§20961 Technical Guidelines Development Committee

Summary

Creates a Technical Guidelines Development Committee to help the Executive Director of the Commission write voluntary voting system guidelines. The Committee must give its first recommendations no later than 9 months after all members are appointed. The Committee is chaired by the Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology and includes 14 other people picked together by the Commission and that Director. Those 14 include equal numbers from three advisory boards (the Standards Board, the Board of Advisors, and the Architectural and Transportation Barrier Compliance Board under section 792 of title 29), a representative of the American National Standards Institute, a representative of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, two state election directors chosen by the National Association of State Election Directors who are not on those boards and who are from different political parties, and other technical experts. A majority of members makes a quorum, but the Committee may not do business until every member is appointed. Members are not paid for service but get travel and per diem at the rates in subchapter I of chapter 57 of title 5. When asked, the NIST Director must give technical help and conduct intramural research for the Committee in areas such as computer and network security for voting systems (including the computerized list in section 21083(a)), fraud detection and prevention, voter privacy, human factors and assistive technology for disabilities (including blindness) and varying literacy, and remote access voting including Internet voting. No private person or company can claim intellectual property rights to any guideline or its contents adopted by the Commission. When the Commission adopts a guideline under section 20962, the Committee must publish in the Federal Register the recommendations it gave the Executive Director about that guideline.