...This paper, copyright the IEEE, appears in IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy 2004. IEEE Computer Society Press, May 2004. This paper previously appeared as Johns Hopkins University Information Security Institute Technical Report TR-2003-19, July 23, 2003. Analysis of an Electronic Voting System TADAYOSHI KOHNO∗ A DAM S TUBBLEFIELD† DAN S. WALLACH§ February 27, 2004 AVIEL D. RUBIN‡ Abstract With significant U.S. federal funds now available to replace outdated punch-card and mechanical voting systems, municipalities and states throughout the U.S. are adopting paperless electronic voting systems from a number of different vendors. We present a security analysis of the source code to one such machine used in a significant share of the market. Our analysis shows that this voting system is far below even the most minimal security standards applicable in other contexts. We identify several problems including unauthorized privilege escalation, incorrect use of cryptography, vulnerabilities to network threats, and poor software development processes. We show that voters, without any insider privileges, can cast unlimited votes without being detected by any mechanisms within the voting terminal software. Furthermore, we show that even the most serious of our outsider attacks could have been discovered and executed without access to the source code. In the face of such attacks, the usual worries about insider threats are not the only concerns; outsiders can do the damage. That...
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...Original Question: What is the best way to manually count ballot papers in block vote (BV) systems? With first-past-the-post systems, one can easily pile the ballots for each candidate, and then tally the totals. Where there is more than one vote recorded on ballot papers, some kind of tallying system seems unavoidable. What techniques are used in counting block vote ballots elsewhere? Introduction “Vote counting is one of the most crucial stages in the election process. Failure to complete the count and transmit results in a quick, transparent and accurate manner can jeopardize public confidence in the elections and will directly affect whether candidates and political parties accept the final results.” (The ACE Encyclopedia) Block Voting (BV) belongs to the “family” of plurality / majority Electoral Systems (The other two big “families” being proportional, or mixed Electoral Systems) and is in fact a first-past-the-post (FPTP) system with the difference that it occurs in multi-member districts with voters having as many votes as there are positions to be filled. In a five-member constituency for example, the five candidates with the largest number of votes are elected, regardless of the actual percentage level of votes they receive. In BV systems, voters are usually free to vote for individual candidates regardless of party affiliation, but they are not entitled to cast the same vote more than once. Voters are also most often free to not use all the votes they are entitled...
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...pay bills, deal with highly confidential information, and even personal information online. All these aspects of technology in daily life are a temptation to others throughout the internet. Those who find themselves tempted perform the task of hacking, which leaves others and their personal information vulnerable. This paper will discuss society’s reliance of technology in all aspects of life; thereby, leaving personal information vulnerable. Also being discussed will be information hackers find tempting, the steps that some take to hack into systems allowing them access to normally unavailable information and the steps that can be used to help prevent hacking from occurring. Method In the task of preventing hackers from gaining access to information that could be harmful to the individual, you must first understand what information is at risk and how hackers perform the task of hacking. In order to do this, I had to research what systems/files are at risk to be hacked and the way in which hackers perform the task of hacking. By assessing these factors, one can find the programs and actions they can take that can help protect their personal information. Results Vulnerability...
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...Shuntres L. Willis Global Mkt. 3420 Dr. George Nakos 19 November 2012 Diebold 1. Why do you think Diebold choose this mode of expanding internationally? What were the advantages and disadvantages of this arrangement? Diebold was able to use Philips first and then IBMs distributions systems and gained knowledge about international markets, and reputation. By the 1970s and 1980s the growth of the Diebold was driven by the rapid expectance of ATM in the USA. The company initiated to sell ATM machines in foreign markets in the 1980s. Diebold forged a distribution agreement with the large Dutch multinational company Philips. With this agreement, Diebold manufactured ATMs in the United States and exported them to foreign customers after Philips had made the sale. Therefore, the company selects the entry mode of exporting which is usually the first step for a firm which intend expanded internationally. The advantage is a foreign consumer could trust IBM more easily than a brand of which it never heard of, and the disadvantage were that Diebold could not control the attention its products received from Philips and IBM. 2. What do you think prompted Diebold to alter its international expansion strategy in 1997 and start setting up wholly owned subsidiaries in most markets? Why do you think the company favored acquisitions as an entry mode? Diebold faced a saturated domestic market and increasing foreign demand, especially in developing countries like China, India and...
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...Rationale: Electronic Voting for Global Vote for Rights by Children International – Tabaco is joining at the World Children’s Prize. It is an education program for all children. Their goal is to become more humane world, where children’s rights are respected by all. And there will be a new way of voting and to make voting process faster and easier. More than 2000 youth ages 12 – 18 yrs. Old are going to vote, first they will have their registration of the participant, next followed by voting process by Electronic Voting, in this way we are going to minimize and lessen the step by step process of voting. Objective of the Study: In this proposal I would like to make the voting process easier, also all the youth can vote in a specific date, minimize the time and lessen the step by step process. First the youths need to register to know how many youth participate in the activity. Next they are going to have their line for the voting. There are 11 computers available to use in voting. The facilitators are going to assist and help to become the voting process is organize, after they vote facilitator put an indelible ink to their fingertip so recognize whose already voted. And lastly the voter can go home. Specific Objective: * To have a new process of voting by means of electronic voting. * To help the staff and facilitator to make the voting process easier and faster. * To open the mind and give the youth an idea to the new way of voting by means of electronic voting. ...
