597 research outputs found
Public Evidence from Secret Ballots
Elections seem simple---aren't they just counting? But they have a unique,
challenging combination of security and privacy requirements. The stakes are
high; the context is adversarial; the electorate needs to be convinced that the
results are correct; and the secrecy of the ballot must be ensured. And they
have practical constraints: time is of the essence, and voting systems need to
be affordable and maintainable, and usable by voters, election officials, and
pollworkers. It is thus not surprising that voting is a rich research area
spanning theory, applied cryptography, practical systems analysis, usable
security, and statistics. Election integrity involves two key concepts:
convincing evidence that outcomes are correct and privacy, which amounts to
convincing assurance that there is no evidence about how any given person
voted. These are obviously in tension. We examine how current systems walk this
tightrope.Comment: To appear in E-Vote-Id '1
Cast-as-Intended Mechanism with Return Codes Based on PETs
We propose a method providing cast-as-intended verifiability for remote
electronic voting. The method is based on plaintext equivalence tests (PETs),
used to match the cast ballots against the pre-generated encrypted code tables.
Our solution provides an attractive balance of security and functional
properties. It is based on well-known cryptographic building blocks and relies
on standard cryptographic assumptions, which allows for relatively simple
security analysis. Our scheme is designed with a built-in fine-grained
distributed trust mechanism based on threshold decryption. It, finally, imposes
only very little additional computational burden on the voting platform, which
is especially important when voters use devices of restricted computational
power such as mobile phones. At the same time, the computational cost on the
server side is very reasonable and scales well with the increasing ballot size
HandiVote: simple, anonymous, and auditable electronic voting
We suggest a set of procedures utilising a range of technologies by which a major democratic deficit of modern society can be addressed. The mechanism, whilst it makes limited use of cryptographic techniques in the background, is based around objects and procedures with which voters are currently familiar. We believe that this holds considerable potential for the extension of democratic participation and control
Authentication with Weaker Trust Assumptions for Voting Systems
Some voting systems are reliant on external authentication services.
Others use cryptography to implement their own. We combine
digital signatures and non-interactive proofs to derive a generic construction
for voting systems with their own authentication mechanisms, from systems
that rely on external authentication services. We prove that our
construction produces systems satisfying ballot secrecy and election
verifiability, assuming the underlying voting system does. Moreover,
we observe that works based on similar ideas provide neither ballot secrecy nor
election verifiability. Finally, we demonstrate applicability of
our results by applying our construction to the Helios voting system
What did I really vote for? On the usability of verifiable e-voting schemes
E-voting has been embraced by a number of countries, delivering benefits in terms of efficiency and accessibility. End-to-end verifiable e-voting schemes facilitate verification of the integrity of individual votes during the election process. In particular, methods for cast-as-intended verification enable voters to confirm that their cast votes have not been manipulated by the voting client. A well-known technique for effecting cast-as-intended verification is the Benaloh Challenge. The usability of this challenge is crucial because voters have to be actively engaged in the verification process. In this paper, we report on a usability evaluation of three different approaches of the Benaloh Challenge in the remote e-voting context. We performed a comparative user study with 95 participants. We conclude with a recommendation for which approaches should be provided to afford verification in real-world elections and suggest usability improvements
Secret texts and cipherballots: secret suffrage and remote electronic voting
Una de les principals preocupacions sobre el vot telemàtic és com preservar el sufragi secret. La llista d’estudis que
afirmen que el vot per Internet és incompatible amb el secret del vot és força extensa. Si bé estudis posteriors sobre
experiències reals han tingut resultats més matisats, les preocupacions sobre el sufragi secret i el vot telemàtic es
mantenen. Abordar aquestes preocupacions esdevé una obligació ineludible. En aquest context, la nostra recerca és
