Microsoft ElectionGuard—enabling voters to verify that their votes are correctly counted
23Microsoft ElectionGuard provides a free, open-source software toolkit, which can be used in new and existing election systems to allow voters to verify that their votes have been accurately counted. Voters can check for themselves that their votes have been correctly recorded, and anyone—voters, candidates, media, or even casual observers—can verify that the recorded votes have been accurately tallied. This verifiability does not require trust in any software, hardware, or people whatsoever, and it does not compromise the privacy of voters or the secrecy of their ballots.
In this webinar with Dr. Josh Benaloh, Senior Principal Cryptographer at Microsoft Research, learn how the ElectionGuard technology works and how anyone can write an independent verifier that processes all of the artifacts produced by ElectionGuard. Specifically, understand how verifiers can either confirm that the announced tallies are fully consistent with the recorded votes or identify specific inconsistencies that should be addressed. Finally, examine how ElectionGuard uses techniques like homomorphic encryption to achieve its properties with easy-to-understand examples. No cryptographic expertise will be assumed of viewers of this webinar.
Together, you’ll explore:
■ How risk-limiting audits and end-to-end verifiability can enhance efficiency and detect inaccuracies in elections
■ How privacy can be protected in a secret-ballot election using homomorphic encryption
■ How verifiers work and can enable voters to confirm their vote in various ways
𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁:
■ ElectionGuard Overview - https://www.electionguard.vote
■ ElectionGuard (GitHub) - https://github.com/microsoft/electionguard
■ Protecting democratic elections through secure, verifiable voting (blog | May 6, 2019) - https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2019/05/06/protecting-democratic-elections-through-secure-verifiable-voting/
■ New cyberthreats require new ways to protect democracy - (blog | July 17, 2019) - https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2019/07/17/new-cyberthreats-require-new-ways-to-protect-democracy/
■ Another step in testing ElectionGuard - (blog | February 17, 2020) - https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2020/02/17/wisconsin-electionguard-polls/
■ Josh Benaloh (researcher profile) - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/people/benaloh
*This on-demand webinar features a previously recorded Q&A session and open captioning.
This webinar originally aired on April 16, 2020
Explore more Microsoft Research webinars: https://aka.ms/msrwebinars