Voting Software Reference Data Set

For an overview of the NSRL voting software effort, please see NSRL and Voting System Software.

This data set contains information that can be used to verify that voting software files have not been modified. The original voting software files are not distributed by NIST.

The Voting Reference Data Set (VRDS) is a subset of the NSRL RDS that includes only voting system software. It contains file-identifying information (FII) that can be used to uniquely identify voting system software files. This FII, which includes digital signatures, is derived from software provided to the NSRL by voting system vendors and voting system test laboratories as listed at http://www.eac.gov. The VRDS is available for use by states, vendors, labs, and other interested parties to uniquely identify files by comparing file information from a voting system with information in the VRDS. Such a comparison must meet three criteria in order to be valid: (1) FII for a given software package's files must exist in the VRDS, (2) FII for a given voting system's files must have been obtained, and (3) a valid comparison mechanism must exist that can be used to compare these two sets of FII. Again, all three conditions MUST be met in order to use the VRDS in a valid FII comparison for a given voting system.

The VRDS may be applied in many different contexts to meet different goals. In all, its primary function is the same: to uniquely identify files as existing (or not existing) within the VRDS. This single application may be used to trace software as it "moves" through the accreditation process from vendors to testing labs to states (or other purchasers of voting software) ensuring at each point that (a) the files for the given software program exist and (b) the files have not changed from their original, "as-delivered" state. Such VRDS applications, used for managing or tracking change, have been shown to be indispensable in integrity-critical operations such as voting-system software development, testing, deployment, and usage.

The latest voting releases is available in the NSRL's RDSv3 format. To learn more about the RDSv3 format, please find further information here.

Full Current Voting RDSv3 Publication

• RDS_Voting_July_2023.zip
• RDS_Voting_July_2023.zip.sha

Minimal Current Voting RDSv3 Publication

• RDS_Voting_Minimal_July_2023.zip
• RDS_Voting_Minimal_July_2023.zip.sha

The latest publications are in the RDSv3 database format. If you need the data in the old RDS 2.XX text file format, please reference the following documents:

• RDSv3.pdf
• RDSv3_FAQs.pdf
• RDSv3_to_RDSv2_text_files_WINDOWS.pdf - Steps for creating RDS 2.XX text files from an RDSv3 database for Windows
• RDSv3_to_RDSv2_text_files_LINUX-OSX.pdf - Steps for creating RDS 2.XX text files from an RDSv3 database for Linux and Mac OS X

Previous releases and synopses of changes are listed here.

This release covers software provided to NIST by the following vendors, received by the date shown at the top of this page. The descriptions of specific software packages and versions are stored in the NSRLProd.txt file. For convenience, here is a summary:

Dominion Voting D-Suite 5.12-NV ICC HiPro March 2022

NIST has also made available a supplementary set of Dominion Voting D-Suite 5.12-NV ICC HiPro software. This set includes only Dominion Voting D-Suite 5.12-NV ICC HiPro products. This supplementary set only includes the top-level files, and is available in XLSX format here:

https://s3.amazonaws.com/rds.nsrl.nist.gov/voting/Nevada_2022-03-01/Nevada_Voting_March_2022.xlsx

Signatures for verification of this file can be found here.

Dominion Voting D-Suite 5.12-NV ICC HiPro is included in the full March 2022 Voting RDS, which is available here.