This is a list and brief description of various Electoral Agencies, Commissions and Organizations in the United States of America. The List will attempt to be hierachical where possible.
The Federal Electoral Commission : This is the primary agency of the Federal Government tasked by the Law of Congress to oversee electoral regulatory issues in the United States. The primary role of the FEC is the enforcement of campaign finance laws and regulations as determined by Congress since the FEC establishment by congress in 1975. The FEC website contains information about campaign finance issues. In the scheme of Elections in the United States, the F.E.C.’s role is mostly restricted to candidate policing with respect to their campaign fund sources. From the point of view of an Enterprise Security Architecture for Electronic Voting Systems, the FEC plays no role (at this time at least).
The Electoral College: The process of Electing the President and Vice President of the United States is a two tiered one. First the Voters make their choice of party known , at the polls. This choice is then affirmed by a selected group of individuals making up the Electoral College. Each State has a pre-designated number of people to make up the Electoral College and this number is determined by the number of federal representatives of the States. Each State has two Senators, and a slot of House of Representative members determined by the population of the State. Each State determines how the results at the polls are handled by the Electoral College members, but the predominance of States choose to have the Electoral College members return the ballot for the party (and thus candidate) with the highest majority at the polls. Despite its enormous influence, the Electoral College also plays no roll in the Architecture of a Secure Electronic Voting System
States Board of Election: The State Board of Election is typically an independent agency of each State and is typically the agency of the state responsible for the conduct of Elections at all levels of government. Each State typically also has a county (or city) Election board for each county and may also have a municipal Election Board. The county election board membership is determined by state laws. Each State laws generally determine the relationship between local election board and the state Election board, but the final manager of Elections for National and Statewide Election as the responsible party for Voters and candidate registration is the State Election Board. More Information about the State of Maryland Election board can be found here.
In the Architecture for Secure Electronic Voting Systems, in the United States, the State Election Board (SEB) will serve the general role of System Owner whose representatives, agents or designate will be responsible for all sorts of administrative duties related to the system. The SEB will own all technologies related to the overall system except for end user devices that may be required for remote elections.
From the perspective of a cryptographically driven electoral system, which will be the process of choice in our architecture, the SEB or a collegiate* designated agency be responsible for key management or act as the root Certificate Authority (CA) for a Public Key (PK) based election cryptographic scheme. In the event that the states choose a collegiate designated CA, then the States may choose to enable such CA have a broad federal power to enable it function effectively and thus simplify various aspect of remote voting including but not limited to absentee balloting.
For Countries where National Elections are conducted by a central Electoral body such body may be responsible for CA or a designate CA.
The Election Assistance Commission (EAC): An agency of the Federal Government created by the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002 in response to the failures observed in the 2000 presidential Election in the United States. The HAVA act, more than any other law, is the major driving force behind the adoption of Electronic Voting System and serves as the ultimate standard body for the implementation of Modern Electronic Voting Systems in the U.S. The Commission has mandated the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) to help develop standards for Secure Elections. These organizations have been engaged in various information technology and electronic system standardization activities for years and the EAC intends to leverage their long standing expertise in the development of efficient and secure standards that technology vendors can use as benchmark for their products.
In all, the States Electoral Board are still responsible for verifying and assuring that the solutions adopted by their states are secure enough to meet the various federal (and state) electoral laws and guidelines.
Several Non-Governmental (NGO) and individual election watch dogs exist, whose activities and goals are geared towards assuring the security of the electoral systems. These private organizations and individuals will play different roles as evaluators of the overall system.
* Collegiate here implies a combination of State Electoral Body acting together as a single institution for the purpose of creating a central management of specific Electoral function such as root Certificate Authority for a public key based election system
The Federal Electoral Commission : This is the primary agency of the Federal Government tasked by the Law of Congress to oversee electoral regulatory issues in the United States. The primary role of the FEC is the enforcement of campaign finance laws and regulations as determined by Congress since the FEC establishment by congress in 1975. The FEC website contains information about campaign finance issues. In the scheme of Elections in the United States, the F.E.C.’s role is mostly restricted to candidate policing with respect to their campaign fund sources. From the point of view of an Enterprise Security Architecture for Electronic Voting Systems, the FEC plays no role (at this time at least).
The Electoral College: The process of Electing the President and Vice President of the United States is a two tiered one. First the Voters make their choice of party known , at the polls. This choice is then affirmed by a selected group of individuals making up the Electoral College. Each State has a pre-designated number of people to make up the Electoral College and this number is determined by the number of federal representatives of the States. Each State has two Senators, and a slot of House of Representative members determined by the population of the State. Each State determines how the results at the polls are handled by the Electoral College members, but the predominance of States choose to have the Electoral College members return the ballot for the party (and thus candidate) with the highest majority at the polls. Despite its enormous influence, the Electoral College also plays no roll in the Architecture of a Secure Electronic Voting System
States Board of Election: The State Board of Election is typically an independent agency of each State and is typically the agency of the state responsible for the conduct of Elections at all levels of government. Each State typically also has a county (or city) Election board for each county and may also have a municipal Election Board. The county election board membership is determined by state laws. Each State laws generally determine the relationship between local election board and the state Election board, but the final manager of Elections for National and Statewide Election as the responsible party for Voters and candidate registration is the State Election Board. More Information about the State of Maryland Election board can be found here.
In the Architecture for Secure Electronic Voting Systems, in the United States, the State Election Board (SEB) will serve the general role of System Owner whose representatives, agents or designate will be responsible for all sorts of administrative duties related to the system. The SEB will own all technologies related to the overall system except for end user devices that may be required for remote elections.
From the perspective of a cryptographically driven electoral system, which will be the process of choice in our architecture, the SEB or a collegiate* designated agency be responsible for key management or act as the root Certificate Authority (CA) for a Public Key (PK) based election cryptographic scheme. In the event that the states choose a collegiate designated CA, then the States may choose to enable such CA have a broad federal power to enable it function effectively and thus simplify various aspect of remote voting including but not limited to absentee balloting.
For Countries where National Elections are conducted by a central Electoral body such body may be responsible for CA or a designate CA.
The Election Assistance Commission (EAC): An agency of the Federal Government created by the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002 in response to the failures observed in the 2000 presidential Election in the United States. The HAVA act, more than any other law, is the major driving force behind the adoption of Electronic Voting System and serves as the ultimate standard body for the implementation of Modern Electronic Voting Systems in the U.S. The Commission has mandated the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) to help develop standards for Secure Elections. These organizations have been engaged in various information technology and electronic system standardization activities for years and the EAC intends to leverage their long standing expertise in the development of efficient and secure standards that technology vendors can use as benchmark for their products.
In all, the States Electoral Board are still responsible for verifying and assuring that the solutions adopted by their states are secure enough to meet the various federal (and state) electoral laws and guidelines.
Several Non-Governmental (NGO) and individual election watch dogs exist, whose activities and goals are geared towards assuring the security of the electoral systems. These private organizations and individuals will play different roles as evaluators of the overall system.
* Collegiate here implies a combination of State Electoral Body acting together as a single institution for the purpose of creating a central management of specific Electoral function such as root Certificate Authority for a public key based election system
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