| NSF Org: |
CNS Division Of Computer and Network Systems |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | September 29, 2009 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | March 9, 2011 |
| Award Number: | 0937267 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Nina Amla
namla@nsf.gov (703)292-7991 CNS Division Of Computer and Network Systems CSE Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering |
| Start Date: | October 1, 2009 |
| End Date: | September 30, 2012 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $199,447.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $239,767.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
FY 2010 = $24,320.00 FY 2011 = $16,000.00 |
| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
1918 F ST NW WASHINGTON DC US 20052-0042 (202)994-0728 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
1918 F ST NW WASHINGTON DC US 20052-0042 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | TRUSTWORTHY COMPUTING |
| Primary Program Source: |
01001011DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01001112DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT |
| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.070 |
ABSTRACT
Abstract:
This research explores the development of an electronic voting protocol with two key properties. First, the protocol will produce an end-to-end independently verifiable (E2E) election outcome; that is, the verifiability properties of the protocol will apply not to the outputs of individual voting system components, but to the final system output: the tally, and its relationship to the system inputs: the votes. Second, the protocol will be incoercible; that is, a voter will be unable to provide convincing evidence to a coercer (wishing to force or bribe the voter to vote in a certain manner) of how the voter voted.
Existing E2E protocols are paper-based and hence difficult to administer. This research draws on cryptographic primitives (implicit and explicit in the paper-based protocols) to develop an electronic protocol. It defines and rigorously proves protocol properties, using the techniques of cryptographic proofs. The protocols are implemented to obtain testable prototypes, and made available to the community through an open-source software release. Preliminary results about the usability of the prototypes are also obtained. An electronic E2E protocol is anticipated to have significant impact on deployed voting systems; election officials have repeatedly requested electronic protocols over those that are paper-based, as the former are easier to administer and to make accessible to voters with differing needs.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
Intellectual Merit: The focus area of this project is that of end-to-end independently-verifiable (E2E) voting systems, where voters vote from polling booths and may independently audit election outcome without being required to trust voting systems or election officials. Before our work, the E2E systems were mostly based on paper ballots and required voters to perform some tasks outside the voting booth after casting their votes.
Our work proposes a model for voting systems where the voter may take a small computational device inside the polling booth with her. This device can check on the voting system without knowing how the voter voted. Using this model, as described in the proposal for this research project, we propose, study and prototype fully-electronic voting system ePunchscan where the voter performs no tasks outside the voting booth, and rigorously state and prove its properties. In addition, we also propose, study and prototype a voting system Audiotegrity that may be used by voters with visual disabilities, and obtain results of preliminary user testing. All software has been released in open-source.
Broader Impact: We developed and prototyped voting system Audiotegrity, which was used by the City of Takoma Park for its 2011 municipal election. A city councillor congratulated the Board of Elections on the use of the system in a video record of the election certification council meeting. Because we focus considerably on developing protocols that may be used in real election, the other systems we have developed will influence the types of voting systems available for voters for use in real elections.
Research Contributions:Our main research contributions are as follow:
1. Stamp-It: a fully-paper-ballot based voting protocol that allows voters to vote in the polling booth without recourse to any computation at all, and does not require any follow-up outside the polling booth. A paper was presented at ICISS 2010.
2. Paperless Independently-Verifiable Voting protocol ePunchscan: a voter takes a computational device inside the polling booth with her. As long as she provides no input to the device while voting, and the voting machine and computational device do not cheat together, the protocol enables the voter to detect a cheating voting machine.This protocol is more resistant than other fully-electronic protocols to attempts by outsiders to coerce or bribe the voter to vote in a particular manner. It is not, however, as resistant as the best paper-ballot-based protocols. A paper was presented at VoteID 2011.
3. Audiotegrity, demoed at SOUPS 2012 and used in the 2011 election of the City of Takoma Park. We hope this will be a model for future accessible E2E voting systems. Preliminary usability testing was performed on subjects invited by the City of Takoma Park, and both systems were improved for use in the election based on the results of the usability testing. A manuscript is in preparation at this time.
Education Efforts:
1. The PI continues to use voting as a motivational and illustrative example in courses taught by her on Computer Security and Cryptography.
2. REU-funded undergraduates have prototyped ePunchscan and developed Audiotegrity.
Training and Development:
1. A post-doctoral scientist was fully-funded by this project, for two years. Two post-docs were employed by this project, one for each year. The work leading to all manuscripts has been driven by the post-doc, who also mentors the undergraduates. Both post-docs are now in faculty position.
2. Undergraduates developed prototypes and are co-authors on the paper presented at VoteID, as w...
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