IU President Leading National Committee on Voting

(Image courtesy of Indiana University)

The president of Indiana University has been selected to serve on a committee examining national voting practices and challenges facing the U.S. election process. Michael McRobbie joins Columbia University President Lee Bollinger as co-chairs of the committee, which will be meeting over the next 18 months.

The Committee on the Future of Voting: Accessible, Reliable, Verifiable Technology for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine held its first meeting earlier this month in Washington D.C. It includes expert political and social scientists, engineers, cryptographers, legal scholars and mathematicians from throughout the country.

"We are fortunate to be working with an extremely talented and diverse group of experts who are highly committed to helping to educate citizens about voting technology, identifying and analyzing challenges to our nation’s voting systems, and providing recommendations toward maintaining the integrity, accessibility and transparency of our electoral process," said McRobbie.

IU says the committee will spend the next 18 months doing the following:

• Document the current state of play in terms of technology, standards and resources for voting technologies.
• Examine challenges arising out of the 2016 federal election.
• Evaluate current and future advances in technology that may improve voting.
• Offer recommendations that provide a vision of voting that is easier, accessible, reliable and verifiable.

The committee will deliver a final report once the study is complete. The committee’s next meeting is scheduled to take place in June at Columbia University.