There is ongoing skepticism about the integrity of elections, with many people questioning the accuracy of vote counting and potential rigging. Voting-rights activists are concerned that changes to election rules in various states may lead to chaos on Election Day. In response to these concerns, an open source project called ElectionGuard has been developed to create a verifiable audit trail, assuring voters of the overall integrity of the election process.
ElectionGuard, spearheaded by Microsoft and Rice University cryptographers and computer scientists, aims to ensure the integrity of each stage of the election process. It allows participants, including voters, election administrators, and third-party observers, to verify ballots and the final tally of in-person voting. The project was presented at the USENIX Security Conference earlier this month.
The development of ElectionGuard took over five years, and it has already been utilized in smaller local elections in the United States. However, it will not be implemented in the 2024 US presidential election due to officials’ preference not to introduce new technology before major elections. Josh Benaloh, a senior cryptographer at Microsoft and author of the USENIX paper, notes that ElectionGuard aims to address the lack of transparency in current election systems, giving voters the ability to choose who to trust in the election process.
Trust in elections has been declining, fueled by misinformation campaigns, changes to election rules, and unproven claims of voter fraud. The emergence of ElectionGuard seeks to restore trust by making elections verifiable through a set of encryption processes that ensure ballots are properly encrypted and counted. This technology allows for “cast-as-intended verifiability” and “tallied-as-cast verifiability,” enabling participants and observers to confirm the accuracy of the results.
By making elections verifiable, ElectionGuard aims to resemble the level of accountability seen in the banking industry. Tim Harper, a senior policy analyst at the Center for Democracy and Technology, emphasizes the importance of enhancing trust in elections through technology. He believes that providing voters with the assurance that their votes are counted accurately is essential for instilling confidence in the electoral process.
ElectionGuard has been tested in various elections, both domestically and internationally, demonstrating its potential to verify election results. The technology has been refined to minimize computational costs and ensure usability, with updated software development kits to support ballot encryption and zero-knowledge proofs. While certain voting methods like mail-in and ranked choice voting are not yet fully integrated into the system, the ongoing development of ElectionGuard shows promise for future elections.
Benaloh remains optimistic about the widespread adoption of ElectionGuard by election officials in the coming years. He emphasizes the importance of scaling up trials to ensure the technology’s effectiveness in larger elections, ultimately aiming to restore trust and transparency in the electoral process.