Online and Mail-in Voting Systems

Open Government Community Group,

As postal voting is in the news, I would like to ask a question and to share some information.

The question pertains to companies and government organizations presently researching and developing secure remote voting systems. Does anybody know of any companies or government organizations working on researching and developing secure remote voting systems?

The information pertains to some ideas with respect to electronic voting and postal voting systems. It is possible that electronic systems can secure postal voting systems. It is possible that postal systems can secure electronic voting systems.

“After voting online, voters can print their ballots. Printed ballots can be designed for purposes including rapid visual inspection by voters to compare their printed ballots to post-printing on-screen contents. Printed ballots can include cryptographic hashes of and other visual representations of voting results, such as barcodes or QR codes. Printed ballots can include one or more confirmation numbers, barcodes or QR codes which indicate or confirm each voting event. Printed ballots can include the text of the ballots with voters’ votes or other text-based versions of voters’ votes. Printed ballots can include voters’ regional codes, postal zip codes and voting district codes. Printed ballots or the addresses upon envelopes can be recognized by post offices for free delivery for purposes of concurrent postal voting. At vote-processing locations, computer vision and optical character recognition can expedite the processing of printed ballots; the confirmation numbers, barcodes or QR codes upon printed ballots provide for interoperation with electronic systems at other locations. The two systems, electronic and postal voting, can mutually secure one another.” – https://www.w3.org/community/collaboration/2016/07/04/electronic-and-postal-voting/

That was some brainstorming from 2016.

Maybe people will be able to vote with their smartphones someday. I wonder whether any projects underway at the W3C could facilitate such technology.


Best regards,
Adam Sobieski

Received on Friday, 29 May 2020 00:25:55 UTC