The Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002 was passed by Congress to encourage the upgrade of voting equipment across the United States. HAVA established the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) and the Technical Guidelines Development Committee (TGDC), chaired by the Director of NIST, was well as a Board of Advisors and Standard Board. HAVA calls on NIST to provide technical support to the EAC and TGDC in efforts related to human factors, security, and laboratory accreditation. Researchers in the Computer Security Division conduct research into security issues in voting systems and identify standards, guidelines and technologies that can improve the security of these systems.

The Information Technology Laboratory's Computer Security Division supports the activities of the EAC and TGDC related to voting equipment security. Researchers in the Computer Security Division conduct research into security issues in voting systems and identify standards, guidelines and technologies that can improve the security of these systems.

For more information on NIST’s efforts related to HAVA see https://www.nist.gov/itl/voting.