WO2011038758A1 - A system and a method for electronic voting - Google Patents

Abstract

A system and method for electronic voting of a ballot. The system comprises at least one e- paper being adapted for receiving an individual vote by a voter and for storing the individual vote, an e-paper supply unit being adapted for supplying the e-paper with power and a ballot information, and a ballot box being adapted for collecting the e-paper with the vote stored in the e-paper. An individual vote is received and stored by a voter using the e-paper and the vote is collected from the e-paper using the ballot box and a voting result of the ballot is evaluated on the basis of a plurality of individual votes.

Description

A system and a method for electronic voting

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a system and a method for electronic voting, in particular, to a system and a method for e-paper based electronic voting of a ballot.

Technical Background

A voting process ballot may generally comprise the steps of: stating choices available to a voter using a ballot; marking the choice on the ballot by the voter as his vote; dropping the ballot into a ballot box; and at the end of the selection, removing the ballot from the ballot box, collecting and counting votes by all voters to evaluate a voting result.

A document, Mehmet Tahir Sandikaya et al., "Agent-Based Offline Electronic Voting, and Biillent Orencik", ISSN: 1307-6884, describes the requirements of a general voting which can be summarised as follows:

• Eligibility and Authentication: only authorized voters should be able to vote;

• Uniqueness: no voter should be able to vote more than one time;

• Accuracy: election systems should record the votes correctly;

• Integrity: votes should not be able to be modified, forged, or deleted without detection;

• Verifiability and Auditability: it should be possible to verify that all votes have been correctly accounted for in the final election tally, and there should be reliable and demonstrably authentic election records;

• Reliability; election systems should work robustly, without loss of any votes, even in the face of numerous failures, including failures of voting machines and total loss of Internet communication;

• Secrecy and Non-Coercibility: no one should be able to determine how any individual voted, and voters should not be able to prove how they voted (which would facilitate vote selling or coercion). The conventional ballot uses paper on which the choices to be marked are printed. This may lead to a considerable amount of time spent in the counting process. Using paper is also not secure as it is easy to manipulate and also lends itself to the possibility of invalid ballots when markings on the paper are not properly made.

In order to overcome these security problems and to shorten the time taken to count the ballots, electronic voting (abbr.: e-voting) schemes have been devised which use machines for this process. Unfortunately, the e-voting schemes introduce their own voting processes that depend on their underlying technology. For example, there are touch screen based voting machines where the voters select their choices by touching a screen and others where voters mark their choices on special ballot papers which are then electronically read and counted by optical readers. These differences in voting processes require that people involved with the election process and the voters be trained every time a new electronic voting scheme is introduced, i.e. the process is not intuitive enough. Besides this, the conventional solutions also suffer from security vulnerabilities. The security vulnerabilities in a touch screen based voting machine used in American elections are discussed in a document, Ariel Feldman et. al, "Security Failures in Electronic Voting Machines", available at the Center for Information Technology Policy, Department of Computer Science, Princeton University.

The major security vulnerabilities in a generic touch screen based voting machine may occur in areas such as: the software used to control the voting machine, which needs to be changed every time a new election is held; the methods used for storing the votes inside the voting machine; and/or the methods used for communication between the voting machine and the counting centre.

For an optical reader based e-voting system, shortcomings arise, for example, due to the fact that the marking on the ballot paper are done manually and hence invalid ballots can occur, e.g. by failure of the optical recognition process and further that the accuracy of an optical reader depends on the quality of the marking on the paper which is done either by colouring or punching the appropriate boxes. KR-2002-0089208 introduced an on/off-line electronic voting system to realise transparent characteristic and fairness of an electronic vote through a storage and a reuse of a Radio Frequency Identification card (abbr. RFID card). The system comprises a central server for collecting an on-line vote result through a private line and for transmitting a processing result. An electronic vote result is stored in an auxiliary memory from a small area computer and transmitted through an off-line, and a medium area server collects a vote result. A multi-voting unit recognizes an electronic vote card for an electronic vote, and records the corresponding result on off-line vote result output paper. A result of an electronic vote is output on a vote result paper, and a voter checks one's voting contents. An external linked server receives computed vote result contents from the central server. The electronic vote result is published. The system requires a network line and a central server for collecting and counting the votes.

