Security as belief user's perceptions on the security of electronic voting systems

Abstract

In this paper a pilot e-voting system is being studied to gain insight into the complexity of IT security issues. The current debate about whether or not electronic voting systems need to have a verifiable paper audit trail provides the context of the paper. According to many researchers a voter-verified paper trail is the only way voters can have confidence that their vote has been recorded correctly. However, technologists start to acknowledge that security mechanisms are fundamental social mechanisms. Trust is of great importance; people no longer have a blind faith in scientific objectivity and the "experts". We examine the opinions of users involved in the testing of the TruE-Vote e-voting system, in particular concerning issues like security, verifiability and trust. The results do indeed suggest that IT security is more than just a technological issue.