GLOBAL CHALLENGES

New Technology to Improve Electronic Voting

Rebecca Kutzer-Rice | Date: 06-09-10 | Comments

Computer scientists at the Universities of Surrey and Birmingham are developing an electronic voting system that promises to be secure, reliable and accurate.

Our current election system seems riddled with problems�low voter turnout, corruption and inaccurate voting machines. In a move toward electronic voting, erroneous machines are often responsible for vast errors in counting votes. In 2006, for example, an Arkansas mayoral candidate received zero votes in a small-town election�despite being sure he had voted for himself. That same year, electronic voting machines in Sarasota, Fla., miscounted over 18,000 ballots. As flawed as electronic voting machines are, manual methods seem even worse. Ballots are often lost or altered during counting and recounting, which causes expense and inaccuracy. And who can forget the hanging chads of the 2000 presidential election?

The traditional ballot box could become a thing of the past (source: EPSRC).

U.K. computer scientists at the Universities of Surrey and Birmingham are developing a system to reform electronic voting by making it more accurate and reliable. The new technology is neither purely electronic nor manual, but a hybrid between the two methods. The system will involve filling out a ballot by hand and then feeding it into an electronic scanner, which will immediately tally the vote. While this process resembles some current voting methods, several key differences are involved. The ballot will appear as two halves, with a list of candidates on one side and voting boxes on the other. Notably, the candidates� names will be randomized, and the order will vary from ballot to ballot. Once a voter completes a ballot, he/she will tear the ballot in half on a perforated line and destroy the candidate list using a provided shredder. The voter will then scan his/her vote and can take the remaining side of the ballot home.

�Our system will combine the best of both worlds�providing secure electronic vote-counting that cuts the cost and complexity of running elections but doesn�t require big changes to the actual voting process,� says Dr. James Heather of the University of Surrey. �This is vital as some people find touch-screen or push-button technology intimidating, and might even be deterred from voting as a result.�

One difficulty of current voting methods is that voters claim their votes were not correctly tallied. The new system eliminates this problem. Each ballot will contain a confidential serial number, which voters can use to log onto a Website, view their scanned document and verify their vote.

The team is working to develop highly advanced cryptographic software that will ensure all data remains secure and anonymous.

Funding for the project was provided by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and the University of Luxembourg.