OpenVoting: Recoverability from Failures in Dual Voting

Abstract: In this paper we address the problem of recovery from failures without re-running entire elections when elections fail to verify. We consider the setting of \emph{dual voting} protocols, where the cryptographic guarantees of end-to-end verifiable voting (E2E-V) are combined with the simplicity of audit using voter-verified paper records (VVPR). We first consider the design requirements of such a system and then suggest a protocol called \emph{OpenVoting}, which identifies a verifiable subset of error-free votes consistent with the VVPRs, and the polling booths corresponding to the votes that fail to verify with possible reasons for the failures. To an ordinary voter \emph{OpenVoting} looks just like an old fashioned paper based voting system, with minimal additional cognitive overload.