A new implementation of a dual (paper and cryptographic) voting system

Abstract

We report on the design and implementation of a new cryptographic voting system, designed to retain the “look and feel” of standard, paper-based voting used in our country Israel while enhancing security with end-to-end verifiability guaranteed by cryptographic voting. Our system is dual ballot and runs two voting processes in parallel: one is electronic while the other is paper-based and similar to the traditional process used in Israel. Consistency between the two processes is enforced by means of a new, specially-tailored paper ballot format. We examined the practicality and usability of our protocol through implementation and field testing in two elections: the first being a student council election with over 2000 voters, the second a political party's election for choosing their leader. We present our findings, some of which were extracted from a survey we conducted during the first election. Overall, voters trusted the system and found it comfortable to use.