Over the past several months, the topic of online voting has been top of mind for millions of Americans and has been widely debated. Supporters often highlight how it would increase voter turnout through improved accessibility and convenience. Privacy and election integrity are among the top concerns about implementing an online voting system.

Researchers from UMBC and xx.network have been working to design an online voting system that is resistant to coercion and would provide a secure way for people to cast their ballots from computers, tablets, and smartphones in the future. Alan Sherman, professor of computer science and electrical engineering, is developing the system, VoteXX, with David Chaum, a cryptographer known for his work on privacy-centered technology, and Richard Carback ‘05, M.S. ‘08, Ph.D. ‘10, computer science, who has spent his career deflecting would-be hackers.

Mitigating vulnerabilities

The security of devices that voters might use to cast their ballot is a significant concern, notes Sherman. He explains that malware on the devices that voters use might change the votes or spy on the voter.

As described in the researchers’ new whitepaper, VoteXX allows voters to confirm that their ballots were accurately cast, collected, and counted. This system uses ideas from an earlier system, Remotegrity, that the collaborators developed and used in a municipal election in Takoma Park, Maryland, in 2010. Voters received secret vote codes on a scratch-off card via traditional mail, which they used to hide their votes from the software and hardware.

To address the issue of coercion, VoteXX enables voters to cancel or change their vote up to a certain deadline.

Studying voting issues 

The collaborators are also urging Congress to create a non-partisan National Research Center for the Technologies of Democracy. The center would study elections, voting systems, ballot design, usability, and accessibility, in addition to other topics. They suggest the center be created as part of the existing National Cybersecurity Federally Funded Research and Developments Center.

Sherman shares that the applications of this work are widespread and significant. “The techniques developed in the VoteXX project can enhance the security of all forms of remote voting,” he notes, “including Internet voting and vote-by-mail.”

Banner image: A person typing on a computer. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

Notice of Requirement for Electronic Submission of all Administrative Supplements

Notice Number: NOT-OD-20-128

https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-20-128.html

Purpose

This Notice alerts the extramural community of three updates to our administrative supplement submission policies.

·         Effective immediately, NIH will begin accepting administrative supplement applications for multi-project awards electronically. Since the administrative supplement applies to the parent award as a whole, the single-project application form package used for research grants and cooperative agreements will be used for these submissions (e.g., Competition ID= “FORMS-F-ADMINSUPP-RESEARCH.”)

·         Effective July 25, 2020, the streamlined submission method through the eRA Commons will be discontinued and replaced with the option to initiate the administrative supplement application within eRA Commons and leverage technology available in NIH ASSIST to complete submission.

·         Effective July 25, 2020, all supplement applications to existing single and multi-project awards must be submitted electronically through Grants.gov using NIH ASSIST, Grants.gov Workspace, or institutional system-to-system (S2S) solutions.

Background

Administrative supplements are requests made for additional funds during a current project period to meet increased costs that are within the original scope of the approved award but were unforeseen when the new or renewal application or grant progress report for non-competing continuation support was submitted.

Currently, NIH does not require the electronic submission of administrative supplement applications. Requests for administrative supplements can be submitted utilizing a variety of submission methods including streamlined submission through the eRA Commons (subset of standard application information submitted directly to NIH within eRA Commons); electronic submission through Grants.gov using NIH ASSIST, Grants.gov Workspace, or institutional system-to-system (S2S) solutions; or by utilizing paper-based applications.

Paper-based submission poses a challenge to NIH staff when trying to track and capture structured data elements and streamlined submission through eRA Commons does not provide the level of detail captured in a full application through Grants.gov. An increasing number of administrative supplement opportunities have required electronic submission through Grants.gov to address these issues.

Aligning the administrative supplement application process with the business practice used for competing applications also allows us to standardize our application instructions.

Policy Implementation

Effective July 25, 2020, NIH will require recipients to submit all administrative supplement applications, electronically, for both single and multi-project awards.

Application Submission Information

These changes apply to all NIH administrative supplement funding opportunity announcements (FOAs).

NIH will reissue the following administrative supplement parent announcements. Any in-progress applications submitted through Grants.gov using these announcements must be completed by July 24, 2020. Applications submitted on/after July 25, 2020 must use the reissued announcements.

·         PA-18-591 - Administrative Supplements to Existing NIH Grants and Cooperative Agreements (Parent Admin Supp - Clinical Trial Optional)

·         PA-18-592 - Research Supplements to Promote Re-Entry into Biomedical and Behavioral Research Careers (Admin Supp - Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

On July 25, 2020, NIH will also implement changes to the eRA Commons submission method that will improve comprehensive data collection by leveraging technology available in NIH ASSIST. The current streamlined submission method through eRA Commons (subset of standard application information submitted directly to NIH within eRA Commons) will be discontinued and replaced with the option to initiate administrative supplement applications within eRA Commons to take advantage of pre-population and other features and completing the submission in NIH ASSIST. This functionality will be available even if responding to a Notice of Special Interest (NOSI) that indicates “the process for Streamlined Submission using the eRA Commons cannot be used for this initiative.”

If you have any questions, please contact the Office of Sponsored Programs @ ospa@umbc.edu.