Internet voting and individual verifiability: the norwegian return codes

Abstract

The Norwegian return codes, used within an Internet voting project piloted in September 2011, intend to simultaneously achieve both receipt-freeness and individual verifiability. They are delivered as text messages with a code representing the value of a voter's cast ballot, but, according to the Norwegian Government, they would not breach the principle of secrecy, and they are not voting receipts, since the voter could always cancel the vote. However, some international electoral standards, like the Recommendations on E-voting from the Council of Europe, clearly forbid an Internet voting system that enables a “voter to be in possession of proof of the content of the vote cast.” This paper analyzes the extent to which the Norwegian system complies with this standard and it concludes that there is no contradiction in using a teleological approach.