N Terms — Election Security Glossary

Vote variation in which the voter is entitled to allocate a fixed number of votes over a list of contest options or write-in options, with at most one vote per option.

NASED (the National Association of State Election

A property achieved through cryptographic methods to protect against an individual or entity falsely denying having performed a particular action related to data.

NIST National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program

An open-standard authorization protocol or framework that provides applications the ability for secure designated access

The combination of NIST SP 800-53 baselines (represented by an “X”) and the additional NIST SP 800-53 security controls required for National Security System (NSS) (represented by a “+”) that are appl…

The NIST National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program.

Used in request and response messages. Voter includes this class for specifying the name of a voter and, optionally, for specifying a previous name of the voter, using PreviousName instead of Name. Re…

A concept relating to software transparency. The “ability to exit a speci fic block from within an arbitrary number of nested blocks, as oppos ed to only being able to exit the innermost block, withou…

An organizational entity responsible for assigning distinguished names (DNs) and for assuring that each DN is meaningful and unique within its domain. (SP 800-32 (NISTIR)

Belonging to or maintained by the federal government.

Each SSA is required to provide an annual report to the Secretary of Homeland Security on their efforts to identify, prioritize, and coordinate CI/KR protection in their respective sectors. (National …

A non-partisan professional organization of public officials composed of the secretaries of state of U. S. states and territories.

A non-partisan professional association of state election directors and administrators of U. S. states and territories.

A misnomer describing the processing of testing a voting machine by an INDEPENDENT TESTING AUTHORITY to verify that it conforms to the VOTING SYSTEM STANDARDS. It is a misnomer because there is nothin…

Report of results of independent testing of a voting system by an accredited test lab delivered to the U. S. Election Assistance Commission with a recommendation regarding granting a certification num…

Examination and testing of a voting system to determine if the system complies with the performance and other requirements of the national certification standards and with its own specifications.

A secure dataset of approximately 160 million permanent change-of-address (COA) records consisting of the names and addresses of individuals, families, and businesses who have filed a change-of-addres…

Neff’s protocol “Verifiable Mixing (Shuffling) of ElGamal Pairs,” available at http://theory.lcs.mit.edu/~rivest/voting/papers/Neff-2004-04-21-ElGamalShuffles.pdf.

A meeting where state and territory parties convene to select a presidential nominee.

The functions of government and the private sector that are so vital to the United States that their disruption, corruption, or dysfunction would have a debilitating effect on security, national econo…

A proposed organization that would be charged with certifying critical information tech- nologies against frameworks based on identified and vetted security standards and with supporting and endorsing…

A proposed organization that would be charged with certifying critical information technologies against frameworks based on identified and vetted security standards and with supporting and endorsing p…

An election involving the entire electorate of a country. In the United States, a PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. National Governors Association Under HAVA, the National Governors Association has the right to …

National Governors Association

A U. S. government initiative established to promote the use of evaluated information systems products and champion the development and use of national and international standards for information tech…

(NII) Nationwide interconnection of communications networks, computers, databases, and consumer electronics that make vast amounts of information available to users. It includes both public and privat…

The National Infrastructure Coordinating Center (NICC) is the dedicated 24/7 coordination and information sharing operations center that maintains situational awareness of the nation’s critical infras…

The National Infrastructure Protection Plan 2013, involving stakeholders from all 16 critical infrastructure sectors, all 50 states, and from all levels of government and industry, provides a clear ca…

Federal organization tasked with assisting in the development of voting system standards. NIST develops and maintains standards for a wide array of technologies. NIST scientists assist the U. S Electi…

Almost the same as, but not identical to FEDERAL OFFICE, q.v. “‘National office’ means the offices of president and vice president of the Un ited States, U. S. senator and representative in congress.”…

A “party established and admitted to the ballot in at least one state other than Hawaii or one which is determined by the chief election officer to be making a bona fide effort to become a national pa…

A meeting where state and territory parties convene to select a presidential nominee.

