Election Administration Resources

Hopefully you find our presentation(s) and workshop(s) on election infrastructure and election administration insightful and useful. In particular, we were pleased to have Eddie Perez deliver his talk at DEFCON29 where he offered “additional resources.” And those are here!

Below is an on-going organic set of resources we think will be of most benefit to your new or continuing education and interest in the vital process of administering (and defending) our democracy.  We provide the fully qualified URL for each so you can immediately see the source.

Most Recent Presentation/Workshop

• DEF CON 29, Hacking to Save Democracy: What Technologists Need to Know about Election Administration,
  https://trustthevote.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/DEFCON29_OSET-Final.pdf
  • Here is the video of Eddie’s presentation.

Election Administration in the U.S.

• National Conference of State Legislatures, Election Administration at State and Local Levels, https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/election-administration-at-state-and-local-levels.aspx
• OSET Institute, Elections 2030: A Nonpartisan Blueprint for Effective U.S. Election Administration, https://www.osetfoundation.org/research/2020/12/21/2030plan
• OSET Institute, Critical Democracy Infrastructure Briefing, https://www.osetfoundation.org/research/2020/04/05/cdi-v2
• Wikipedia, Help America Vote Act, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help_America_Vote_Act

Recent “Blue Ribbon Commissions” with Recommended Reforms

• National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine, Securing the Vote, https://www.nap.edu/catalog/25120/securing-the-vote-protecting-american-democracy
• The Presidential Commission on Election Administration, The American Voting Experience, https://bipartisanpolicy.org/the-presidential-commission-on-election-administration/

Election Security

• Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Election Security Resource Library, https://www.cisa.gov/election-security-library
• Center for Internet Security, A Handbook for Elections Infrastructure Security, https://www.cisecurity.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/CIS-Elections-eBook-15-Feb.pdf
• Harvard University, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, The State and Local Election Cybersecurity Playbook, https://www.belfercenter.org/publication/state-and-local-election-cybersecurity-playbook

Voting System Certification and Federal Standards

• OSET Institute, New Federal Voting System Standards: What Just Happened, and Why Does it Matter? https://www.osetfoundation.org/blog/2021/3/16/new-federal-voting-system-standards-what-just-happened-and-why-does-it-matter
• OSET Institute, Reinventing the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, https://www.osetfoundation.org/research/2019/08/08/reinventingeac
• OSET Institute, Moving the Needle on Voting System Updates, https://www.osetfoundation.org/research/2019/08/08/vsupdate-challenges

Post-Election Audits

• Preferred resources to come shortly provided by OSET Institute principal election scientist and OSET Institute Board Advisor, Dr. Philip Stark; however, in the mean time please consider:
  • Evidence-Based Elections: Create a Meaningful Paper Trail, Then Audit, Georgetown Law Technology Review, 4, 523–541. https://georgetownlawtechreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/4.2-p523-541-Appel-Stark.pdf
  • OSET Institute and Dr. Philip B. Stark March 2021 Testimony to State of Connecticut on Risk-Limiting Audits, https://trustthevote.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/10Mar21_Stark-OSET_CT-RLAtestimony.pdf
  • Verified Voting, Post-Election Audits, https://verifiedvoting.org/audits/; Principles and Best Practices for Post-Election Tabulation Audits (2018), https://verifiedvoting.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Principles-and-Best-Practices-For-Post-Eleciton-Tabulation-Audits.pdf
  • National Conference of State Legislatures, Post-Election Audits, https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/post-election-audits635926066.aspx