Voting Integrity, Confidence and Empowerment

Key Features of VoiceVote

The VoiceVote system uses established and proven technologies to do three things reliably and securely: i) permit the voter to privately and accurately register his or her intent on each ballot question, ii) label and cryptographically certify each ballot so that it can be tracked through the final vote count; iii) provide redundant audit trails so that the accuracy of the entire election process can be independently examined by both the voting authority and the voting public.

The following features of VoiceVote support these goals:

• Use secure, publicly reviewed software. All programs used by VoiceVote, including the operating system, are available in advance for public inspection, in both human readable and machine readable forms, bringing the collective expertise of the professional computing community to bear on their correctness. The software is installed on ROM (Read Only Memory) chips that cannot be altered. The appliances are tested on startup at the beginning of the voting session to assure that the approved software is running and can be tested throughout the course of Election Day. The VoiceVote voting machine is not connected to any network to prevent the possibility of "hacking." The equipment contains no disk drive or other persistent, rewritable memory.
  

• Improve voting accuracy through friendly design. The VoiceVote voting machine has a touch screen (ATM-style). This permits any size or style ballot, in any language. Good ballot design can make voting on a touch screen very clear and user-friendly. The machine can be tailored to facilitate voting by the physically- or vision-impaired. The voting software prevents overvotes, in which the voter accidentally marks the ballot for two candidates for the same office. By calling attention to omitted votes, it greatly reduces the frequency of undervotes, in which the voter unintentionally fails to vote on some matter. Undervotes, such as those that appear to have occurred in 2006 in Florida's 13th Congressional District contest, have been a major source of the failure to correctly record voter intentions.
  

• Label and cryptographically certify each ballot. VoiceVote software labels each ballot with a unique random identifier, enabling it to be tracked after it is cast, much as the identifier on a package enables its progress toward its destination to be tracked. Each ballot is digitally signed, guaranteeing that any loss or alteration of ballots can be detected. The ballot label is not connected to the identity of the voter and does not compromise the anonymity of the ballot.
  

• Create multiple audit trails. The VoiceVote voting machine records each ballot in three independent, cryptographically certified trails: an electronic record and two paper trails. Each ballot, in whatever form it is recorded, contains the ballot identifier and the cryptographic certification. The electronic trail is created on a write once (WORM) medium, which cannot be altered. One paper trail is deposited in a sealed ballot box and is retained by the election authority. The other paper trail is given to the voter. The cryptographic certification permits detection and proof of the alteration or loss of any ballot. It also prevents ballot forging. This gives the voters, as well as the election authority, the power to independently audit the election.
  

The VoiceVote Vote system is vendor-neutral. Any manufacturer may produce appliances and programs adhering to this voting protocol, making it less likely that the manufacture of voting machines will be monopolized. This should help keep down the costs of the system and preclude the possibility of partisan ownership of crucial components of the election apparatus.