Evaluating e-voting: theory and practice

Abstract: In the Netherlands as well as many other countries, the use of electronic voting solutions is a recurrent topic of discussion. While electronic voting certainly has advantages over paper voting, there are also important risks involved. This paper presents an analysis of benefits and risks of electronic voting, and shows the relevance of these issues by means of three case studies of real-world implementations. Additionally, techniques that may be employed to improve upon many of the current systems are presented. We conclude that the advantages of E-voting do not outweigh the disadvantages, as the resulting reduced verifiability and transparency seem hard to overcome.