A meeting where state and territory parties convene every four years in the United States to field nominees in the upcoming U. S. presidential election. This allows the nominees to be decided before t…

[The DHS division] that leads the DHS mission to reduce risk to the Nation’s critical physical and cyber infrastructure through partnerships that foster collaboration and interoperability. (Source: DH…

Telecommunications services that are used to maintain a state of readiness or to respond to and manage any event or crisis (local, national, or international) that causes or could cause injury or harm…

The worldwide industrial complex that enables research and development, as well as the design, production, delivery, and maintenance of military weapons systems, subsystems, and components or parts, t…

(NSI) See classified national security information. national security system (NSS) (A) Any information system (including any telecommunications system) used or operated by an agency or by a contractor…

Any information system (including any telecommunications system) used or operated by an agency or by a contractor of an agency, or other organization on behalf of an agency—(i) the function, operation…

National Software Reference Library

The National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program operated by National Institute of Standards And Technology (NIST).

National VOTER Registration ACT

This act, commonly known as the “Motor Voter Law,” requires that states offer the opportunity to register to vote at their motor vehicle licensing offices (known as the DMV in many states). The law al…

The “Motor Voter Act"] This act, commonly known as the “Motor Voter Law,” requires that states offer the opportunity to register to vote at their motor vehicle licensing offices (known as the DMV in m…

(NVD) The U. S. Government repository of standards based vulnerability manageme nt data, enabling automation of vulnerability management, security measurement, and compliance (e.g., FISMA).

Nationally Recognized TEST Laboratory

One of a class of emergency situations that may result in the postponement of an election. A “natural occurrence, such as a fire, flood, b lizzard, earthquake, tornado, windstorm, ice storm, or other …

The process by a voter of moving her attention around various portions of a BALLOT and the facilities provided by a VOTING DEVICE to facilitate such movement.

A determination within the executive branch in accordance with directives issued pursuant to this order that a prospective recipient requires access to specific classified information in order to perf…

Decision made by an authorized holder of official information that a prospective recipient requires access to specific official information to carry out official duties.

A process that can be used to determine an organization’s awareness and training needs. The results of a needs assessment can provide justification to convince management to allocate adequate resource…

A complex system of systems composed of subsystems and services that are part of a continuously evolving, complex community of people, devices, information and services interconnected by a network tha…

Information system(s) implemented with a collection of interconnected components. Such components may include routers, hubs, cabling, telecommunications controllers, key distribution centers, and tech…

Access to an organizational information system by a user (or a process acting on behalf of a user) communicating through a network (e.g., local area network, wide area network, Internet).

A feature provided by some firewalls that allows access based on a user’s credentials and the results of health checks performed on the telework client device. (SP 800-41) (NISTIR)

A routing technology used by many firewalls to hide internal system addresses from an external network through use of an addressing schema. (SP 800-41) (NISTIR)

Programs, activities, and the use of tools necessary to facilitate them (including those governed by NSPD-54/HSPD-23 and NSD-42) conducted on a computer, network, or information or communications syst…

Device implementing protocols that allow attachment of a computer system to a network. (CNSSI-4009) (NISTIR)

A representation of the internal network topologies and components down to the host/device level to include but not limited to: connection, sub-network, enclave, and host information.

A process that discovers, collects, and displays the physical and logical information required to produce a network map.

Operations to design, build, configure, secure, operate, maintain, and sustain Department of Defense networks to create and preserve information assurance on the Department of Defense information netw…

See Reference Monitor. ((NISTIR)

A computing infrastructure that provides continuous business operation (i.e., highly resistant to disruption and able to operate in a degraded mode if damaged), rapid recovery if failure does occur, a…

See Information Assurance. Network Security Officer – See Information Systems Security Officer. (NISTIR)

In the NICE Framework, cybersecurity work where a person: Installs, configures, tests, operates, maintains, and manages networks and their firewalls, including hardware (e.g., hubs, bridges, switches,…

A passive technique that monitors network communication, decodes protocols, and examines headers and payloads for information of interest. It is both a review technique and a target identification and…

Individual or organization responsible for stating the security policy enforced by the network, designing the network security architecture to properly enforce that policy, and ensuring that the netwo…

System implemented with a collection of interconnected components. A network system is based on a coherent security architecture and design. (CNSSI-4009) (NISTIR)

Penetration technique in which different communication networks are linked to access an information system to avoid detection and traceback. (CNSSI-4009) (NISTIR)

A network-based IDS system monitors the traffic on its network segment as a data source. This is generally accomplished by placing the network interface card in promiscuous mode to capture all network…