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...CHAPTER 2 FOREIGN LITERATURE “Electronic Voting Literature” Voting on the internet using PC's everyday offers only weak security, but its main disadvantages are in the areas of anonymity and protection against coercion and/or vote selling. The Presidential elections of 2000 brought national attention to problems with current American methods of casting and counting votes in public elections. Most people believe that the current system should be changed; there is much disagreement on how such changes should be made. Dr. Michael Shamos of CMU provides a sharp counterpoint [6] to Neumann and Mercuri's views. While his “Six Commandments” summary of requirements for a voting system is very similar to others' requirements, he's less afraid of the catastrophic failures and sweeping fraud made possible by imperfections in electronic voting machines actually occurring in a real election. Shamos is also much less impressed with paper ballots than are Neumann and Mercuri. He places a great deal of faith in decentralization to make fraud difficult to commit and easy to detect. Dr. Shamos even likes DRE machines. (We must take into account the fact that this paper was written ten years ago, long before the 2000 elections and before more modern mathematical results like Chaum's; some of Dr. Shamos' opinions may have changed since then. While Dr. Neumann's talk cited here is of similar age, his pessimism with regard to machines has had little reason for change.) Rebecca Mercuri invented...
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...2.4 LOCAL LITERATURE 2.4.1 Electronic Voting Literature Review Computer scientists who have done work in, or are interested in, electronic voting all seem to agree on two things: * Internet voting does not meet the requirements for public elections * Currently widely-deployed voting systems need improvement Voting on the Internet using every day PC's offers only weak security, but its main disadvantages are in the areas of anonymity and protection against coercion and/or vote selling. It's such a truly bad idea that there seems to be no credible academic effort to deploy it at all. The Presidential elections of 2000 brought national attention to problems with current American methods of casting and counting votes in public elections. Most people believe that the current system should be changed; there is much disagreement on how such changes should be made. The MIT/Caltech researchers [1] “see a promising future for electronic voting, despite its problems today” (under a few conditions). They advocate using the methods currently in use which result in the lowest average numbers of “uncounted, unmarked, and spoiled ballots,” like in-precinct optical scanning. Their report even proposes a framework for new voting system with a decentralized, modular design. Other researchers have done work in electronic voting; while they may not explicitly mention voting from remote poll sites, their work is nonetheless relevant to any effort at designing or implementing...
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...1 Chapter 1 THE PROBLEM AND ITS SCOPE Introduction Now more than ever, technology is changing on how we vote. Voting schemes have evolved from counting hands on early days to systems that includes papers, punch cards, mechanical levers and optical machines. Electronic voting systems provide some characteristic different from the traditional voting technique. As an effect of vast change in modern technology, several techniques in voting arises in order to solve various drawbacks like time consuming and large volume of paper works can be consumed. So the solutions are televoting, android phone voting and web voting. Televoting was also known as voting via SMS text messages. Mobile phone connects through GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) in which it searches for cells in the immediate vicinity. Televoting uses a format in which the public viewer follows and replies error whenever they send an invalid format. Like in a real television shows, televoting was a very common method that opens the public to vote its favorite contestant to remain and not to be evicted. The outcome will be decided by the number of votes in which a contestant garners. On the other hand, android phone voting and web voting has this similarity. Both use an internet in order to gain access and make vote counts. In web voting, it uses a browser to view the page and users just simply browse, follow some steps and vote, and if successful, the vote is counted. The most common method before a user...
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...Voting is a right that every citizen of the United States of America is entitled to as long as they are legally allowed to vote according to the constitution and as long as they are of legal voting age. Electronic voting machines can be both a pro and a con in my opinion. I will go ahead and start with the pros. a)Voters with dissabilities, such as poor vision can use the voice and audio systems in the machines for better voting aide. this is my opinion reduces the needed for many poll workers and hence savibg the country some money. And alos hand held devices for people that are not able to stand for the voting period. b)The machines are able to provide ballots in alot of different languages.The USA is populated with citizens from all over...
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...these machines and why i do/dont like them. To begin, i will proceed with my explanation of why i believe EVM's would be a important asset to the voting community. It is my belief that with EVM's it would be entirely easier for those with disabilitys. The ability to comprehend on the elctronic level has become way more advanced in the current millenium. Although it is still a machine, the EVM is advanced in Most foreign languages, making it much easier for immagrants to vote and better understand what they will be voting for. In excess, i believe it would eliminate the time it takes to sort through and process votes by hand, and the resources and people it takes to do so. Imagine the man power that will be...