In general, electronic voting machines are used to provide a fast and convenient way to conduct voting processes. However, many of the conventional solutions used for electronic voting suffer from inflexibility and questionable security.

Summary of the invention

It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved system and method for electronic voting which has a flexible and secure means for collecting and counting the votes polled in an election process.

This and other objects can be obtained by the features of the independent claims. Further embodiments are characterised in the dependent claims.

The present invention provides a system for electronic voting of a ballot, wherein the system comprises: at least one e-paper being adapted for receiving an individual vote by a voter and for storing the individual vote; an e-paper supply unit being adapted for supplying the e-paper with power and a ballot information; and a ballot box being adapted for collecting the e-paper with the vote stored in the e-paper and for evaluating a voting result of the ballot on basis of a plurality of individual votes.

The e-paper may comprise a memory being capable for storing multiple votes, the memory being preferably divided into a first memory section for recording the individual vote and a second memory section for storing the total votes of all voters using the e-paper. The e-paper supply unit may be provided with a data transmission means being adapted for transmitting data between the supply unit and the e-paper and/or between the e-paper supply unit and the ballot box, and a powering means being adapted for powering the e-paper. Further, the e-paper may be a touch sensitive display device, wherein a clear button, a vote button and a cancel button are arranged on the surface of the e-paper.

Furthermore, the e-paper may be provided with a ballot rendering software being capable of interpreting and displaying the ballot on the e-paper, wherein the ballot rendering software is capable for allowing page scrolling or flipping. The ballot information is preferably provided in a ballot description language, wherein the ballot description language is adapted for describing the ballot and controlling elements in the ballot information. Also, the ballot description language is capable for supporting multi-page ballot.

In a preferred embodiment, the ballot box comprises a RFID reader being adapted for receiving the individual vote from the first memory section of the e-paper; wherein the e-paper comprises a RFID being capable to initiate a communication between the e-paper and the ballot box. As the communication between the e-paper and the ballot box may be based on any appropriate standard communication technology such as Near Field Communication, Contact Based Communication or Infra Red, the corresponding communication devices are therefore not limited to the RFID and RFID reader.

According to an other aspect, the present invention provides a method for electronic voting, comprising the steps of: a) providing an e-paper supply unit and supplying at least one e-paper with power and a ballot information; b) receiving and storing an individual vote by a voter using the e-paper; c) collecting the vote from the e-paper using a ballot box; and d) evaluating a voting result on basis of a plurality of individual votes each being collected within the steps a-c.

According to a preferred embodiment, the method further comprises the steps of: al) placing the e-paper onto the e-paper supply unit and powering the e-paper by a powering means provided in the e-paper supply unit; a2) transmitting the ballot information from the e-paper supply unit to the e-paper by using a transmission means provided in the e-paper supply unit, wherein the ballot information is described in a ballot description language; a3) controlling elements in the ballot information by using the ballot description language provided to the e- paper, wherein the ballot description language is capable for supporting multi-page ballot information; and a4) launching a ballot rendering software provided in the e-paper to interpret and to display the ballot on the e-paper, wherein the ballot rendering software is capable for allowing page scrolling or flipping. The method may further comprise the steps of: bl) touching a clear button, a vote button or a cancel button arranged on the surface of the e-paper by a voter to process the electronic voting, wherein the e-paper is a simple touch sensitive display device.

Preferably, the e-paper comprises a memory divided into a first memory and a second memory section, and the method further comprises the steps of: b2) recording the individual vote in the first memory section and storing total votes of all the voter using the e-paper in the second memory section.

