of performance that all voting equipment should meet. 
The Commission would also establish corollary testing and certification 
criteria to determine the conformance of voting products and systems to 
the performance-based standards. Finally the legislation establishes a 
National Election Systems Standards Laboratory. This independent lab 
would perform research in areas such as human factors in the design and 
application of voting systems and remote access voting systems that 
would utilize the Internet.
  When election technologies in the 1960's and 1970's began to use 
computers, we didn't initiate an effort to consider the implications of 
computer use for national policy in the administration of Federal 
elections. Although the use of computer-based voting equipment and 
systems has increased dramatically, there is no single entity that 
identifies important technical problems in Federal election 
administration, let alone providing the means to develop solutions to 
those problems. This deficiency inhibits the conduct of necessary 
scientific, engineering and technical standards research, prevents the 
orderly development of alternatives for policy selection, and provides 
no center for dissemination of technical standards for computer 
security, integrity, and accuracy to local officials charged with the 
conduct of registration and voting. This simple lack of Federal 
oversight puts at risk the reliability and credibility of national 
elections. This bill can remedy the situation.
  I believe that the National Institute of Standards and Technology 
(NIST) can play a role in filling the existing gap. NIST has a 100-year 
history of developing standards for Federal agencies and works closely 
with industry in the development of measurement standards. In addition, 
NIST has long been active in the area of voting technologies. In 1975, 
NIST in conjunction with the General Accounting Office issued a report 
entitled Effective Use of Computing Technology in Vote Tallying. The 
report recommended improvements in the procedures used to design and 
develop computer programs used for vote-tallying, the extensive use of 
audit trails and other internal control techniques, and additional 
documentation to verify the results of elections. The report concluded, 
``Coordinated and systematic research on election equipment and 
systems, independent of any immediate return on investment, is 
needed.'' Again in 1988, NIST issued another report entitled, Accuracy, 
Integrity, and Security in Computerized Vote-Tallying, which again made 
a number of recommendations to improve computer based voting systems. 
Among the recommendations was that the use of pre-scored punch card 
voting systems be eliminated. Unfortunately, the recommendations of 
both these reports were largely ignored.
  Given NIST's track record in developing standards in concert with 
outside groups and their expertise in computerized voting systems, I 
believe that NIST is uniquely positioned to develop the required 
performance-based standards, and an independent certification process.
  I want to make it clear that these standards would be voluntary. This 
legislation does not mandate that local authorities that are 
responsible for elections use equipment that meets these performance-
based standards. However, we hope that local authorities would use 
these standards as an objective measure of the accuracy, integrity, and 
security of their voting equipment and systems. I believe that with 
this system of standards and certification procedures that the public 
would be assured that voting systems are fair and accurate.
  This legislation represents a first-step in addressing this issue and 
it is an important first step. I look forward to working with my 
colleagues in Congress, the Administration and outside groups to 
improve this bill. I believe that we all have the same goal, to improve 
the accuracy, integrity and security of our voting systems.

                          ____________________