HELPING TO SET UNIFORM STANDARDS FOR ELECTRONIC VOTING
posted by:Ian Kerr // 12:55 PM // January 31, 2005 // Walking On the Identity Trail
many readers interested in authentication systems will know about the challenges of ensuring electronic privacy while, at the same time, maintaining adequate system security. for example, electronic voting systems need to be capable of ensuring the relative anonymity of each voter while also ensuring that a given individual is eligible to vote, casts no more votes than s/he is entitled, etc.
one of my colleagues, cryptographer david chaum, has been thinking about these sorts of problems for many years.
more recently, he has become involved in ensuring uniform standards for electronic voting through an organization dedicated to Voting System Performance Rating (VSPR) this group is focused on defining objective ways to measure performance of voting systems. VSPR comprises experts from a wide range of voting-related fields, including election officials, social scientists, technologists, vendors, advocates and standards body members.
one crucial aspect of VSPR is that it operates openly: anyone is free to sign up as a recipient to any of the Council Group or Working Group mailing lists, anyone can become a member-at-large of the VSPR Council, and all records of discussions are publicly available.
for a description of the issues to which VSPR is dedicated, read this interesting newsweek article