The method may further comprise the steps of: cl) removing the e-paper from the e-paper supply unit and placing the e-paper into a slot of the ballot box; c2) initiating a data communication between the e-paper and the ballot box by pressing an activation switch of the ballot box and a read button of the e-paper; c3) transmitting the individual vote from the first memory section of the e-paper to the ballot box via a RFID reader provided in the ballot box and a RFID provided in the e-paper; and c4) erasing the individual vote from the first memory section of the e-paper and/or the steps of: dl) counting a reference voting result on basis of the total votes stored in the second memory section of the e-paper; and d21) crosschecking the voting result with the reference voting result, in order minimise voting errors; or d22) using the reference voting result if the voting result is missing or defective for reading.

The voting result preferably is evaluated by using a plurality of e-papers each comprising at least one individual vote. The reference voting result may be counted by using a plurality of e- papers each comprising the total votes of all voters using the e-paper.

The present invention imitates the paper based voting process where the voters may select their options on a paper and cast their ballot in a ballot box. The present invention uses e-paper which is a simple display device with a ballot rendering software that interprets and displays ballots described in a standard language. The e-paper also has capabilities to record and store choices made by the user by touching the e-paper.

In comparison with conventional paper based voting system, the present invention enables a voting process without the need for creating and/or printing custom ballot papers for every poll as the ballot information may be electronically displayed. The wastage of paper may be avoided, i.e. the e-paper can be reused after securely clearing its memory. In other words, the e- paper according to the present invention may be used in different types of elections requiring customized ballots. Furthermore, according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, two independent counts of the votes may be provided, i.e. one of them maintained in the e- paper and the other in the ballot box. Therefore, crosschecking of the vote counts is possible in case of disputes or for re-assessment.

An other preferred advantages of the present invention In comparison with conventional electronic voting system may be considered as follows: according to the present invention, the e-paper and the ballot box used for collecting the e-paper use an appropriate communication technology to communicate, such as Near Field Communication (abbr.: NFC) or Contact Based Communication. This communication process may be controlled by the voter himself and secured by appropriate means depending on the communication technology used. That is, the removable e-paper with inbuilt NFC technology may be configured to be only readable in a secure environment. The present invention also mimics the natural paper based election process that voters are familiar with. Furthermore, the present invention eliminates the need for a dedicated and secure communication networks/lines between the voting machine and a central server. In addition, the present invention enables two independent voting results, as aforementioned, which can minimise the error of the voting result and/or provide a redundancy of the voting result in case of defective of the voting result.

Brief description of the Drawings

The present invention will be now described with respect to preferred embodiments with reference to accompanying drawings, wherein: Fig. 1 shows a schematic overview of the system for electronic voting according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 2 shows a schematic view of the e-paper being placed on the e-paper supply unit and display of the ballot using the e-paper, according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 3 shows a schematic view of the ballot box for collecting the e-paper, according to an preferred embodiment of the present invention, wherein the ballot box comprises an activation switch, a RFID reader, and at least one indicator.

Preferred Embodiment of the Present Invention

In the following, a preferred embodiment of the system and the method of the present invention will be described in more detail. The present invention provides a secure electronic voting system that mimics the familiar paper based voting method for elections. This is accomplished by making use of an e-paper that serves as a ballot and using an appropriate communication technology for communication purposes. In this description RFID is used as the NFC technology. However, any secure local communication technology such as Infra Red, Contact Based Communication, sometimes also called contact based connectors and etc. can be used for this purpose. The e-paper with NFC communication technology and a software/hardware module serves as a touch screen to display, record and store the vote, wherein the software in the e-paper is a rendering software.

Fig. 1 shows a system for electronic voting according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. The system comprises an e-paper 20, an e-paper supply unit 10 and a ballot box 30. The e-paper 20 is a simple touch sensitive device and may be used for receiving an individual vote by a voter and for storing the individual vote. A plurality of buttons may be provided on the surfaces of the e-paper, in order to enable the voter to control his voting process. The plurality of buttons may comprise a clear button 21, vote button 22, cancel button 23, read button 24 and further name buttons 26 each associates to a particular candidate to be voted when it is pressed by the voter. The e-paper supply unit 10 is capable to receive the e-paper 20 thereon and supplies the e-paper 20 with power and ballot information. The e-paper supply unit 10 may be also called ballot transmission and powering device, (abbr. BTPD). The Ballot box 30 may be used for collecting the e-paper 20 after a vote has been submitted by a voter. The vote maybe stored in the e-paper 20 and transmitted to the ballot box 30 when the voter pushes the read button of the e-paper 20. After the voting is finished the ballot box 30 has been accumulated a plurality of votes submitted by voters and received from the e-paper 20. The ballot box 30 can evaluate the voting result of the ballot on basis of a plurality of individual votes.

