Category Archives: crypto

Takoma Park 2009: the voter experience

Posted on September 21, 2009 by ben

For background on this post, check out the Auditing Takoma Park 2009 Election.

I’m gathering all documentation on a Google Site. This blog will continue to serve as the narrative, while the datasets and documentation will live on the Google Site, and I’ll refer to them as needed from this blog.

Let’s begin with an explanation of the voting process that Takoma Park citizens will experience on November 3rd, 2009.
(If you’re a Takoma Park resident: make sure to register by October 5th if you want to participate in this historic election!)

Say hello to Valerie, our token voter. At a high level, Valerie’s voting experience is identical to her past experience with a typical optical-scan election. She fills in the bubbles for the candidates of her choice, casts her ballot, and walks away. With one twist: if Valerie wants to, she can write down some confirmation codes that will let her audit her ballot later on.
Continue reading →

Posted in crypto, security, Takoma Park 2009, voting | 1 Comment

Auditing the Takoma Park Election

Posted on September 8, 2009 by ben

In November of this year, citizens of Takoma Park, Maryland will use the Scantegrity voting system in their municipal election. This is a significant milestone for open-audit voting systems: the first time a government official is elected using a voting … Continue reading →

Posted in crypto, Takoma Park 2009, voting | 3 Comments

Schneier on self-enforcing protocols and voting

Posted on August 18, 2009 by ben

Bruce Schneier pens another great article on how certain protocols between people who do not trust one another can be set up to prevent cheating without third-party oversight. Of course, the gem of the article pertains to voting: Modern voting … Continue reading →

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Back from Israel – talks and press

Posted on May 25, 2009 by ben

Just got back from a trip to Israel, mostly vacation but a couple of very fun days at the Electronic Voting Workshop organized by IDC Herzliya and Tel Aviv University. A great group of folks, some very lively discussion, and … Continue reading →

Posted in crypto, security, voting | 8 Comments

Voting Workshop in Israel

Posted on May 5, 2009 by ben

In a couple of weeks, I’ll be in Israel at a voting workshop organized by Ran Canetti, Alon Rosen, Ronitt Rubinfeld, and Assaf Jacob. I’ll be giving a talk on voting security and a second talk on Helios. The workshop … Continue reading →

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What Verifying an Election Means

Posted on April 6, 2009 by ben

The election at the Université Catholique de Louvain is over, the winner has been declared. So, what does it mean that this was, supposedly, a verifiable election? It means that you can go to the audit web site. There, you’ll … Continue reading →

Posted in crypto, voting, web | 8 Comments

Disturbing Apple Trends

Posted on March 16, 2009 by ben

I’ve long been an Apple fan. It is somewhat dissonant with my strong attachment to open-source/free software, but I’ve learned to live with it because I am significantly more productive on Mac OS than on Linux, and I still have … Continue reading →

Posted in crypto, policy | 6 Comments

Open-Audit Voting means a Single Vote Counts

Posted on March 6, 2009 by ben

After an incredibly long and busy week of work for my colleagues Olivier Pereira and Olivier de Marneffe, the UCL election, based on Helios, has been verified and tallied. The trustees arrived earlier today and successfully decrypted the result. Students … Continue reading →

Posted in crypto, voting | 4 Comments

The Beautiful Magic of Cryptography

Posted on March 4, 2009 by ben

An election just wrapped up a few hours hours ago [public radio, le soir, RTL info]. The encrypted votes are stored in a redundant database, tied to each voter’s identifier, signed by the voting system, and available to all election … Continue reading →

Posted in crypto, policy, press, voting | 2 Comments

New Slides Posted

Posted on February 14, 2009 by ben

I’ve posted my talk slides from my voting talk at UCL, and my short voting talk at the Harvard College Fund Assembly. I’ve included copies on Slideshare, which is starting to get interesting. I see that I can create synced … Continue reading →

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