Just got this notice from the National Academies of Science:

You are invited to attend an August 6, 2007, workshop on voter registration databases being organized by the National Academies’ Computer Science and Telecommunications Board (CSTB) as part of a study sponsored by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.

The study is to address challenges in implementing and maintaining state voter registration databases, and to offer advice to states on how to evolve and maintain these databases to share information with other states securely and accurately as they seek to fulfill the mandates of the Help America Vote Act of 2002. The study committee is co-chaired by Sharon Priest, former Secretary of State from Arkansas and Olene Walker, former Governor of Utah. A full list of committee members and additional information about the study can be found at http://cstb.org/project_interstatevoter.html.

The workshop (the first of a series of eight), which will explore issues and challenges related to state voter registration databases, will be held on Monday, August 6, in Washington, D.C. The workshop will include panel sessions on key voter registration issues related to voter registration databases, the current state of voter registration databases, and record matching and database interoperability issues within and outside the election domain. A draft agenda will be available
on www.cstb.org.

The workshop will be held at the National Academies, Keck Center, 500 Fifth Street, NW, in Washington, D.C., from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and will be followed by a brief reception. Directions to the National Academies Keck Center are available at
http://www.nationalacademies.org/about/contact/nax.html. Limited free parking is available in the Academies garage.

The second half of the workshop, from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m., will also be Web cast. A link to the Web cast will be available on August 6 from the National Academies homepage (www.nationalacademies.org). To listen, you will need to use RealPlayer (downloadable from http://www.real.com/realplayer.html) and to refresh your Web browser a few minutes before the Web cast begins at 2:30 p.m. It will be possible for Web audience members to submit written questions through the Academies’ Web site.

If you would like to attend the workshop, please register online before August 1st. (No advance registration is necessary for the Web cast.)

For additional information about the workshop, please contact Kristen Batch (202-334-2542 or kbatch@nas.edu). For questions about logistics, please contact Brandye Williams at (202-334-1481 or bwilliams@nas.edu).