Fig. 2 shows the e-paper 20 being placed on the e-paper supply unit 10. The e-paper supply unit 10 provides the power and the ballot information to the e-paper 20, so that the ballot 25 may be displayed on the e-paper 20. The name buttons 26 may be displayed as part of the ballot 25. In other words, the association and/or the location of the name buttons 26 as well as the ballot information such as the name of the candidate may be configured or customised individually in accordance with the voting. Furthermore a customised short information may be also displayed on the e-paper 20, e.g. short description of the usage of the e-paper and/or short description of the vote or candidates in the vote. Preferably, the clear button 21, vote button 22, cancel button 23 and the read button 24 may be also described within the ballot description and/or updated by a firmware of the e-paper, whereby only few of them are available or active for a particular voting or more function buttons may be provided to another voting if necessary.

Fig. 3 shows a detailed view of the ballot box 30 into which the e-paper 20 may be deposited. According to the preferred embodiment, the ballot box 30 communicates with the e-paper 20 via RFID technology, in order to receive the vote from the e-paper 20. An indicator 32 showing the state of the ballot or showing a state of the voting process and an activation switch 31 used by the voter to control his voting may be arranged on the ballot box 30. The ballot box 30 may further comprise a slot into which the e-paper 20 can be inserted. This provides the feeling of a conventional paper based voting process which is familiar for the voters.

In the following, the steps involved in the voting procedure according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention are described in detail:

Step 1 : The ballot that needs to be displayed on the e-paper 20 is loaded into the BTPD 10. The ballot is described using a ballot description language, (abbr. BDL) which controls the elements in the ballot such as the names of the candidates and the buttons 26 associated with them. The ballot description may be predetermined by the organisation responsible for conducting the election and loaded into the BTPD 10 prior to the electronic voting. The ballot description may be erased from the BTPD 10 and reloaded with a customised content for a different voting. An example of such ballot description language can be the standard HTML markup language used to control the display of web pages in a web browser. A rendering engine inside the browser reads the page description and displays the page accordingly. Similarly, in the present invention a ballot markup language can describe the ballot, which is then interpreted by the software on the e-paper to display and control the actions of the user on the displayed ballot. One advantage of having a ballot description language and a separate rendering software on the e-paper is that they can be developed by independent entities and hence collusion can be avoided. A paper print out of the ballot may be also pasted in the voting booth, so that the voter can check if the displayed ballot paper on the e-paper is the legitimate one. The software for displaying the ballot need not be a secret and can be open sourced so that the software can be checked for any vulnerabilities. The BDL also supports multi-page ballots and the software on the e-paper allows for page flipping.

Step 2: The e-paper 20 is put onto the BTPD 10 and switched on. The e-paper is a simple touch sensitive display device which may receive the ballot paper description from the BTPD 10 and displays the ballot or ballot information according to the BDL. The BDL also defines the controls that are present on the ballot. For example, some ballots require that only one among many choices are chosen, which can be implemented as standard "radio button" controls; whereas others allow multiple choices, which can be implemented as "check boxes". The e~ paper 20 has a memory which stores the selections made by the voter when he touches the options on the display. This memory may retain its contents even in the absence of power. The software to record such a touch on the screen is simple and generic that it need not be customised for every election. Also note that the e-paper can be powered by the BTPD 10 only when the user presses a power-on button present on the BTPD 10. This prevents the e-paper from being manipulated in transit. As an added security measure the BTPDs 10 themselves have to be "activated" by an election official before a voter enters the polling booth. Once a voter finishes his vote, the BTPD is "deactivated". Multiple votes from a single voter may be then avoided.

