OpenScan: A fully transparent optical scan voting system

Research output: Contribution to conferencePaperResearchpeer-review

Existing optical scan voting systems depend on the integrity of the scanner. If a compromised - or merely faulty - scanner reports incorrect results, there is no ready mechanism for detecting errors. While methods exist for ameliorating these risks, none of them are entirely satisfactory. We propose an alternative: a radically open system in which any observer can simultaneously and independently count the ballots for himself. Our approach, called OpenScan, combines digital video recordings of ballot sheet feeding with computer vision techniques to allow any observer with a video camera to obtain a series of ballot images that he can then process with ordinary optical scan counting software. Preliminary experimental results indicate that OpenScan produces accurate results at a manageable cost of around $1000 in hardware plus $0.0010 per ballot counted.

Original languageEnglish
Publication date2010
Publication statusPublished - 2010
Externally publishedYes
Event2010 Electronic Voting Technology Workshop/Workshop on Trustworthy Elections, EVT/WOTE 2010, Held in Conjunction with the 19th USENIX Security Symposium - Washington, United States
Duration: 9 Aug 201010 Aug 2010

Conference

Conference2010 Electronic Voting Technology Workshop/Workshop on Trustworthy Elections, EVT/WOTE 2010, Held in Conjunction with the 19th USENIX Security Symposium
CountryUnited States
CityWashington
Period09/08/201010/08/2010

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0831532, CAREER Grant No. 0448615, and a Graduate Research Fellowship; and by a MURI grant administered by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation or the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.

Publisher Copyright:
© EVT/WOTE 2010 - 2010 Electronic Voting Technology Workshop/Workshop on Trustworthy Elections. All rights reserved.

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