US board rejects e-voting test lab application

The U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) has voted to reject an application from Ciber Inc. to be a security test laboratory for electronic voting machines.

The EAC voted to terminate Ciber's application for interim accreditation as a voting system test laboratory, the EAC announced Wednesday. Ciber failed to notify the EAC of key staff changes, required in the interim EAC program to accredit e-voting test labs, the commission said.

"We were asking for a lot of information from these labs," EAC Chairwoman Donetta Davidson said in a statement. "And we should. I encourage Ciber and all other test labs applying for the full program ... to follow its requirements very closely."

Ciber, a system integration consultant in McLean, Virginia, could still win accreditation under a newer test labs program. A Ciber spokeswoman didn't immediately respond to a request for comments.

The EAC learned in early May that the program manager and one other employee in Ciber's voting test laboratory program had left the company. EAC found out that information from Wyle Laboratories Inc., a Ciber competitor that hired the two employees, the EAC said.

Ciber notified the EAC of the staff changes on May 15, after the commission wrote Ciber a letter asking about the changes. In the notification, Ciber told the EAC that replacement employees started in October 2006. The EAC's rules require test labs to notify the commission of key staff changes within 30 days.

This isn't the first run-in the EAC has had with Ciber. In September, the commission told Ciber that it wasn't conforming to test lab program record keeping and resource allocation requirements. In February, the commission gave Ciber until early March to fix any problems and to report steps it was taking to fix deficiencies.

But the company failed to notify the EAC of those staff changes by the March deadline, the EAC said in a letter to the company sent Wednesday.

Ciber still has a pending application to become a test lab under a full program in partnership with the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The interim program allowed labs to be accredited to test e-voting machine standards developed in 2002, bridging the gap until NIST delivered its first list of recommended labs for the full accreditation program.

Ciber was one of three companies that applied for interim test lab accreditation. Wyle and SysTest Labs received interim accreditation in August.

In February, the EAC voted to stop accepting applications for the interim program. That same month, it also accredited SysTest Labs and iBeta Quality Assurance LLC under the full accreditation program, which requires labs to test e-voting systems for voluntary security standards developed in 2005, in addition to the 2002 standards.