(DODIN) The globally interconnected, end-to-end set of information capabilities, and associated processes for collecting, processing, storing, disseminating, and managing information on-demand to warf…

The emerging field that studies how the brain relates to performance in everyday settings and at work, integrating neuroscience and ergonomics to design safer and more efficient systems and understand…

Neuromorphic computing is a method of computing that uses artificial neurons to mimic the human brain's structure and function. The word "neuromorphic" means" characteristic of the shape of the brain …

Any “person who meets all requirements of an ELECTOR of, and has established residency in, the State of California, except that he or she will become a United States citizen after the 15th day prior t…

Invalidating the official election and holding a s econd one is a very rare event, but may be justified under certain circumstances. In North Ca rolina, the standard is set forth by statute: “The Stat…

Any “political group which has filed a valid petition and is entitled to place its list of candidates on the ballot at the next general or special election.” Mo. Rev. Stat. §115.013(16).

A “person who moves to this state after the last da te authorized in this chapter to register to

“Voting equipment that is operated in a materi ally different way or that functions in a materially different way than the equipment being replaced.” Utah Code §20A-5-402.7(1).

A list of updates about friends on a Facebook home page as well as advertisements

Relational database system that bridges the gap between SQL and NoSQL. NewSQL databases aim to scale and stay consistent.

With respect to INSTANT RUNOFF VOTING, “the highest ranked CHOICE for a remaining candidate that has not become a vote at a previous STAGE.” Wash. Rev. Code §29A.053.030(7).

(CDS) Cross domain solution that may (1) serve a specific narrow purpose, or (2) be built on very specialized hardware, or (3) be used in a special access program, and not appropriate for broader depl…

A “familiar or shortened form of a proper name by which an individual is commonly known.” Wisc. Stat. 5.02(12m).

National Institute of Standards and Technology Internal Report (NISTIR)

A term used when any registered voter can request an absentee ballot, without restrictions.

(ES&S) An option in BALLOT IMAGE MANAGER whereby a CONTEST appears in the same position on each BALLOT STYLE; that is, the position of the contest does not float.

A class of VVPAT system in which no encrypted strings or symbols, such as barcodes or hash codes, are printed on the paper record for secu rity purposes, to preserve voter-verifiability. Unfortunately…

The failure of a voter to have a vote recorded for an office or question on which she was entitled to vote. A pure “no vote” results when no attempt to vote is recorded, in which case it is not known …

An area, room, or space that, when staffed, must be occupied by two or more appropriately cleared individuals who remain within sight of each other. See two-person integrity (TPI).

A ballot on which no party affiliations are associated with candidates. N. D. C. C. §16.1-06-08.

A “button the election judge uses to clear a BALLOT DISPLAY when an elector fails to enter any votes on the DRE machine.” Wyo. Rules §1.4(kk).

To propose an individual to be considered for public office.

Individuals who have been proposed for consideration to appointment to public office or who have received enough votes in a primary election to move onto a general or run-off election. This term can a…

A formal written document signed by registered voters to request the names of candidates be placed on election ballots.

The process of being proposed for consideration to public office.

A formal written document issued by an election office to request the name of a candidate be placed on election ballots.

An individual who has been proposed for consideration to public office.

An error, mistake, omission, or intentional act that results in a vote not counting towards the final election result.

An interaction mode that uses assistive technology to allow voters with no use of their hands to operate the voting system.

Any type of media on which information is stored, but which does not qualify as Paper or Printed Media, such as Micro Media (micro fiche and microfilm) or Computer Hard Drives.

Not affiliated with a political party.

Contest where eligibility to vote in that contest is independent of political party affiliation.

A voter who is not “affiliated with any political party.” Ore. Rev. Stat. §254.370 (1).

Voting without the use of DOCUMENT BALLOTS, as with DIRECT-RECORDING ELECTRONIC VOTING SYSTEMS.

Uncoercibility

An RBG that (when working properly) produces outputs that have full entropy. Contrast with a DRBG. Other names for nondeterministic RBGs are True Random Number (or Bit) Generators and, simply, Random …

See mandatory access control (MAC). non-local maintenance Maintenance activities conducted by individuals communicating through a network; either an external network (e.g., the Internet) or an interna…

A “a person whose native speaking language is a language other than English, and who continues to use his or her native language as his or her primary means of oral and written communication.” D. C. C…

“Declarative or informative in nature; not subject to interpretation or compilation as programming language instructions.” 2007 VVSG.

