How to create trust in electronic voting over an untrusted platform

Abstract

Casting electronic votes via an inherently unreliable channel like the Internet in an uncontrolled environment is controversial for two main reasons: The first one is of democratic nature and the second of technical nature. The democratic concerns are about the possible dangers of buying and selling votes and so called 'family voting'. The technical concerns are how to convince everybody involved that the votes will be anonymously and accurately recorded and counted, and that no votes will get changed or lost, and that no 'fake votes' will be introduced, with the knowledge that any computerized system may contain bugs or may be hacked by evildoers. In this paper, we will show how the principle of repeated vote casting may be used to alleviate both the democratic and the technical concerns above, and how hybrid cryptography makes it possible for the voter to inspect his votes as stored within the voting system.