Step 3: The voter selects the options on the ballot by touching the buttons 26 on the e-paper 20 surface. Once he has completed his selection he may press the vote button 22 which records his vote in the e-paper memory. The memory inside the e-paper 20 has two sections, one of which records an individual vote and another which keeps a running total of all the votes cast using a single e-paper. Once the voter confirms, the BTPD 10 is deactivated.

Step 4: The voter removes the e-paper 20 from the BTPD 10 and brings it to the ballot box 30.

Step 5: The ballot box 30 has a RFID reader that can read the content of the individual vote memory section inside the e-paper 20. According to an preferred embodiment, the running total votes stored on the e-paper is disabled to be read by the ballot box, in order to enable creating of two independent voting results.

Step 6: The voter places the e-paper 20 inside the slot in the ballot box 30 and presses the read button 24 on the e-paper 20 and the activation switch 31 present in the ballot box. Only then the RFID inside the e-paper is powered and the RFID reader of the ballot box 30 is able to read the individual vote. Once the vote is read and stored by the ballot box 30, it can be erased from the individual memory section. The interception of communication between the e-paper 20 and the ballot box 30 reader can be prevented by making sure that the ballot box 30 is made of material that prevents radio communication from leaving the enclosed space inside the box.

It is to be noted, that the communication described in steps 5 and 6 can also be realised by a contact based communication system between the e-paper 20 and the ballot box 30. One way to realise such a system would be as follows: The voter places the e-paper 20 inside the slot of the ballot box 30. The ballot box 30 has a mechanism which securely attaches the e-paper 20 to a connector inside the box and activates the indicator 32 if the process is successful. The voter then presses the read button 24 as before so that the ballot 30 box can proceed to read the individual vote section stored inside the e-paper 20.

Step 7: The voter removes the e-paper 20 from the ballot box 30 once he gets the confirmation that the recording process is complete, e.g. by a green light indicated by the indicator 32 of the ballot box 30, and hands over the e-paper 20 to an election official.

Step 8: The election official then issues this e-paper 20 to the next voter in the line who repeats the process.

Step 9: At the end of the election, the total votes recorded in the ballot box 30 are read out by a secure device. The result shown by the ballot box 30 can be cross checked with the result maintained by the e-papers 20 used during the election. According to a preferred embodiment, a plurality of e-papers can be used for the voting in order to reduce the waiting time of voters. The voting steps described before may be carried out for each of the plurality of the e-papers, and the total votes of each e-paper may be then summed and counted. Furthermore, also a plurality of ballot boxes can be used to further accelerate the electronic voting. Similar like the approach with using the plurality of e-papers, the voting result of each ballot box may be summed and counted together when the voting is finished. It is also possible to connect the multiple ballot boxes by using a data communication means, in order to further accelerate the voting speed and to show a temporary voting result calculated from the multiple ballot boxes during the voting. As the voting result may be calculated in real time, the voting result may be available as soon as the last voter finished his vote.

The invention has been illustrated and described in detail in the drawings and foregoing description. Such illustration and description are to be considered in an illustrative or exemplary and non-restrictive manner, i.e., the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments. Moreover, the word "comprising" does not exclude other elements or steps, and the indefinite article "a" or "an" does not exclude a plurality. A single processor or other unit may fulfil the functions of several items recited in the claims. The mere fact that certain measures are recited in mutually different dependent claims does not indicate that a combination of these measures cannot be used to advantage. Any reference signs in the claims should not be considered as limiting the scope.

Claims

1. A system for electronic voting of a ballot, wherein the system comprises:

at least one e-paper (20) being adapted for receiving an individual vote by a voter and for storing the individual vote,

an e-paper supply unit (10) being adapted for supplying the e-paper (20) with power and a ballot information, and

a ballot box (30) being adapted for collecting the e-paper with the vote stored in the e-paper (20) and for evaluating a voting result of the ballot on basis of a plurality of individual votes.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the e-paper (20) comprises a memory being capable for storing multiple votes.

3. The system according to claim 2, wherein the memory is divided into a first memory section for recording the individual vote and a second memory section for storing the total votes of all voters using the e-paper (20).

