This was just put out by Doug Chapin in his October 13, 2005 “electionline Weekly” report:

EAC Announces Intent to Award Millions for HAVA-Related Research
By Doug Chapin
electionline.org

Late last month, the United States Election Assistance Commission (EAC) announced its intent to award a series of research contracts totaling nearly $4 million. The research program – and the federal funds it commits – is designed to begin addressing the EAC’s research responsibilities under the Help America Vote Act.

At press time, contracts were still being finalized and thus the information has not yet been posted on the EAC website. However, electionline.org has learned that the proposed awards include the following:

* $681,400 to the American Institute of Graphic Artists (AIGA)’s Design for Democracy program. The project will focus attention on better design and so-called “human factors” research for ballot materials, signage, and a new National Voter Registration Act form;

* $650,000 to the National Academy of Sciences for “voting registration database technology assistance”;

* $378,310 to the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) for recruitment, retention and training of pollworkers other than college students and $346,615 to the Center for Election Integrity at Cleveland State University for similar research regarding college student pollworkers;

* $352,000 to the National Association of State Election Directors (NASED), former Johnson County, KS election commissioner Connie Schmidt and Dr. Brit Williams, consultant to Kennesaw State University’s Center for Election Systems to prepare proposed “election management guidelines”;

* $300,212 to the Council for Excellence in Government to conduct “voter roundtables”;

* $285,226 to publius.org for “public portal access research”;

* $257,350 to the University of Utah’s Thad Hall for research on recounts and state standards on what constitutes a vote, plus best practices regarding the same (NOTE: electionline.org is a subcontractor to the University of Utah on this project);

* $224,737 to the Center for Governmental Responsibility at the University of Florida’s Levin College of Law for a legal clearinghouse, including a web portal for recent and pending election cases around the country;

* $217,105 to InfoVoter Technologies for “voter hotline research”. [See the April 7, 2005 edition of electionline Weekly for information on InfoVoter’s role in the 866-MYVOTE1 project in 2004]; and

* $110,000 to the Century Foundation’s Tova Wang and election legal consultant Job Serebrov for research into voter fraud and voter intimidation.

Some of the figures in this story were drawn from the October 3, 2005 issue of Election Administration Reports published by Richard Smolka.

Thanks! – DMCj

Thanks for the update, Doug Jr.!