Dubious security practices in e-voting schemes Between tech and legal standards

Abstract

Remote electronic voting has been around for a few decades now. However, some legal uncertainty regarding its uses remains. In this paper, we would like to highlight and discuss several techniques used in e-voting which may not be fully compliant with the law. We analyze several e-voting practices that rely on the addition of dummy ballots and show how they conflict with legal standards. Specifically, we focus on cases where dummy ballots are required for: better performance, testing, participation privacy, or preventing coercion. We argue that these practices may raise issues with the standards of authenticity and eligibility, as well as with the principle “one voter, one vote”. Our research aims to offer a better understanding of how legal principles can be interpreted to ensure the legality of technological proposals in e-voting.