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...Advantages & Disadvantages of E-voting An electronic voting system (on-line voting, internet voting) is an election system which uses electronic ballot that would allow voters to transmit their secure and secret voted ballot to election officials over the internet. With the prosperity of internet over the years, inventers start to make the use of electronic voting in order to make the voting process more convenient and raise the participation of the civic. From now on, engineers have repeatedly created new technology to improve the feasibility of electronic voting system. Advantages of e-voting The advocate of electronic voting claims that the convenience, mobility, tally speed, less cost, and flexibility are the main advantages. Following are the descriptions of the advantages. • Convenience : With the well-designed software and system, the voters can simply use his voting equipment with the minimal time and skill to finish the voting process. • Mobility : Voters can cast their votes at a specific polling place, home, or any place in which they can get access to the internet. People can even use the mobile device such as cell phone or PDA to vote. There is no restriction on the location. • Tally Speed : Once the voting time is over,the computer can immediately calculate the result of the election. It is much faster than the traditional ballot counting method operated by people. • Less Cost : Compared to paper ballot voting,electronic voting saves money from reducing...
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...like to thank him for showing us some example that related to the topic of our project. To the member of the IEIAT heads and faculty, ready to give their supports and suggestions and for being part of the completion of this study. To our special someone’s, friends and close friends who supported us to make this system possible, for their support to us for the development of this project study. Finally, an honorable mention goes to our parents and relatives for their understandings and supports on us in completing this project. Without helps of the particular that mentioned above, we would face many difficulties while doing this project study. We offer our regards and blessings to all of those who supported us in any respect during the completion of the project. DEDICATION This project study is lovingly dedicated to our respective parents who have been our constant source of inspiration. They have given us the drive and discipline to tackle any task with enthusiasm and determination. Without their love and support this project would not have been made possible. CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION The technological development of voting system helps different fields to...
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...Philippines is conducting elections for the Computer Wizard Society (CWS) officers every year. Paper-based voting system is currently used in electing officers for the CWS elections, which is laborious, time consuming and is unsecured in terms of the accuracy of the election results. The effectiveness of e-voting system compared to the manual voting before, the CWS advisers will encode the names of the candidates with a circle before it, which will be shaded by the voters in a piece of small paper. These papers will be the voting paraphernalia that will be distributed in each classroom of the CCS students by the CCS faculty members. After the election, all the distributed paper ballots will be collected by the CCS faculty members and they will tally the number of votes gained by the candidates through manual counting and after that, the results will be given to the CWS Adviser who will then announce the newly elected officers. In order to resolve these situations, the technology of electronic voting (e-voting) comes into existence. By using information technology, e-voting system can cast and count votes with higher convenience and efficiency, even make the electoral procedures simple and reduce the mistake rate of ballot examination. The studies show that there are lots of advantages through the use of e-voting system. Some of its advantages are; it is faster and convenient to use, e-voting has higher security. It also lessens human error and produces accurate election results. Company...
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...Some countries that had used an automated election system similar to the one that the Commission on Elections bought from Smartmatic have reverted back to manual tallying and counting of votes. Among these countries are Germany, Switzerland and Ireland. In 2009, Germany’s Federal Supreme Court (SC) ruled against the automated election system because the use of electronic voting machines is contrary to the democratic and public character that elections must have. The German Supreme Court also noted the electronic system’s flaws similar to those that Filipino experts have been warning the Comelec and the public about. The biggest complaint against electronic ballot casting, reading and counting systems is their lack of transparency. Nobody sees how the machines are reading each ballot. Then the machines report results that no one can verify. Like the PCOS machines bought by the Philippine government, the machines in Germany did not print our receipts containing what the voter wrote down on his or her ballot. Experts from CenPEG, AEStch and other institutions have been repeating that the problem in Philippine elections is not in the manual voting and the counting and tabulation that the Comelec officials, representatives of all parties, people from accredited watchdogs and the media can witness on blackboards or whiteboards. The cheating is in the transmission of results and the fraudulent canvass. With the midterm election tomorrow only hours away, the Precinct Count Optical...
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...management software developed by a Canadian company Web systems Inc. based in Quebec City, Canada. The introduction of information and communications technologies (ICT) into the electoral process is generating both interest and concern among voters, as well as practitioners across the globe. Most electoral management bodies (EMBs) around the world use new technologies with the aim of improving the electoral process. These technologies range from the use of basic office automation tools such as word processing and spreadsheets to more sophisticated data processing tools, such as data base management systems, optical scanning and geographic information systems. Alvarez, R. M. and Hall, T. E. (2008) Electronic Elections: The Perils and Promises of Digital Democracy. Princeton; Princeton University Press 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 the 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 impact the new computer-based solution is having on voter participation. Alvarez and Hall explain why the benefits of e-voting can...
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