Accreditation for Voting Equipment Testing Laboratories Gordon Gillerman Standard Services Division Chief

What is Accreditation? Accreditation - 3 rd partly attestation of laboratory competence Standards and Handbooks ISO/IEC and NVLAP Handbook 150 – General Requirements NVLAP Handbook – Voting System Testing Laboratory Specific Accreditation is not product certification Laboratories test – develop data EAC certifies – attestation of voting system conformity

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NVLAP Accreditation Accreditation process includes: Evaluation of laboratory quality documentation on-site visit by a technical assessor(s), with expertise in the voting standards, and a quality systems lead assessor typically 3 to 4 days Labs are accredited to a core set of set methods derived from the voting system standard Objective evidence during assessment is documented using checklists developed

NVLAP Accreditation Methods of gathering objective evidence include: Observations Interviews review of documentation witnessing of testing Nonconformities cited against specific requirements in the standard. Labs correct all nonconformities before accreditation NVLAP accredited laboratories are recommended by NIST for inclusion in the EAC’s accreditation program NVLAP accreditation is renewed annually with on-site visits occurring the 1 st and 2 nd years, and every other year thereafter.

Program Actions Labs may request to expand their scope of accreditation add standards (aka test methods) additional on-site visit may be needed to assess lab’s competency Monitoring visits may occur to verify a lab’s competency for cause Outside entities may bring issues to NVLAP’s attention. In most cases a monitoring visit would address specific concerns If an accredited lab should prove unable to meet the accreditation requirements then accreditation would be suspended or potentially withdrawn

Core Test Methods Federal Election Commission FEC Voting System Standard of 2002 (VSS-2002), including the Help American Vote Act (HAVA) requirements and the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) Voluntary Voting System Guidelines of 2005 (VVSG-2005) for core test methods involving: a. Technical Data Package Review; b. Physical Configuration Audit (including examination of hardware components for safety, usability/accessibility, maintainability/operability of the equipment and operational validation against user documentation;

CORE Test Methods c. Source Code Review; d. Witness Build and System Information Testing e. Functional Configuration Audit including the operational testing of hardware and software components and validation against user documentation); f. System Integration Testing (including validation of accuracy, reliability, other high volume tests, and validation of processes and tools provided to support the election operation); and g. Telecommunication and Security Testing.

Laboratory Accreditation’s Role in Voting System Certification Accredited Voting System Testing Labs Voting System Vendor Voting System Purchaser Equipment Test Results NVLAP and EAC Certification EAC Certified Voting System List accreditation