Act No. ______
Interagency Agreement
Between
the ELECTION ASSISTANCE COMMISSION (eac)
and
THE NATIONaL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY (NIST/ITL)
1.0 Introduction
This Interagency Agreement (IA) establishes an agreement between the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Information Technology Laboratory (NIST/ITL) and the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) to investigate and rigorously characterize technical issues related to the use of electronic technology in absentee voting by members of the military and overseas citizens The requirement for the development of “electronic absentee voting guidelines” is established by Section 567 of the Ronald W. Reagan National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005, P.L. 108-375.. Authority for this IA is contained in the NIST Organic Act, 15 U.S.C. 271 et seq. and other legislation. Under the NIST Organic Act, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) provides unique measurement services and makes available its technical competence for the benefit of other agencies.
2.0Background
EAC was established by the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA). Central to its role, the Commission serves as a national clearinghouse and resource for information and review of procedures with respect to the administration of Federal elections. EAC, pursuant to Section 245 of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 and Section 567 of the Ronald W. Reagan National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005, P.L. 108-375 is working with the Department of Defense(DoD) to improve absentee voting by U.S. citizen covered by the Uniformed and Overseas Citizen Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) by developing standards for “electronic absentee voting.” EAC is committed to assisting state and local election officials in their efforts to ensure the right to vote to the very individuals who are fighting to protect the rights and freedoms of all Americans, and to facilitate voting for all American citizens who may be overseas during an election.
As part of its mission, and pursuant to legislation codified in Title 15 of the United States Code (15 USA 275b), the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Information Technology Laboratory works with industry, research, and government organizations to make technology usable, secure, scalable, and interoperable, as well as to, develop tests and test methods that both the developers and the users of the technology need to objectively measure, compare and improve systems. Given the critical commonality of the NIST/ITL mission activities to applied research pursuant to EAC responsibilities for aiding overseas voters, EAC desires to apply expertise and technologies developed at NIST/ITL to help address overseas voters.
3.0Responsibilities and Tasks
Pursuant to this agreement, NIST will conduct research on the use of electronic technology in absentee voting by military and overseas voters throughout the world, work with EAC and DoD to help them select a preferred method of using such technology, and develop standards for the use of electronic technology in the administration of absentee voting by U.S. military and overseas citizens.
Task 3.1: Research regarding use of electronic technology in absentee voting for military members and overseas citizens. NIST/ITL will perform research into different methods for conducting military andoverseas voting using electronic technology by the various United States as well as by other countries. EAC will provide available information to NIST about domestic trends in overseas voting and will serve as a liaison with the DoD to obtain and provide needed information about the current status of military and overseas citizen voting.
Task 3.2: Identificationof one of more methods to improve military and absentee voting for further study. NIST will work with EAC and DoD to identify one or more ways in which electronic technology can be used to improve absentee voting by U.S. military and overseas citizens. These will include the use of DoD or locally run email ballot distribution systems and online voting.
Task 3.3: Threat analysis. Once one or more methods for using electronic technology to improve absentee voting by military and overseas voting have been identified, NIST will perform a threat analysis, drawing on work by the National Science Foundation and others, of various approaches to improving overseas and military absentee voting.
Task 3.4: Development of draft guidelinesfor the use of electronic technology in military and overseas citizen absentee voting. NIST will develop draft guidelines to support the use of technology to improve military and overseas absentee voting
4.0 Transfer of Funds. To support the tasks set forth in Section 3, EAC will transfer to NIST a total of $500,000.00.
5.0 Duration of Agreement, Amendments and Modifications.
5.1 Term. The term of this IA shall be from the date of last signature by the parties until September 30, 2008. This agreement may be renewed for up to two successive terms of one fiscal year each upon written agreement of the parties.
5.2Amendments. This IA constitutes the entire agreement between the parties and replaces and supersedes any previous verbal or written agreements. The terms of this IA may be amended upon written agreement of both parties.
5.3Reporting. NIST shall provide to EAC a monthly report on the activities conducted by NIST on each of the enumerated tasks in Sections 3.1 – 3.4, by task. NIST shall provide a quarterly report to EAC regarding the use of funds transferred to NIST under this IA.
6.0Contacts
All written notices required to be provided under the terms of this IA shall be sent in writing to persons identified below:
When to NIST:
The NIST technical point of contact is:
Mark Skall, Chief, Software Diagnostics & Conformance Testing Division
National Institute of Standards and Technology
U.S. Department of Commerce
100 Bureau Drive, Mail Stop 8970
Gaithersburg, Maryland20899-8900
V: 301-975-3262
The NIST point of contact for financial issues is:
Sharon Wentling, Administrative Officer
National Institute of Standards and Technology
U.S. Department of Commerce
100 Bureau Drive, Mail Stop 8970
Gaithersburg, Maryland20899-8900
When to EAC:
Thomas Wilkey, Executive Director
U.S. Election Assistance Commission
1225 New York Avenue, NW, Suite 1100
Washington, DC20005
V: 202-566-3109
______
Mark W. Skall, Date
Information Technology Laboratory
National Institute of Standards and Technology
______
John Quick Date
Chief, Finance Division
National Institute of Standards and Technology
______
Thomas R. Wilkey Date
Executive Director
National Archive and Records Administration
1