Trustworthy Elections

It is discussed in the media every day. It is the focus of congressional investigations and DEF CON villages. It is a core concern of our nation. Our democracy must be resistant to adversarial influences, both domestic and foreign.

Hundreds of millions vote on outdated computers that no cybersecurity professional trusts. Tens of millions vote with no paper ballot record. Government agencies responsible for the correctness and security of election computing systems—primarily the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)—are under-resourced. Elected officials and electoral officials already have their plates full with IT challenges such as database management and ransomware attacks. The costs of recertification make voting system vendors hesitant to make significant changes to their products, especially if they don't see universal demand across their customer base.

These groups understand that things can be better, but they need help.

This talk will explain in plain language (i) how we got to where we are today in elections in the USA, (ii) the aspects of the elections systems landscape that make change difficult, and (iii) practical actions we can take to break this cycle.

We will describe what we are doing in the Microsoft ElectionGuard project and in the DARPA SSITH project to help create a new generation of trustworthy election technologies.