Maintenance activities conducted by individuals communicating through a network; either an external network (e.g., the Internet) or an internal network. (SP 800-53) (NISTIR)

A user who is not an organizational user (including public users).

A “primary election ballot that lists all nonpartisan races and ballot measures to be voted on at that primary.” Wash. Rev. Code §29A.04.008(7).

An “election that is not a. PARTISAN ELECTION.” Col. Stat. §1-1-104(23.3).

Elected office for which candidates run independent of political party affiliation.

Non-partisan OFFICE

An entity with a digital identity that acts in cyberspace, but is not a human actor. This can include organizations, hardware devices, software applications, and information artifacts.

Protection against an individual falsely denying having performed a particular action. Provides the capability to determine whether a given individual took a particular action such as creating informa…

An organization or individual that is not affiliated with a nation-state.

Functional failure that requires the manufacturer or highly trained personnel to repair.

Access to voting that does not require the ability to see. HAVA. “Synthesized speech, Braille and other output methods not requiring sight.” W. Va. Code §3-1C-3(2).

Audio ballot.

“Memory in which information can be stored inde finitely with no power applied. Static RAM, ROMs and EPROMs are examples of nonvolatile memory.” 2005 VVSG V.1, APPENDIX A.

A random or non-repeating value that is included in data exchanged by a protocol, usually for the purpose of guaranteeing the transmittal of live data rather than replayed data, thus detecting and pro…

Failure or refusal to comply with something (such as a rule or regulation).

Fair and equitable.

A ballot option in some jurisdictions or organizations, designed to allow the voter to indicate disapproval of all candidates in a voting contest.

A group of individuals with either no party affiliation or undisclosed party affiliation, working together following specific rules and procedures, to compile, review, and validate election materials.

Election held with candidates in non-party-specific contests.

Elected office for which candidates run without political party affiliation.

The act of completing the required paperwork to become a candidate for nonpartisan public office.

Primary election held to narrow the field of candidates in non-party-specific contests.

Assurance that the sender is provided with proof of delivery and that the recipient is pro- vided with proof of the sender’s identity so that neither can later deny having processed the data.

Memory in which information can be stored indefinitely with no power applied. ROMs and PROMs are examples of nonvolatile memory.

A person who is inexperienced in a particular sphere or activity, especially as related to computing

A collective expectation for the proper behavior of actors with a given identity.

When not more individuals file to become candidates than there are open seats up for election.

A document that has been certified by a notary public, who is an official who verifies the identities of everybody signing the document and certifies the document with a stamp.

An REPOSITORY which distributes software integrity information, such as digital signatures and hash values. 2007 VVSG.

Currently wireless technologies use infrared, acoustic, radio frequency, and optical.

The announcement of an organization's intention, action or reminder.

Document providing further guidance and explanation on the requirements and procedures of the Election Assistance Commission’s (EAC) Voting System Certification or Voting System Testing Lab (VSTL) pro…

The final settlement of a matter, and with reference to decisions announced from an agency.

The legal term used when an authorized government authority provides public notice that an election will take place at a particular time and under particular rules and statutes.

The “notice filed with the recall election official by a recall committee for the purpose of initiating a recall effort.” N. J. S. A. §19:27A-3.

Official communication from an elections office about an election, voter registration, or election process.

Official communication from an agency that a statute and rule has been violated.

The requirement that the voter be given positive indication that a BALLOT has been cast successfully. A HUMAN FACTOR identified in the 2007 VVSG.

Cryptography that consists of: (i) an approved algorithm; (ii) an implementation that has been approved for the protection of classified information in a particular environment; and (iii) a supporting…

Command and Control Information Assurance Material (NCCIM) Information Assurance materials necessary to assure release of a nuclear weapon at the direction of the President and to secure against the u…

Dummy letter, letter symbol, or code group inserted into an encrypted message to delay or prevent its decryption or to complete encrypted groups for transmission or transmission security purposes. (CN…

Blank ballot

A number (usually secret) assigned to an individual and used to confirm identity.