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E-Voting Done Right - In Australia
tehanu writes "After all the furor over e-voting in America, Wired News has an article about e-voting done right in Australia. An important factor is that all of the software is open-source. The company responsible actually seems to have given consideration to the integrity of the democratic process, too - from the lead engineer: 'Why on earth should (voters) have to trust me -- someone with a vested interest in the project's success? A voter-verified audit trail is the only way to 'prove' the system's integrity to the vast majority of electors, who after all, own the democracy.' They also have scathing words for Diebold: 'The only possible motive I can see for disabling some of the security mechanisms and features in their system is to be able to rig elections. It is, at best, bad programming; at worst, the system has been designed to rig an election.' In general they are 'gob-smacked' by the whole situation with electronic voting machines in the US right now."
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eVACS(R) - the modular system for conducting elections comprising:
e-set up
e-voting
e-data entry
e-counting
Key features
eVACS(R) maintains the key features of all parliamentary elections:
o Privacy of voter
o Authenticity of voter
o Avoidance of coercion
o Empty ballot box at start of polling
o Security of ballot papers
o One vote per person
eVACS(R) handles the simplest to the most complex of election systems, including multi-member proportional representation.
eVACS(R) enables rotation of `ballot papers'(eg Robson Rotation).
Accessibility and Privacy Guaranteed
Increase the level of accessibility and privacy for voters using eVACS(R) special features.
o Audio for vision impaired voters.
o Voting instructions in multiple languages.
o Any alphabet or character set available for e-voting.
Integrity of eVACS(R)
eVACS(R) has been extensively tested and audited against the detailed design specification and acceptance test cases and procedures developed in accordance with IEEE Standards.
Testing methods employed:
o Structured test cases in controlled situations, used to ensure individual modules perform as expected;
o Scrutinies in parallel, using eVACS(R) and manual counting of known sets of ballot papers, using a variety of test election outcomes to test specific cases;
o "Real user" testing, whereby large numbers of users cast electronic votes in a mock polling place and data entry operators entered the results from paper ballots, used to test useability and to simulate realistic loads on the system;
o Load testing, where large quantities of ballot data was simulated and loaded into the counting system; and
o Whole-of-life testing; in which the entire process was simulated, taking test electronic votes from a polling place, loading it into the counting server, adding data-entered results from paper ballots, and using the counting system to generate a Hare-Clark result.
Auditing undertaken:
o Software code was independently audited and certified:
o to neither gain nor lose votes;
o to faithfully implement the algorithm for vote counting; and
o is written in a consistent, structured and maintainable style.
o The independent auditor also checked the version of the code containing actual candidate information after the close of nominations that was used in the ACT election.
Internet voting
eVACS(R) was designed to collect and count votes electronically with no less security, no impingement of voter's rights and no less anonymity than the current paper based system. Internet solutions were not acceptable due to the possibility of voter coercion and system tampering.
eVACS(R) operates on standard hardware
e-Voting
Voting with eVACS(R) means using standard PCs, each with a keypad and barcode reader connected to an isolated LAN at each Polling Centre, plus a server with two hard drive disk drives and removable media drive.
Vision impaired voters use the same equipment but with a larger screen and headphones.
e-Counting
For data entry, standard PCs are connected to a server.
For the counting system, a server with a removable media drive and a Postscript Printer is used.
eVACS(R) was first used with the most complex election system, involving multi-member seat electorates with proportional representation according to the Hare-Clark electoral system.
eVACS(R) is tailored for use with all other election systems, such as, for example, first past the post and single member electorates with preferential voting.
eVACS(R) in use
eVACS(R) was used for the most recent ACT Legislative Assembly Election, and the subsequent Casual Vacancy arising from the resignation of a member.
The ACT has a multi-member preferential election system that follows the Hare-Clark rules.
Electorates have either 5 or 7 members.
Twelve