Resumen
This article focuses on the independent testing of voting systems in the U.S. Independent qualification testing is a prerequisite in over 40 U.S. states for seeking accreditation of a direct-recording electronic or paper-based voting system. While individual state laws vary, this is generally interpreted as being tested by the National Association of State Election Directors (NASED) accredited hardware and software Independent Testing Authorities (ITA) to the voluntary FEC Voting System Standards (VSS). In 1975, the National Bureau of Standards issued the report Effective Use of Computing Technology in Vote-Tallying, which determined that a basic problem in computerized elections was the lack of technical skills at the state/local level for development of standards and testing. By 2000, advances in voting technology, legislative changes, and the Americans with Disabilities Act warranted updating the 1990 VSS. The terms hardware and software are misleading in describing the scope of the ITA, because software is addressed by both ITAs