novadora. En primer lloc, el nostre punt de partida no es basa en definicions legals preexistents que s'accepten com a
donades. Partint de l'enfocament universalista del dret constitucional comparat, hem entès que el principi del sufragi
secret transcendeix les opinions i convencions lligades a comunitats polítiques concretes. Aquesta concepció comú i
bàsica s'ha traduït en tres estàndards: individualitat, confidencialitat i anonimat. Aquests estàndards s’han de satisfer
en qualsevol canal de votació. En segon lloc, hem adoptat un enfocament més ampli en l’aplicació d’aquest principi al
vot telemàtic. Hem demostrat que el sufragi secret es pot garantir mitjançant la llei, el codi informàtic, les normes i fins i
tot el mercat. La normativa actual tendeix a ser limitada perquè recorre a analogies amb els canals de votació en paper
i no reconeix les especificitats del vot telemàtic. Per contra, aquí hem examinat el paper que exerceixen (i les
limitacions pròpies) del xifrat asimètric, l'anonimització basada en mix-nets o el recompte homomòrfic, i el vot múltiple.Una de las principales preocupaciones sobre el voto telemático es cómo garantizar el secreto del voto. La lista de
autores que afirman que el voto por Internet es incompatible con el sufragio secreto es considerable. Aunque las
conclusiones de estudios posteriores sobre experiencias reales hayan sido más matizadas, las preocupaciones sobre
el sufragio secreto y el voto telemático se mantienen. Abordar estas preocupaciones constituye en una obligación
ineludible. En este contexto, nuestra investigación es novedosa. En primer lugar, nuestro punto de partida no se basa
en definiciones legales preexistentes que se aceptan como dadas. Partiendo del enfoque universalista del derecho
constitucional comparado, hemos entendido que el principio del sufragio secreto trasciende las opiniones y
convenciones ligadas a la cultura de comunidades políticas concretas. Esta concepción se ha traducido en tres
normas: individualidad, confidencialidad y anonimato. Estas normas deberían aplicarse a cualquier canal de votación.
En segundo lugar, hemos adoptado un enfoque más amplio sobre la aplicación de este principio. Hemos demostrado
que el sufragio secreto puede garantizarse mediante la ley, el código, las normas e incluso el mercado. La normativa
actual tiende a ser limitada porque recurre a analogías con los canales de votación en papel y no reconoce las
especificidades del voto telemático.One of the key concerns about remote electronic voting is how to preserve secret suffrage. The list of authors who
claim that Internet voting is incompatible with the secrecy of the vote is actually quite long. Even if later studies that
analysed the actual implementation of remote electronic voting in public political elections had more nuanced findings,
concerns about secret suffrage and remote electronic voting remain. Addressing these concerns becomes an
inescapable obligation. In this context, our research is quite novel. First and foremost, our starting point is not based on
pre-existing legal definitions that are accepted as given. Drawing from the universalist approach to comparative
constitutional law, we have understood that the principle of secret suffrage exists in such a way that it transcends the
culture bound opinions and conventions of particular political communities. This core understanding has been
translated into three standards: individuality, confidentiality, and anonymity. These standards should apply to any voting
channel. Second, we have taken a wider approach at the enforcement of this principle. We have showed that secret
suffrage may be enforced through law, code, norms, and even the market. Current regulations tend to be constrained
because they resort to analogies with paper-based voting channels and fail to acknowledge the specificities of remote
electronic voting. In contrast, we have examined the role played by (and the limitations of) asymmetric encryption,
anonymization based on mix-nets or homomorphic tallying, and of multiple voting to enforce secret suffrage
Electronic voting : 6th International Joint Conference, E-Vote-ID 2021, virtual event, October 5-8, 2021
This book constitutes the proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Electronic Voting, E-Vote-ID 2021, held online -due to COVID -19- in Bregenz, Austria, in October 2021. The 14 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 55 submissions. The conference collected the most relevant debates on the development of Electronic Voting, from aspects relating to security and usability through to practical experiences and applications of voting systems, as well as legal, social or political aspects
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