Comments for David Bismark on Verifiable Electronic Voting

Comment on Contact by David Bismark

David Bismark — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 13:04:02 +0000

Interest in verifiable electronic voting is growing – but I am eager to get in touch with any and all election officials who want guidance and advice on where to start!

Comment on Verifiable Electronic Voting by David Bismark

David Bismark — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 13:02:17 +0000

There are many versions of Prêt à Voter now, with voters writing real numbers instead of the seven-segment thing and so forth. The scanner does check that it is a valid vote that it recognizes and if not, then you are allowed to exchange it for a new ballot form (if you spoilt your vote by over or under voting for example) and try again.

Comment on Voter verifiability and Public verifiability by David Bismark

David Bismark — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 12:59:50 +0000

Which crypto system you use may vary – the current version of Prêt à Voter uses ElGamal. You are quite right that no crypto system is unbreakable – and there are two things I would like to say about this:

(a) For the election to be VERIFIABLE we only need to be certain that the key length of the crypto system we are using is not broken TODAY.

(b) For SECRECY the key length of the crypto systems must never be broken – and this has given rise to a property called Everlasting Privacy, which is something the research community is working hard at right now.

Comment on Voter verifiability and Public verifiability by David Bismark

David Bismark — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 12:56:53 +0000

The voter simply types in the serial nuber of her receipt into the web browser form and the encrypted vote comes up on screen. As all the information on the website is encrypted anyone can look at all the votes that are on there, they are not secret. The system fully supports paper being left in a ballot box – perhaps some constituencies would like to do it that way for a few elections until they are all happy with the system. The verification that the voters do makes paper in a ballot box superflous though.

Comment on Voter verifiability and Public verifiability by David Bismark

David Bismark — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 12:54:04 +0000

I think that probably public perception, and how it can be manipulated without the system being at fault (i.e. scaremongering), is one of the hardest, most vital things to get right. But from our view as researchers, we hope to make the system so transparent (and verifiable) that we can have many, many people looking into it and finding their own facts. This is completely different to how voting systems are sold today, with no way for people to have an insight into how the system works.

Comment on Contact by David Bismark

David Bismark — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 12:28:01 +0000

The Prêt à Voter system has a website at http://www.pretavoter.com

Comment on Contact by David Bismark

David Bismark — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 12:27:16 +0000

Unfortunately I don’t have a system to sell – but I would love to give all the guidance and help I can to election officials who are looking to go down the verifiable elections route. Please do get in touch!

Comment on Verifiable Electronic Voting by David Bismark

David Bismark — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 12:25:46 +0000

This is called “ballot box stuffing” and is a serious problem all around the world already. In fact, it is not specifically part of the work we have done so far. There are different ways of getting to grips with this problem and many countries around the world publish lists of all the eligible voters and all the voters who cast a vote in the past election so that people can scrutinise these.

Comment on Contact by David Bismark

David Bismark — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 12:24:10 +0000

The Prêt à Voter system, and other verifiable electronic voting systems, have been published and peer reviewed for the past 10-12 years and in my opinion the field has only come into maturity during the past few years. Feel free to contact me to discuss further, I’m available to give guidance!

Comment on Contact by David Bismark

David Bismark — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 12:22:25 +0000

I come from the academic research community and we publish our ideas – we are all about sharing. I am incredibly passionate about making elections transparent and verifiable and I would love to talk to anyone who is looking to use a verifiable system – but I am not selling a product.