Election Industry Trade Group Seeks Reform of Regulatory Process

Business Wire,  June 18, 2008  

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Issues report entitled "Broken: The Regulatory Process and the Voting Industry" which calls for substantive policy changes

HOUSTON -- The Election Technology Council, an industry trade association representing providers of over 90% of the voting systems used in the United States, today issued a bleak assessment of the current state of the federal regulatory process administered by the United States Election Assistance Commission (EAC) and called for significant reforms to better serve election officials and voters. Since February 2007, no voting system has achieved federal certification through the EAC. Since 2002, the standards have not changed, only the certifying agency.

"The industry is participating in and financing a process that remains indefinite in both time and money," said David Beirne, Executive Director of the ETC.

The industry's assessment describes a new federal agency that finds itself a victim of its own decisions which have effectively shut the regulated industry out and left it without a voice in the process. Among the key problems identified:

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Under the Help America Vote Act of 2002, the EAC is charged with adopting federal voting system standards. Both the federal standards and the federal certification process remain voluntary for each of the states. An estimated 40 states require some level of testing or certification against federal voting system standards. "In such a voluntary framework, the EAC would be better served by working with industry in its efforts to develop robust voting solutions. We respect the hard work and commitment of the EAC in grappling with these difficult issues, and we look forward to working cooperatively with the Commission in every way we can. However, the system cannot sustain itself in its current form without substantial reform," Beirne added.

The full report issued by the Election Technology Council is available here:

http://www.electiontech.org/documents/ETC-BROKEN.pdf

About the Election Technology Council (www.electiontech.org)

The Election Technology Council (ETC) consists of companies that offer voting system technology hardware products, software and services to support the electoral process. The ETC represents manufacturers of the voting equipment used by over 90% of the population in the United States. These companies have organized as an industry association in 2003 to work together to address common issues facing the industry. Membership in the ETC is open to any company in the election systems marketplace. Current members of the Election Technology Council include Election Systems & Software, Hart InterCivic, Premier Election Solutions and Sequoia Voting Systems.

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