1. E-voting
…and why it’s good.

2. Hand Ballots
They are the only historically viable choice for voting. They’re small pieces of paper on which voters can fill in or select their representative.
However, there are some downsides to hand ballots…

3. Why hand ballots are bad…
Problems with hanging chads
and butterfly ballots
An MIT study known as the “voter technology project”, concluded that up to 6 million votes were lost in 2000 election
2 million due to poor ballot design
3 million due to outdated registration rolls
1 million due to polling place operations

4. …more reasons they’re bad
Can be lost, changed, misread and added to
Counting machine can be manipulated by polling employees (paper hacking attacks)
Not user friendly
Especially for the seeing
impaired

5. E-Voting
A voting technique that takes advantage of computer science and technology through the use of Direct Recording Electronic Terminals.

6. Direct Recording Electronic Terminals
These mechanized terminals use computer software that is activated by the voter to record votes and to save selections in a removable memory component.

7. Computer Science and E-Voting
Cryptography is the mathematical study of information and especially its transmission from place to place
All modules are issued their own private keys
Modules digitally (using RSA) sign all of their transmissions so that their data transmissions are protected against wiretapping
All transmissions are maintained with a secure sockets layer, the most reliable approach for sending info today, protecting the data itself from being read.
Same technology used in ATM’s and E-Commerce
People are comfortable divulging extremely personal information over the internet, why not trust e-voting?!

8. Advantages of E-Voting
Ballots can be counted instantly
Recounts are fast and easy
Prevents ballot errors and confusion
Detects voter error
Possible to display more information about candidates
Photos
Stance on major issues

9. Security Measures Number of votes Voter identification
In current methods, poll workers can personally insert extra votes into ballot boxes
In e-voting, tampering could easily be identified if it created a discrepancy between number of registered voters and number of votes cast
Voter identification
In current methods, all that is needed is a photo ID
In e-voting, could use 10-digit PIN numbers, one time passwords, or fingerprint/retinal scans

10. Paper Trails
Currently, hand ballots provide physical evidence of the vote cast
In e-voting, Direct Recording Electronic Terminals can print copies of the vote cast

11. Security and Validity
Encryption prevents others from seeing or tampering with the vote
Voters could be given a secret code by which they could verify that their vote had been counted correctly