Page 108 - Towards Trustworthy Elections New Directions in Electronic Voting by Ed Gerck (auth.), David Chaum, Markus Jakobsson, Ronald L. Rivest, Peter Y. A. Ryan, Josh Benaloh, Miroslaw Kutylowski, Ben Adida ( (z-lib.org (1)
P. 108
S. Bruck, D. Jefferson, and R.L. Rivest
100
Roughly, voting with a Frog works as follows:
First, when a voter arrives at a poll site to vote, she identifies herself (and
authenticates herself as necessary) to an election official. The election official
takes a blank Frog, “initializes” it, and gives it to the voter. Alternatively, the
voter arrives with a Frog.
Second, the voter places her Frog in the appropriate “vote-capture” equipment
and makes her choices, which are recorded on the Frog.
Third, the voter then takes her Frog from the vote-capture equipment to the
“vote-casting” equipment, confirms her selections, and then casts her vote. Her
Frog is “taken hostage” and retained as part of the audit trail.
These steps should take place privately, so that the voter’s vote cannot be
observed.
2 Frog Initialization
Initializing a Frog records on the Frog the identity of the authorizing election
official. It also specifies the election and precinct, the corresponding ballot style
(that is, which races and candidates are to be presented to the voter), the lan-
guage to use, and what candidate rotation parameters (if any) are to be used.
The identity of the voter is not recorded.
We imagine that the election official has a small device for initializing Frogs as
necessary. Each election official may have a unique “key” that must be inserted
in order to operate the device, which specifies the official’s identity, and which
counts the number of Frogs initialized by each official that utilizes that device.
In short, initializing a Frog is similar to having ballots “printed on demand.”
3 Vote Capture
When a voter puts an initialized Frog into the vote entry equipment, it presents
the voter with the appropriate ballot choices, and allows the voter to enter her
selections. The voter is given generous feedback at all stages, and may change
her vote easily.
In a paper-based system, the Frog may be a scannable paper ballot. Marking
the paper ballot is the vote-capture stage.
In an electronic system, the vote-capture stage consists of a session at an
electronic screen or with a personal computer (PC). When the voter is satisfied
with her choices, she pushes a “vote-entry finished” button that causes the voter’s
choices to be recorded on the Frog. The voter removes the Frog so that she may
place it in the vote-casting equipment.
4 Vote Casting
The vote-casting equipment has five functions when the voter casts her vote.
The first is vote-confirmation. The Frog is “read” (scanned, electronically read,

