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Remarks on Election Integrity

Explore the goals, challenges, principles, myths, and tools related to election integrity for a secure and transparent electoral process. Learn about post-election audits and key practices to ensure accurate outcomes.

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Remarks on Election Integrity

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  1. Remarks on Election Integrity Ronald L. Rivest MIT Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity Manchester, NH September 12, 2017

  2. Outline • 4 Goals • 4 Challenges • 4 Principles • 4 Myths • 4 Tools • Example: hypothetical NH post-election audit

  3. Outline • 4 Goals • 4 Challenges • 4 Principles • 4 Myths • 4 Tools • Example: hypothetical NH post-election audit

  4. Goal 1/4 Improve Security.

  5. Goal 2/4 Outcomes that are correct.

  6. Goal 3/4 Outcomes perceived correct.

  7. Goal 4/4 Outcomes verifiably correct.

  8. Outline • 4 Goals • 4 Challenges • 4 Principles • 4 Myths • 4 Tools • Example: hypothetical NH post-election audit

  9. Challenge 1/4 Secret Ballots.

  10. Challenge 2/4 Diverse voters and elections.

  11. Challenge 3/4 Adversaries!

  12. Challenge 4/4 No free lunches!

  13. Outline • 4 Goals • 4 Challenges • 4 Principles • 4 Myths • 4 Tools • Example: hypothetical NH post-election audit

  14. Principle 1/4 Election integrity is nonpartisan.

  15. Principle 2/4 It takes a thief…

  16. Principle 3/4 Adversaries attack weakest link.

  17. Principle 4/4 Detect and Recover.

  18. Outline • 4 Goals • 4 Challenges • 4 Principles • 4 Myths • 4 Tools • Example: hypothetical NH post-election audit

  19. Myth 1/4 Federal certification ensures security.

  20. Myth 2/4 Logic and accuracy testing ensures security.

  21. Myth 3/4 “Not connected to internet” ensures security.

  22. Myth 4/4 Decentralization ensures security.

  23. Outline • 4 Goals • 4 Challenges • 4 Principles • 4 Myths • 4 Tools • Example: hypothetical NH post-election audit

  24. Tool 1/4 Public verification of (almost) everything.

  25. Tool 2/4 Voter verification of their own paper ballots.

  26. Tool 3/4 Compliance audit.

  27. Tool 4/4 Risk-limiting post-election audit.

  28. Outline • 4 Goals • 4 Challenges • 4 Principles • 4 Myths • 4 Tools • Example: hypothetical NH post-election audit

  29. Example: 2016 NH Governor • Reported outcome: • 354,040 Chris Sununu • 337,589 Colin Van Ostern • 33,234 others • Margin of victory: 2.4% • Comparison risk-limiting audit compares randomly chosen paper ballots with their cast vote records until “risk limit” (e.g. five percent) is met.

  30. Audit

  31. Audit

  32. Audit

  33. Audit

  34. Audit Examining only 300 randomly-chosen ballots (out of 724,863 cast) achieves our “risk limit” of 5% !

  35. References • Stark, P.B., and D.A. Wagner, 2012. Evidence-Based Elections. IEEE Security & Privacy, 10, 33–41. • Lindeman, M. and P.B. Stark, 2012. A Gentle Introduction to Risk-Limiting Audits. IEEE Security & Privacy, 10, 42–49.

  36. The End Thanks for your attention!

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