EVT/WOTE '12 Call for Papers

Overview

In many countries, most votes are counted and transported electronically, but there are numerous practical and policy implications of introducing electronic machines into the voting process. Both voting technology and its regulations are very much in flux, with open concerns including accuracy, reliability, robustness, security, transparency, equality, privacy, usability, and accessibility.

USENIX is sponsoring the 2012 Electronic Voting Technology Workshop/Workshop on Trustworthy Elections (EVT/WOTE '12). EVT/WOTE brings together researchers from a variety of disciplines, ranging from computer science and human-computer interaction experts through political scientists, legal experts, election administrators, and voting equipment vendors. EVT/WOTE seeks to publish original research on important problems in all aspects of electronic voting.

EVT/WOTE '12 will be a two-day event, Monday, August 6, and Tuesday, August 7, 2012, co-located with the 21st USENIX Security Symposium in Bellevue, WA. In addition to paper presentations, the workshop may include panel discussions with substantial time devoted to questions and answers. The workshop papers will be published electronically. Attendance at the workshop will be open to the public, although talks and refereed paper presentations will be by invitation only. There will be an award for the best paper.

Workshop Topics

Papers should contain original research in any area related to electronic voting technologies and verifiable elections. Example applications include but are not limited to:

• In-person voting systems
• Remote/Internet voting systems
• Voter registration and authentication systems
• Procedures for ballot and election auditing
• Cryptographic (or non-cryptographic) verifiable election schemes

Example topics include but are not limited to original research on:

• Attacks on existing systems
• Designs of new systems
• Experiences deploying voting systems or conducting elections
• Experiences detecting and recovering from election problems
• Formal or informal security or requirements analysis
• Examination of usability and accessibility issues
• Research on relevant regulations, standards, or laws

Submissions will be judged on originality, relevance, correctness, and clarity.

Submission Instructions

Papers must be received by 11:59 p.m. PDT on Friday, May 11, 2012. This is a hard deadline—no extensions will be given. All submissions will be electronic. Submissions should be finished, complete papers (not work in progress) and must be in PDF format. Submit papers using the Web form.

Paper submissions should be at most 12 typeset pages, excluding bibliography and well-marked appendices. Submissions should be in two-column format, using 10 point Times Roman type on 12 point leading, in a text block of 6.5" by 9". There is no limit on the length of appendices, but reviewers are not required to read them. Once accepted, papers must fit in 16 pages—including bibliography and any appendices—in the same format. Authors' names and affiliations should not be included, per the anonymization policy that follows.

Paper submissions must be anonymized: author names and author affiliations must be removed; acknowledgments and other clear markers of affiliation (e.g., "we used data from XXX University") should be removed or rewritten; self-citations should be rewritten to be neutral (e.g., "In previous work, Smith showed . . .").

Simultaneous submission of the same work to multiple venues, submission of previously published work, or plagiarism constitutes dishonesty or fraud. USENIX, like other scientific and technical conferences and journals, prohibits these practices and may take action against authors who have committed them. See the USENIX Conference Submissions Policy for details.

Authors uncertain whether their submission meets USENIX's guidelines should contact the program chairs, evtwote12chairs@usenix.org, or the USENIX office, submissionspolicy@usenix.org.

Papers accompanied by nondisclosure agreement forms will not be considered. Accepted submissions will be treated as confidential prior to publication on the USENIX EVT/WOTE '12 Web site; rejected submissions will be permanently treated as confidential.

Authors will be notified of acceptance by Saturday, June 23, 2012. Each accepted submission may be assigned a member of the program committee to act as its shepherd through the preparation of the final paper. The assigned member will act as a conduit for feedback from the committee to the authors.

All papers will be available online to registered attendees before the workshop. If your accepted paper should not be published prior to the event, please notify production@usenix.org. The papers will be available online to everyone beginning on the first day of the workshop, August 6, 2012. Questions about submissions may be sent to the program co-chairs at evtwote12chairs@usenix.org.