NIST End-to-End Voting Systems Workshop - October 13-14, 2009

[Wilms]

End-to-End Voting Systems Workshop

October 13-14, 2009
CALL FOR PARTICIPATION

The goal of this workshop is to understand the security and usability properties of end-to-end voting systems, one type of next-generation system of interest. The last few years have witnessed the emergence of end-to-end voting systems, which enable voter-verification of election outcome. Several proposed systems have been prototyped; some have been used in binding elections. As such, these systems demonstrate considerable promise. NIST is interested in understanding the properties of this class of systems: in particular, what kind of auditability, vote secrecy, and incoercibility properties do these systems possess? What are their security assumptions? How usable are these systems, by poll workers and by voters? How interested are voters and election officials in the properties provided by these systems? Can the strong auditability properties of current paper-based E2E systems be obtained without the use of paper? What would electronic end-to-end voting systems look like?

This workshop aims to (a) begin a discussion on the above issues, among experts in diverse fields, such as cryptography, security and usability, and (b) encourage research on the development of electronic end-to-end voting systems with an emphasis on usability. Workshop discussions could influence future standards.

Two types of submissions are sought:

o Position papers (length about 2 pages). Topics of interest include (but are not limited to) the following:

+ Definitions of: end-to-end voting systems and their properties, such as usability, auditability, vote secrecy, and incoercibility. Relative importance of the properties. Extent to which the properties are achieved.
+ Impact of usability and accessibility on the security model
+ Impact of the security model on usability and accessibility
+ Electronic end-to-end voting systems: Are certain types of properties difficult to obtain in an electronic end-to-end voting system? Is it worth trying to build electronic end-to-end voting systems?
+ Reports of experiences with the use of end-to-end voting systems

o Papers describing an electronic end-to-end voting system (These are expected to be more detailed than position papers; length about 5-15 pages).

Authors may submit papers that have been presented or published elsewhere. Accepted papers will be made available on the web as well as in printed form to workshop attendees. Manuscripts will not be formally published.

http://www.csrc.nist.gov/groups/ST/e2evoting/index.html