End-to-End Cryptography: Spreading Democracy

Due to concerns related to the security and privacy of conventional and electronic voting systems as well as the shortcomings of some verification methods, such as Voter Verified Paper Audit Trails (VVPATs), an alternative approach known as End-to-End (E2E) voter verifiable system was proposed. E2E systems rely on cryptography to provide voters and the public with both secrecy and accuracy, two fundamental requirements of the electoral process that conventional voting systems (including paper ballots) failed to assure. While the use of cryptography introduces several advantages over conventional voting methods, cryptographic voting systems have various limitations of their own. In this paper, we will briefly analyze two of the proposed E2E voting systems. We then address some of the existing limitations that may stand in the way of their implementation.