A general overview of e-voting systems and vote verification techniques

1. An Overview of E-Voting Systems
and Vote Verification Techniques
Ali Fawzi Najm Al-Shammari
PhD Student-Free University of Bolzano-Italy
Lecturer at Faculty of Computer Science - Kerbala University
alifawzi@uokerbala.edu.iq
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2. Outlines
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Introduction
E-Voting Systems
Verifiability
Vote Verification Techniques
Conclusion
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3. Introduction
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An election is a formal decision-making process by
which a population chooses an individual to hold
elected status.
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Voting systems are the tools of any election.!
Voting systems must fulfil with a set of
requirements.
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For instance :
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4. Voting Requirements
[Jeroen V. 2009, Tigran A. 2009]
Integrity (Accuracy)
Vote cast, and count as
intended.
Privacy
Anonymity
Receipt freeness
Usability
‒ Any voter without a previous
experience can use the
system.
Accessibility
‒ Any voter can vote
independently including
illiterate and disabled.
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5. Introduction (Motivation)
• E-Voting, the use of technology to facilitate one or
more elections processes, e.g.,:
Record, store, and count votes electronically.
Announcing result.
Voters’ authorization.
• Motivation ?
Speed up the precess!
More usable!
Less voter mistakes!
Supports illiterates and disabled voters
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6. Introduction (Types)
• In-person e-voting
Still a voter needs to visit a polling station .!
Using a dedicated machine, in a controlled
environment.!
• Online (Internet) e-voting
A voter can vote at home!
Using a personal device (PC, smart phone, ….)
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7. E-Voting Systems (In-person)
• Direct Recording Electronics (DRE)
Dedicated computer
Touch screen
Flash memory
Head set
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8. E-Voting Systems (In-person)
• Optical Scan Systems
Scanner device
Paper ballot
Flash memory
No assistive technology!
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9. E-Voting Systems (Online Voting)
• Online Voting
Personal Device
Voting Application
Cryptography
Can we trust a personal device?
Family voting?
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10. E-Voting Systems (Transparency)
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Electronic systems are not
transparent enough for voter.
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Therefore, their adoption has
been slow and criticized !!
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11. The Major Causes ...
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Machines are subject to programming error,
equipment malfunction and malicious tampering!
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Programs are proprietary information and are not
open to inspection!
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Procedural and Environmental implications!
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... also do we “trust officials” ?
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12. Verifiability
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Support a voter, election official, and public entities
with an evidence about the integrity of election
results .
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13. Types of Verification
• Individual (Voter) verifiability
Supporting a voter with an evidence that his/her vote has been
captured, cast, and count as intended.
• Universal (Public) verifiability
Supporting the election officials, and public entities with an
evidence that the count votes are the same as intended by voters.
• Eligibility (Public) verifiability
Each count vote comes from single eligible voter.
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14. Vote Verification
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Could supports:
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Integrity , verifiability reaquirements.!
Challenges:
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Privacy, usability.!
Next, examples for vote verification techniques
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15. VVAATT [T. Selker]
(Voter Verified Audio Audit Transcript Trail)!
• Used with DRE systems!
• Vote verified over a voice message heard through a headset!
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Verification voice stored in type as an evidence
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16. VVPAT [R. Mercuri]
(Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail)!
- A voter verifies his/her vote
by reading printed paper trail. !
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- A voter can’t take the printed
trail. !
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-Trails stored in safe box
attached to the DRE and
used for auditing later.
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Printed Peper
Trail
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17. VVAATT VVPAT (Pros Cons)
• Advantages
Easy to use.
Trails are physical evidence.
• Disadvantages
Manual auditing.
Does not allows the voter to verify the full life cycle of the his/
her vote (Not an End to End Verification method)
Votes order could be reviled.
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! Voter language !!
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18. Electronic Trails [e.g., Pnyx.VM by Scytl]
Verification device
- Votes verified through an electronic verification device.
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- Electronic copy of verified votes stored in the verification
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device to be used for recounting.
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19. Pnyx.VM (Pros Cons)
• Advantages
Easy to use.
Automatic Auditing.
• Disadvantages
Does not support End to End verifiability.
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20. How to provides an End to End verifiability without
compromising privacy requirement ?
The magic of cryptography!
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21. VoteHere Votegrity [D. Chaum]
printer
Encrypted receipt
- Partial information about ballot encrypted in receipt and given
to voter for end-to-end verifications
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22. Scantegrity [D. Chaum] Pret a Voter [P. Ryan]
Optical scanner
Encrypted receipt
- Partial information about ballot encrypted in receipt and !
given to voter for end-to-end verifications
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23. Cryptography (Pros Cons)
• Advantages
Supports an End-to-End verification.
Hard to be compromised.
• Disadvantages
Not so usable.
What about long term privacy ?
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24. Problem
• Current
verification methods still not able to
cover all threats and challenges !!!
• Eligibility verifiability still weakly supported.
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25. Conclusion
• Any critical system could be compromised by:
A failure.
An attack (insider or outsider).
• Regular system provides receipts to any user to
verify the integrity of his/her data.
• In
E-Voting system it is not possible to provide
such receipts
Vote must be anonymous.
! A voter must not be able to approve to any one about how he/she
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voted.
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26. Conclusion
• However,
Academic and Industrial
sectors provides some techniques that
balancing between
allowing vote verification, and
keeping the privacy and receipt freeness requirements.
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27. Thanks For Your Attention
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Welcome to any possible collaboration
alifawzi@uokerbala.edu.iq
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