4. The system according to any one of preceding claims, wherein the e-paper supply unit (10) is provided with a data transmission means being adapted for transmitting data between the supply unit and the e-paper (20) and/or between the e-paper supply unit (10) and the ballot box (30), and a powering means being adapted for powering the e-paper (20).

5. The system according to any one of preceding claims, wherein the e-paper (20) is a touch sensitive display device, and wherein a clear button (21), a vote button (22) and a cancel button (23) are arranged on the surface of the e-paper (20).

6. The system according to any one of preceding claims, wherein the e-paper (20) is provided with a ballot rendering software being capable of interpreting and displaying the ballot on the e-paper (20), wherein the ballot rendering software is capable for allowing page scrolling or flipping.

7. The system according to any one of preceding claims, wherein the ballot information is provided in a ballot description language, wherein the ballot description language is adapted for describing the ballot and controlling elements in the ballot information, wherein the ballot description language is capable for supporting multi-page ballot.

8. The system according to any one of claims 3-7, wherein the ballot box (30) comprises a RFID reader being adapted for receiving the individual vote from the first memory section of the e-paper (20); wherein the e-paper comprises a RFID being capable to initiate a communication between the e-paper (20) and the ballot box (30); and wherein the communication is based on standard communication such as Near Field Communication, Contact Based Communication or Infra Red.

9. A method for electronic voting, comprising the steps of:

a) providing an e-paper supply unit (10) and supplying at least one e-paper (25) with power and a ballot information;

b) receiving and storing an individual vote by a voter using the e-paper (20); c) collecting the vote from the e-paper (20) using a ballot box (10); and d) evaluating a voting result on basis of a plurality of individual votes each being collected within the steps a-c.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the method further comprises the steps of:

al) placing the e-paper (20) onto the e-paper supply unit (10) and powering the e-paper (20) by a powering means provided in the e-paper supply unit (10);

a2) transmitting the ballot information from the e-paper supply unit (10) to the e-paper (20) by using a transmission means provided in the e-paper supply unit (10), wherein the ballot information is described in a ballot description language;

a3) controlling elements in the ballot information by using the ballot description language provided to the e-paper (20), wherein the ballot description language is capable for supporting multi-page ballot information;

a4) launching a ballot rendering software provided in the e-paper (20) to interpret and to display the ballot on the e-paper (20), wherein the ballot rendering software is capable for allowing page scrolling or flipping.

11. The method according to any one of claims 9-10, wherein the method further comprises the steps of:

bl) touching a clear button (21), a vote button (22) or a cancel button (23) arranged on the surface of the e-paper by a voter to process the electronic voting, wherein the e-paper (20) is a simple touch sensitive display device.

12. The method according to any one of claims 9-11, wherein the e-paper (20) comprises a memory divided into a first memory and a second memory section, wherein the method further comprises the steps of:

b2) recording the individual vote in the first memory section and storing total votes of all the voter using the e-paper (20) in the second memory section.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein the method further comprises the steps of:

cl) removing the e-paper (20) from the e-paper supply unit (10) and placing the e-paper (20) into a slot of the ballot box (30);

c2) initiating a data communication between the e-paper (20) and the ballot box (30) by pressing an activation switch (39) of the ballot box (30) and a read button of the e-paper (20);

c3) transmitting the individual vote from the first memory section of the e- paper (20) to the ballot box (30) via a RFID reader provided in the ballot box (30) and a RFID provided in the e-paper (20);

c4) erasing the individual vote from the first memory section of the e-paper.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein the method further comprises the steps of:

dl) counting a reference voting result on basis of the total votes stored in the second memory section of the e-paper (20); and

d21) crosschecking the voting result with the reference voting result, in order minimise voting errors; or

d22) using the reference voting result if the voting result is missing or defective for reading.

15. The method according to any one of the claims 9-14, wherein the voting result is evaluated by using a plurality of e-papers each comprising at least one individual vote.

16. The method according to any one of the claims 9-15, wherein the reference voting result is counted by using a plurality of e-papers each comprising the total votes of all voters using the e-paper.