Election Procedures for Oversees Voting

NIST is in the process of researching the security issues associated with voting systems for overseas citizens voting under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA). The first phase of this work concluded in December of 2008 with the release of NIST IR 7551: A Threat Analysis on UOCAVA Voting Systems. Over the next year, NIST will be working with the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) to develop best practices and security considerations documents for UOCAVA voting systems that use electronic technologies to transmit election materials.

To assist in this work, NIST is interested in election procedures used by jurisdictions that currently use fax machines, electronic mail, or web sites to distribute blank ballots to overseas voters. This includes how electronic voter registration databases are used in the overseas voting process and any procedures or technologies that track the delivery and return of ballots. This information may be used to develop best practices and supporting security controls.

NIST is also interested in the functional needs of UOCAVA voting systems that use fax, e-mail or web sites to (a) return voted ballots to election officials or (b) allow voters to cast ballots. NIST may use these functional needs to develop a document that outlines the security considerations associated with these systems, including technical and procedural methods for mitigating some of the associated threats.

NIST would appreciate any information related to these two topic areas. Materials as well as inquiries can be sent to voting@nist.gov.