Microsoft aims to modernize and secure voting with ElectionGuard – TechCrunch
When it comes to voting, we have come a long way from releasing pebbles to an amphora – yet not far enough if the lack of confidence in our electoral systems is any indication. Microsoft is the first major technology company to take on this problem with a new platform, which is called ElectionGuard, which promises to make the choices safer and more transparent – and yes it's free and open source.
Seen to be made available this summer and piloted in the 2020 election, ElectionGuard is not a complete voting device, but rather a platform for handling voice data that can either strengthen existing systems or have new buildings on top of it. It is part of the defense democracy program and the sister product of the corresponding name NewsGuard and AccountGuard, which appeared last year.
The basic idea is to let voters follow their voices safely and privately, while allowing the authorities to tabulate, store and, if necessary, revise them. As Microsoft says:
ElectionGuard provides a complete implementation of end-to-end verifiable choices. It is designed to work with systems using paper voices, and complements the current tabulation process by providing a means for public verification of the accuracy of reported results.
The platform will sit under existing voting facilities, and when a voter casts his ballot, the data will be entered in the usual way in a state's election system, but also in valgguard. The voter will then be provided with a tracking code which will allow them to see that their vote has been registered locally at the appropriate polling station, or perhaps it has been sent to government authorities for auditing.
Meanwhile, ElectionGuard databases have probably recorded all voices and tabulated them, a process that would occur in parallel with existing tabulation processes. In the case of a revision, random ballot papers could be selected from the database and compared to paper votes, providing a quick way to see if a machine failure in a district was, for example, throwing results.
It is important that this is all achieved without Microsoft, or the one who actually manages the ElectionGuard system knows how someone voted. This is done, the company explained through a cryptographic technique known as homomorphic encryption. Initially, it allows a system to perform mathematical operations on encrypted data without decrypting it, making interference or filtering of the sensitive data almost impossible.
In this case, each voice can only be tracked by the individual who did it, but the System is limited to posting encrypted voices and reporting these sums.
Finally, ElectionGuard aims to be a full-featured solution, but one that can be customized and run on a number of real-world devices ̵[ads1]1; just like the rest of Microsoft's software: [19659004] When it's time to vote, ElectionGuard supports the use of standard tablets and PCs that run a variety of operating systems as a ballot, which can be used to create an interface that looks and feels like modern applications people interact with every day on their phones and tablets.
Hope it is easy to deploy and a modern codebase will end up with good government of the age and unsafe voting devices that can be hacked with a USB key. Microsoft is also working on election technology providers to bring ElectionGuard into existing product lines or build new ones.
The company worked with Galois to develop ElectionGuard, a company that has been engaged in election security for many years and recently received a $ 10 million grant from DARPA to pursue secure voting.
It will undoubtedly take some thought, but it is good to see a larger technology company that makes a credible and comprehensive bid to fix a selection process that is technically compromised on several fronts. Tech can't fix politics, but it can certainly build a better way to vote.
