The U. S. Elections Assistance Commission (EAC) contracted a team led by professors from the University of South Alabama School of Computer and Information Sciences (CIS) to create a Voting System Risk Assessment (VSRA). This risk assessment will be used by the EAC and elections officials throughout the United States to make voting system certification and use decisions.

In partnership with Alabama Secretary of State Beth Chapman, USA professors Jeff Landry, Harold Pardue, Bob Sweeney, and Alec Yasinsac will lead a team that includes ten or more School of CIS students and voting system experts from across the country in this critical project. This project involves investigators from Virginia, California, and Florida along with an advisory board comprised of nationally recognized information security specialists and elections officials. Beth Chapman, the Alabama Secretary of State who helped trigger the emphasis on voting system security at the University of South Alabama also serves as an advisor to this project.

The project is triggered by the growing discomfort with electronic voting systems implemented as a result of the 2002 Help America Vote Act. Since 2003, numerous investigations uncovered a myriad of computer faults in those electronic voting systems and several close races where those systems were used were called into question. In 2007, the EAC's Technical Guidelines Development Committee proposed a new Voluntary Voting Systems Guide (VVSG), which has been rigorously debated by elections officials, academics, voting systems vendors, and voting integrity advocates. The VSRA will offer a mechanism that can help balance the voting system security debate.

"In this project, the U. S. Elections Assistance Commission is taking an important step in providing a systematic approach to voting system evaluation. The foundations that we put in place could shape voting systems in the United States for years to come. We are honored to have University of South Alabama faculty, staff, and students be able to contribute to this project of vital national interest," said Alec Yasinsac, Dean of the USA School of Computer and Information Sciences and the project's Principal Investigator.

This ten month project was awarded on September 15th, 2008.

Investigators:

Advisory Board:

News Articles:

Fox Ten News, October 20, 2008

Mobile Press Register, October 18, 2008