Polsterless Remote Electronic Voting

Remote electronic voting is currently being piloted in the UK as a means of increasing the convenience of casting a ballot, which it is hoped will be reflected in an increased participation in elections. Most proposed electronic voting schemes envisage the use of cryptography in order to model the features of democratic elections, which, informally, include notions such as the secret ballot and a verifiable tallying system. This approach requires the use of a software artifact, or polster, which casts a ballot on the elector's behalf. A consequence of this approach requires the elector to trust software supplied by the election authority, as well as limiting the range of devices on which the ballot may be cast. An alternative to the use of cryptography employs a polsterless electronic voting system. Here, a proposed polsterless system for UK elections is considered and the flaws identified. A revised scheme is then proposed that provides verifiability and improved resistance to abuse, without requiring too much additional participation from the elector.