Journalists: Today the @EACgov's Technical Guidelines Development Committee (TGDC) will meet today to discuss the next version of our federal voluntary voting system guidelines (VVSG). There is a draft VVSG now that is a huge improvement over our woefully inadequate voting... 1/

...standards that are now used to vet our voting machines. The current standards are from 2005. The proposed new VVSG would require software independence, which means an independent audit record must be present to ensure the election results can be audited to confirm that...2/

...votes are counted correctly. In short, this means a paper ballot. The VVSG currently don't require an audit record. The new VVSG would also ban connectivity to the internet and the use of wireless modems in voting systems. (You might be confused because you may have heard...3/

...the EAC claim that federally certified voting machines don't connect to the internet, like in this oped 4/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dont-believe-the-hype-foreign-hackers-will-not-choose-the-next-president/2016/10/18/a2a89b2c-94b1-11e6-9b7c-57290af48a49_story.html

Or when Christy McCormick testified to that here, minute 2:00 listen all the way through to the end.) 5/

...But that was not true. The current VVSG does allow internet connectivity. The new VVSG proposes to ban it and since the EAC has been falsely claiming for years that the VVSG ban internet connectivity, you might think they would ensure that the next version actually DOES.. 6/

...ban internet connectivity, but that's not the case. There's been a backlash against this provision and the provision for paper ballots. The TGDC meeting today should be illuminating as to what will happen with the VVSG - will we actually pass some meaningful guidelines? 7/

Or will the EAC allow the vendors and other special interest groups weaken the VVSG so that they don't even include the most BASIC security provisions? It's quite possible because the EAC has been holding closed-door meetings with the vendors regarding the VVSG, which is...8/

...improper at best. Possibly much worse. Why is all this important? Because the voting system industry is unregulated. Meanwhile, we have appropriated over $1B in the last few years to "upgrade" our voting systems, to "new" machines that were being developed to standards...9/

...from 2005! Furthermore, the EAC is claiming its importance and relevance because of its responsibility to develop the VVSG, especially as election system security is of paramount importance. But if the EAC is willing to let the vendors and other remove the most BASIC...10/

...provisions in the new VVSG, the EAC might as well pack up and go home. They will not be providing any value on election security and should get out of the way and let DHS and academia take the lead.