Discipline that embodies the principles, means, and methods for the transformation of data in order to hide their semantic content, prevent their unauthorized use, prevent their undetected modification and establish their authenticity.

Value used to control cryptographic operations, such as decryption, encryption, signature generation or signature verification.

Endorsement of a single candidate or slate of candidates by more than one political party. The candidate or slate appears on the ballot representing each endorsing political party. Also referred to as cross-party endorsement.

Ballot that has been processed and whose votes are included in the candidates and measures vote totals.

Process of totaling votes. Version 1.0 Volume I: Voting System Performance Guidelines Appendix A: Glossary A-8

Action taken to eliminate the causes of an existing deficiency or other undesirable situation in order to prevent recurrence.

Process of testing an implementation against the requirements specified in one or more standards. The outcomes of a conformance test are generally a pass or fail result, possibly including reports of problems encountered during the execution. Also known as certification testing.

An element of configuration management, consisting of the recording and reporting of information needed to manage a configuration effectively. This includes a listing of the approved configuration identification, the status of proposed changes to the configuration, and the implementation status of approved changes.