Public Hearing April 17 on Proposed VSS

PUBLIC HEARING APRIL 17 ON PROPOSED VSS

WASHINGTON – A public hearing has been set for April 17 at the Federal Election Commission to hear testimony on proposed Voting Systems Standards (VSS) that were released for public comment on December 13, 2001.

The VSS (the "Standards") were originally promulgated in 1990. Technological and commercial innovations in the last decade demanded that the Standards be updated and the project to revise them was begun in 1998.

Volume I of the Standards provides functional and technical requirements for a number of system types and configurations. Volume II provides testing specifications for the requirements in Volume I. Both volumes are available at the Commission’s website, http://www.fec.gov/pages/vss/vss.html.

The comment period for the draft Standards expired on February 1, 2002. Twenty-seven sets of comments from 23 parties were received by the Commission in response to the December 13 release.

Requests to testify at the April 17, 10 a.m., hearing are due April 7, 2002, and should be addressed to Penelope Bonsall, Director of the Office of Election Administration, and must be submitted in either written or electronic form. Due to recent delays in mail service to government offices, electronic or fax submissions are encouraged to ensure timeliness. Faxed requests to testify should be sent to (202) 219-8500, with printed copy follow-up to ensure legibility. Electronic mail requests should be sent to vss@fec.gov. Written requests to testify should be sent to the Federal Election Commission, 999 E Street, NW, Washington, DC 20463. Federal Register notice is 2002-4, Vol. 67, No. 56, March 22, 2002, p. 13334.

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