TOWARDS OPEN VOTE VERIFICATION METHOD IN E-VOTING

Ali Fawzi Najm Al-Shammari17’th July2012

Sec Vote 2012

E-voting Technologies

DRE (Direct Recording Electronics)

Optical Scan

Internet Voting

Sec Vote 2012 Summer School , 16-20 July, 2012, Schloss Dagstuhl, Germany.

E-Voting

Some of the advantages include:

Speeding up vote casting and tallying

Assisting illiterate and disabled to cast vote

independently

Reducing voter mistakes (e.g., over- or

under voting)

Sec Vote 2012 Summer School , 16-20 July, 2012, Schloss Dagstuhl, Germany.

Vote Verification

E-voting adoption still slow and criticized !! people need to trust the system.

Vote verification is a way to address this issue. Validate vote during and/or after casting Support an evidence to election

participating entities

Vote has been processed as intendedSec Vote 2012 Summer School , 16-20 July, 2012, Schloss Dagstuhl, Germany.

Vote Verification Techniques (in polling place)

Polling Place Verification VVAATT (Voter Verified Audio Audit

Transcript Trail) [T. Selker]

VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) [R.

Mercuri] Pynx.VM [Scytle]

End-to-End Verification Votegrity [D. Chaum]

Prêt à Voter [P. Ryan]

Sec Vote 2012 Summer School , 16-20 July, 2012, Schloss Dagstuhl, Germany.

Open Issues

Public verifiability is weakly supported.

No Common Standard for Verification. E.g., vendor lock-in

Some of them, ‘Still’ may Exposed for Invasion Weak in resisting different levels of attacks.

Sec Vote 2012 Summer School , 16-20 July, 2012, Schloss Dagstuhl, Germany.

Problem Statement

How to design an open verification methodology for vote verification for specific class of e-voting technology, with the goal of achieving: Standardization. Independent verification by Third party.

?Sec Vote 2012 Summer School , 16-20 July, 2012, Schloss Dagstuhl, Germany.

We select DRE…

DRE System

Sec Vote 2012 Summer School , 16-20 July, 2012, Schloss Dagstuhl, Germany.Our approach…

Approach

Open Vote Verification

Protocol

E-VotingMachin

e

Voter

Election OfficialsPublic Observers

VM

Sele

ct

Feed back

Report Report

Compare

Sec Vote 2012 Summer School , 16-20 July, 2012, Schloss Dagstuhl, Germany.

Cast

AFTER CLOSING POLLING PLACE!

What public needs ?

E-VotingMachin

eVM

XML Ballot, XML Election

Verification Software XML BallotXML Election

Voting Software XML Ballot

Open Verification Protocol

Sec Vote 2012 Summer School , 16-20 July, 2012, Schloss Dagstuhl, Germany.

What is the contents of XMLs ?

XML Elections Election Name and Date Precincts Names and locations DRE Serials

Sec Vote 2012 Summer School , 16-20 July, 2012, Schloss Dagstuhl, Germany.

XML Ballot Contests and Related Candidates Referendum Options

The structure of XML Election and Ballot File described by standard EML (Election Markup Language) Schemas

Election Markup Language (EML)

EML [OASIS]

XML-based standard to support end to end management of election processes

Support structured interchange of data among hardware, software, and service providers

Sec Vote 2012 Summer School , 16-20 July, 2012, Schloss Dagstuhl, Germany.

Possible Contributions

Standardization gives the possibility for different firms to produce verification components To avoid putting trust on a single vendor

producer of voting components.

Standardization , Independent Verification , Public Verifiability

Sec Vote 2012 Summer School , 16-20 July, 2012, Schloss Dagstuhl, Germany.

Possible Contributions

Independent verification can facilitate attacks detection and feedback mechanism Verify system against malicious actions and

system fail

Standardization , Independent Verification , Public Verifiability

Sec Vote 2012 Summer School , 16-20 July, 2012, Schloss Dagstuhl, Germany.

Possible Contributions

Enhancing transparency through public

verifiability Improve public verifiability against (insider)

attacks (e.g., electoral staffs)

Standardization , Independent Verification , Public Verifiability

Sec Vote 2012 Summer School , 16-20 July, 2012, Schloss Dagstuhl, Germany.

Future Work

Building Prototype Using EVM2003 Open Source DRE (Python) Build a VM compatible to work with

EVM2003

Run virtual election process

Analyze the prototype

Sec Vote 2012 Summer School , 16-20 July, 2012, Schloss Dagstuhl, Germany.

Thank You for Your Attention

Approach Connect DRE, VM

Election name, Date, Precinct Name and DRE

Serial

- Send voter Selection to VM- Voter Verify Selection-Voter Cast-Copy of vote stored in VM-Public get VM report (only Report)-DRE and VM Reports verified

Sec Vote 2012 Summer School , 16-20 July, 2012, Schloss Dagstuhl, Germany.