June 23, 2003.

Activities of IEEE P1583/D2.5 Committee

Sponsored by the Voting Equipment Specifications Committee

Of the IEEE Standards Coordinating Committee 38

The purpose of this committee’s efforts is to create a standard that can be used by all of the states of the US. Other countries have shown interest upgrading their voting methods and machines and are very interested in this upcoming standard. Since the IEEE is an international engineering organization, the interest of these countries is appropriate. Note that the US may be the only country with a Federal Election Commission.

The effort has been interdisciplinary and a summary of the standard highlights follows to give the reader and understanding of the scope and the substance of the effort. There will be no attempt here to adhere to the exact paragraph numbers of the standard.

Election Management System

Control Subsystem

Vote Recording Subsystem

Reporting Subsystem

Documentation

Functional specifications – consisting of the following:

Confidentiality

Security

Access Control

Individual Access privileges

Physical Security

Software Security

Telecommunications and Data Transmission

Protection Against External Threats

Use of Protective Software

Security for transmission of official Data Over Public Communications Networks

Reliability

Accuracy

Usability

Accessibility – physical, visual

Environmental Requirements – space, electrical supply, operating environment, transit and storage, data network requirements

Electromagnetic Compatibility – electrical power disturbance, transients, lightning surge, emission and susceptibility

Equipment Verification

This consists of tests of all of the aforementioned design areas.

Robert H. Brook

Representative of SSIT and EMC Society

Responsible for Sections 5.5 and 6.5 for Electromagnetic Compatibility