Electronic voting is often seen as a tool for making the electoral process more efficient and for increasing trust in its management. Properly implemented, e-voting solutions can increase the security of the ballot, speed up the processing of results and make voting easier. However, the challenges are considerable. If not carefully planned and designed, e-voting can undermine the confidence in the whole electoral process. Technology upgrades in elections are always challenging projects that require careful deliberation and planning. Introducing e-voting is probably the most difficult upgrade as this technology touches the core of the entire electoral process—the casting and counting of the votes. E-voting greatly reduces direct human control and influence in this process. This provides an opportunity for solving some old electoral problems, but also introduces a whole range of new concerns. Consequently, e-voting usually triggers more criticism and opposition and is more disputed than any other information technology application in elections. This Policy Paper outlines contextual factors that can influence the success of e-voting solutions and highlights the importance of considering these factors before choosing to introduce new voting technologies.

Real-World Electronic Voting: Design, Analysis and Deployment captures all major developments in electronic voting since 2003 in a real-world setting. It covers three broad categories: e-voting protocols, attacks reported on e-voting and new developments on the use of e-voting. This book explores recent innovations in both poll-site and remote voting systems and their application throughout the world. The requirements of elections are analysed, the available tools and technologies are described, and a variety of modern systems are presented in detail together with discussions of deployments. This is an invaluable resource for election professionals, researchers and policy makers alike. Key Features: Reviews both technical and social aspects of e-voting Covers e-voting protocols, attacks reported on e-voting and new developments on the use of e-voting Designed for government election practitioners and policy makers who want to understand the threats and opportunities in e-voting and assess its suitability for future elections

Since the 2000 presidential election, the United States has been embroiled in debates about electronic voting. Critics say the new technologies invite tampering and fraud. Advocates say they enhance the accuracy of vote counts and make casting ballots easier--and ultimately foster greater political participation. Electronic Elections cuts through the media spin to assess the advantages and risks associated with different ways of casting ballots--and shows how e-voting can be the future of American democracy. Elections by nature are fraught with risk. Michael Alvarez and Thad Hall fully examine the range of past methods and the new technologies that have been created to try to minimize risk and accurately reflect the will of voters. Drawing upon a wealth of new data on how different kinds of electronic voting machines have performed in recent elections nationwide, they evaluate the security issues that have been the subject of so much media attention, and examine the impacts the new computer-based solutions is having on voter participation. Alvarez and Hall explain why the benefits of e-voting can outweigh the challenges, and they argue that media coverage of the new technologies has emphasized their problems while virtually ignoring their enormous potential for empowering more citizens to vote. The authors also offer ways to improve voting technologies and to develop more effective means of implementing and evaluating these systems. Electronic Elections makes a case for how e-voting can work in the United States, showing why making it work right is essential to the future vibrancy of the democratic process.

Secure Electronic Voting is an edited volume, which includes chapters authored by leading experts in the field of security and voting systems. The chapters identify and describe the given capabilities and the strong limitations, as well as the current trends and future perspectives of electronic voting technologies, with emphasis in security and privacy. Secure Electronic Voting includes state-of-the-art material on existing and emerging electronic and Internet voting technologies, which may eventually lead to the development of adequately secure e-voting systems. This book also includes an overview of the legal framework with respect to voting, a description of the user requirements for the development of a secure e-voting system, and a discussion on the relevant technical and social concerns. Secure Electronic Voting includes, also, three case studies on the use and evaluation of e-voting systems in three different real world environments.

Since the 2000 nat. elections, concerns have been raised regarding the election process, including voting technologies. Beginning in 2001, there have been a series of reports examining every aspect of the elections process; these were used by Congress in framing the Help America Vote Act, which provided for replacement of older voting equip. with modern electronic voting systems (EVS) & estab. the Election Assist. Comm. to lead the nation¿s election reform efforts. This report details: the contextual role & characteristics of EVS; the range of security & reliability concerns that have been reported; the experiences & mgmt. practices of states & local jurisdictions; & the long-standing & emerging challenges facing all levels of gov¿t. in using EVS. Ill.