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Appendix A:

Summary of VoiceVote Procedure




Appendix A: Summary of VoiceVote Procedure

1 The election authority publishes all software and election specifications, including templates for the casting and printing of ballots, on the Internet prior to election day.

2 Prior to an election session, the election authority initializes each VoiceVote voting machine with the appropriate software, including the applicable ballot template.

3 At the beginning of the election session, each VoiceVote voting machine generates a pair of private/public cryptographic keys (signing and verifying keys). The verifying key is written to the machine's write once record.

4 The election judges generate a start-up report (zero tape) of vote totals. The report is recorded on the voting machine WORM and printed for the election judges and for all poll watchers.

5 The precinct election judges sign in a voter and authorize the casting of a ballot.

6 The voting machine assigns a random ID to the ballot.

7
The voter enters a vote on the VoiceVote voting machine.

8 The voting machine calculates a unique digital signature for the ballot.

9 The voting machine records the ballot, including the ballot identifier and digital signature, on a write once storage medium. It prints two copies of the ballot. One copy is deposited in a sealed ballot box for election officials; the voter gets the other.

10 If there is another voter, loop back to step (5).

11 The election judges process absentee ballots for the polling place.

12 The precinct election judges print out a session report including all unique identifiers, the verifying key, a tally for each candidate and/or question on the ballot and the certification of the program source from each machine for themselves and for each poll watcher.

13 The VoiceVote voting machine freezes the write once storage medium and discards the private ("signing") key.

14
The election judges use the VoiceVote reporting machine to combine and total all results for the polling place and print digitally signed, hard copy summary reports for the election authority, judges and poll watchers.

15
The election judges use the VoiceVote reporting machine to electronically transmit all of the election results for the polling place, including the ballots and session information, to the election authority.

16 Return
the VoiceVote voting appliances with the write-once storage medium and all other read and/or write devices still locked inside, reporting machine, sealed ballot boxes and other election materials back to the election authority.

17 The central election authority performs a series of integrity checks on the election information and then publishes a preliminary report of all ballots and verifying keys on the Internet.

18 The write once devices are removed from the voting appliances. The WORMs are read and compared to the preliminary election results and integrity checks are repeated.

19 Provisional ballots are processed. Any discrepancies revealed by VoiceVote integrity checks are investigated and resolved.

20 Final election results are published.
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