Engineering a Distributed e-Voting System Architecture: Meeting Critical Requirements

Abstract

Abstract.Voting is a critical component of any democratic process; and electronic voting systems should be developed following best practices for critical system development. E-voting has illustrated the importance of formal software engineering in the development of complex systems: poorly engineered and poorly documented voting systems have had serious negative consequences for all system stakeholders. It is clear that the formal verification of e-voting system models would help to address problems associated with certification against standards, and would improve the trustworthiness of the final systems. However, it is not yet clear how best to carry out such formal modelling and verification in order to leverage the compositional nature of the problem, and manage the complexity of the task.The choice of modelling language -for expressing the high level design and architecture of an e-voting system -poses many problems due to the complex mix of requirements that such a system is required to meet. Different modelling languages are more-or-less suited to the verification of different critical requirements. Thus, we report on a mixed model approach: where we address 3 different types of critical requirements using 3 different modelling languages and development strategies. Firstly, we report on network quality-of-service issues that are analyzed through simulation models. Secondly, we report on functional correctness of a counting process that can be validated through algebraic techniques. Finally, we report on the use of formal refinement to reason about the correctness of design steps when adding detail to an architecture model. To conclude, we acknowledge the main problem that arises from such a mixed-model approach to architecture verification: how can we be sure that the different models are coherent when we integrate them in a final implementation?

Vote Casting in Any Preferred Constituency: A New Voting Channel

“…Thereby, we will focus on both options for identification and authentication of voters, namely by using the election notification, the German e-ID card or a combination of both. Finally, we will analyse, if existing proposals for end-to-end verifiable electronic voting schemes/systems, namely [5], [18], and [28] that could implement the approach treated in section 4.2, comply with the findings of this work and fulfill the technical and legal requirements for electronic voting in Germany.…”

“…A number of technical proposals for end-to-end verifiable electronic voting schemes/systems, which enable electronic vote casting, can be considered for directly implementing this approach, for example [5], [18], and [28].…”

Evaluating the suitability of state‐based formal methods for industrial deployment

“…Regarding bug diagnosis , the ProB model checker provides a counterexample with a respective trace. Gibson et al report the use of the Event‐B method for the engineering of a distributed e‐voting system architecture that suggests that this method supports the design and architecture phase. A couple of code generators have been developed for Event‐B.…”

Understanding the Development Trends of Electronic Voting Systems

“…Since the technique has been recognized as powerful and effective, drawing straight connection with this can help making better the current development of e-voting systems. As noted recently in [60], however, it is not yet clear how best to carry out such techniques to leverage the compositional nature of the problem, and manage the complexity of the task.…”