User Verifiable, Coercion-resistant Electronic Voting Technologies

Friday 16 November 2007

User Verifiable, Coercion-resistant Electronic Voting Technologies

Dr. James Heather, Department of Computing, University of Surrey

In the last election, you presumably dropped your ballot into the box and then went home. Did everyone vote according to their own preferences, or were they coerced into voting in a particular way by someone else? Did you turn up first thing in the morning and check that the ballot box was empty at the start of the election? Did you personally stay and observe the box all day to make sure that no-one dropped false ballots in there? Did you stay to check that no-one retrieved your ballot paper from the box and changed your vote? Did you follow the box to the place where it was emptied and watch the votes being counted? Did you check all those ballots that were thrown out because they were allegedly spoilt to make sure that they were, in fact, spoilt? If you did all those things, do you have good friends in all other constituencies who were able to do the same there? If not, how do you know that the election was fair and accurate? All these questions arise in traditional paper-based elections and in simplistic electronic ones, but can be solved using a slightly different electronic voting system. The 'Pret a Voter' system has been designed to provide secure and auditable elections using cryptographic techniques. Voters can maintain the secrecy of their vote, yet they are able to verify that their vote has been properly entered into the system, and auditors can check in a public way that the result corresponds to the votes cast, providing safeguards against electoral fraud. The system was first proposed over three years ago, but has only recently been implemented (by the Surrey Electronic Voting Group) as an entry to the International Voting System Competition VoComp that took place in July 2007 in Portland, Oregon. A recent major challenge was the incorporation of the single transferable vote scheme. This event will begin by briefly introducing the principles behind the design of 'Pret a Voter', and will then provide a demonstration of the working system. In the mini-election, the audience will vote on a couple of single transferable vote races.

Attendance Certificates can be obtained at the event for inclusion in your Professional Development Portfolio.

This event is open to Members and Non-Members. Students are particularly welcome.