EAC - Voluntary Voting System Guidelines

Name : | Jordi Puiggali
Organization : | Scytl Secure Electronic Voting
Post Date : | 9/9/2005
Section Comments
Section : | 6.8.7.2.3
Page no. : | 51
Line no.: | 20
Comment : | 6.8.7.2.3 The printer shall not be permitted to communicate with any other system or machine other than the single voting machine to which it is connected. This requirement limits the use of VVPAT systems to those based only on a voting terminal and a printer. There are alternative implementations of VVPAT systems that use an independent audit module between the printer and the voting terminal to improve the accuracy of the paper trail and facilitate the verification process for blind voters. One of the objectives of having an independent audit module is to make the verification process accessible to blind voters by providing an audible register of the vote generated from the data sent from the voting terminal to the printer. A second objective of the independent audit module is to improve the voting system auditability and accuracy (e.g., protects the register integrity) by digitally signing the digital votes and the paper records. The use of an indpendent module to digitally sign the paper records (instead of having the voting terminal to digitally sign those records) prevents the potential generation of invalid digital signatures by the voting terminal that could invalidate the paper records without being detected by the voters. A specific implementation of this independent audit module is described in detail in Exhibit A. We suggest to add another requirement under 6.8.7.2.3 to state that in case the system uses independent audit modules to improve the accessibility and accuracy of the paper trail, the printer should only be connected to that module. This sub-requirement could be as follows: 6.8.7.2.3.1 If the voting system uses a separate independent audit module connected to the printer to make the verification process accessible to blind voters and to improve the system accuracy, the printer shall not be permitted to communicate with any other system or machine other than this independent audit module to which it is connected.