NRC Project on Electronic Voting Issues a Call for Input

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A large number of American voters used electronic voting systems for the first time in the 2004 election. Many issues and concerns have been raised about their use. Recognizing this, the National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academies (which include the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine) has launched a project to develop a framework for understanding the technology, social, and operational issues relevant to decision-making about electronic voting. Specifically, this project is intended to inform policy makers, election officials, and the interested public about the questions they should be asking about electronic voting systems in order to be better and more informed consumers of such systems.

For purposes of this study, "electronic voting systems" are construed broadly to include any electronic device that plays (or that could play) an important role in any part of the voting system, from voter registration to ballot casting to the final certification of election results.

To facilitate its study, the NRC's Committee on Electronic Voting seeks white papers and other comments from interested parties on topics relevant to the use of electronic voting systems. The papers received will serve to inform the committee, and will be posted on the project web site for the duration of the project.

At the discretion of the NRC, selected authors may be invited to address the committee about their analysis, findings, and conclusions, and some papers may be included as appendixes to the Committee's final report. The Committee may also reference the submitted materials, and include them or portions of them in its report.

Individuals not wishing to submit a paper are invited to send any comments they wish on this subject to EVOTING-INPUT@NAS.EDU. Serious comments will be transmitted to the committee.

CALL FOR WHITE PAPERS: CRITERIA

Substantive Requirements
The Committee on Electronic Voting seeks well-reasoned White Papers that identify and discuss questions that policy makers and the interested public should be asking about electronic voting systems. For each question identified, the author(s) should provide a rationale for why that question is of significance in electronic voting. Papers that reference technical, legal and social discourse about electronic voting must contain appropriate documentary references and citations. At the discretion of the author(s), papers may also offer answers to the questions identified.

Procedural Requirements
Papers must be:

1. double-spaced, and no longer than approximately 6,250 words;
2. submitted electronically via email to EVOTING-INPUT@NAS.EDU.
3. signed by a principal of the organization, group, or firm (if intended to represent the views of an organization, group, or firm), or signed by an individual (if intended to represent his or her views as an individual);
4. accompanied by a physically signed National Research Council copyright agreement (available by clicking this link) faxed to 202-334-2318 or scanned into an image and transmitted along with the paper. This copyright agreement must be signed by all authors of the paper.
5. properly referenced.
6. formatted with clearly identified sections for:
   1. Questions and rationales
   2. Answers (at the author's discretion)
   3. Reference citations (included only as endnotes rather than footnotes).
7. Received at the NRC in electronic form no later than the close of business on November 22, 2004. The committee recognizes that this date is after the November election, and authors who submit papers before November 2 are welcome to submit revised versions after November 2 if they want to include material related to happenings on Election Day.

Papers that do not conform to these requirements or received after November 22 will not be brought to the attention of the committee.

Visit the project web site www.cstb.org/project_evoting or contact the project director for more information.

Herb Lin
EVOTING-INPUT@NAS.EDU
202-334-3191