(Apologies if you receive multiple copies of this announcement)
BCS-FACS Evening Seminar Series
Secure Electronic Voting
Professor Steve Schneider
University of Surrey
3 March 2008
5.45pm
BCS London Offices
First Floor, The Davidson Building
5 Southampton Street
London WC2E 7HA
Elections need to be trustworthy, and to be seen to be trustworthy, in
order for the electorate to have confidence in their outcomes. The
introduction of technology into the electoral process brings potential
new benefits, but may also increase the risk that accidental flaws
or security weaknesses in the equipment leave an election open
to tampering. Voting systems, whether run manually or on machines,
should provide voters with the ability to cast a private vote, and to have
confidence that their vote is really included in the final tally.
The Prêt à Voter electronic voting system is designed to provide these
properties, and some further ones known as end-to-end verifiability, not
currently present in standard UK elections: a receipt for the voters so
that they can check their vote has been included in the tally, and can
prove if it has not; and publication of the votes so that the count can
be independently checked. This is achieved by making public all
the stages in the processing of the votes, enabling the election to be
audited independently. All this is possible while maintaining secrecy
of the vote. Although electronic support for the election is necessary,
the electronic components do not themselves need to be trusted
because their outputs can be independently audited. This talk
discusses the issues involved in electronic voting systems, describes
the Prêt à Voter approach to electronic voting, and introduces the
implementation of the system developed at the University of Surrey
in conjunction with the University of Newcastle in 2007.
Refreshments will be served from 5.15pm.
The seminar is free of charge and open to everyone. If you would like
to attend, please email Paul Boca [[log in to unmask]] by
>>> 28 February 2008 <<< . Pre-registration is required, as the BCS
requires us to provide an attendance list in advance of the seminar.
BCS-FACS Website: http://www.bcs-facs.org
BCS-FACS Evening Seminars:
http://www.bcs-facs.org/events/EveningSeminars
Location of venue: http://www.epsg.org.uk/locations/bcsss-guide.html
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