Internet Voting: Situation, Questions, and Trends

Abstract

In the Internet age, the increasing prevalence of online voting regularly sparks controversy regarding security. This chapter addresses the topic of Internet voting by describing the characteristics of a democratic election and placing this new mode of voting within the context of the entire family of electronic voting systems. The link between transparency of the electoral system, voter confidence, and legitimacy is then reiterated, and the components of reliability and safety requirements of security are detailed. This analysis and the overview of several real implementations of Internet voting systems in this chapter show that transparency vanishes due to the combination of anonymity and virtualization of the votes while absolute security seems out of reach. Finally, it appears that the search for procedures for verifying the proper operation of the procedures should be accompanied by a strong evolution of the electorate legal rules.