Secure Electronic Voting

Elections, referenda and polls are very important processes and tools for the smooth operation of a modern democracy. They provide means for transferring power from citizens to their representatives. They can, also, support the citizen's trust and confidence in government and democracy. Election systems have been, until recently, the focus of attention of mainly politicians and election officials. However, the case of Florida US Presidential Election attracted international attention, by a very wide audience, on how elections are administered and what is - or may be - the role of technology in this process. As a result, the capabilities and limitations of electronic and Internet-based voting systems have been brought to the centre of attention of many professionals, and are under intense scrutiny by policy makers, social scientists, computer and network engineers, and activist groups in several countries. Now the main issue is whether secure, reliable, robust, user-friendly, and less costly electronic voting systems could be developed. Such systems must meet strict security and privacy requirements, and comply with specific constitutional, legal and regulatory contexts. This edited volume identifies and describes capabilities and limitations, as well as the trends and future perspectives of electronic voting technologies, with emphasis in security and privacy. The book includes state-of-the-art material on existing and emerging electronic and Internet voting technologies, which may eventually lead to the development of adequately secure e-voting systems. It also presents an overview of the legal framework with respect to voting, a description of the user requirements for the development of a secure e-voting system, and a discussion on the relevant technical and social concerns. There are also three case studies on the use and evaluation of e-voting systems in three different real world environments. "Secure Electronic Voting" provides researchers and practitioners in computer science and engineering with an in-depth review on secure e-voting technologies. Election organizers, social scientists and legal experts can also benefit from the analysis of the socio-technical context of the e-voting systems and technologies. Secure Electronic Voting is designed to meet the needs of a wide audience in government, industry and academia and also graduate-level students in computer science and engineering.