Overview of the proposed solution
The proposed voting system will be based on Scytl Online Voting, the leading product in the
electronic voting sector for executing transparent and secure elections. Scytl Online Voting is
a unique solution developed by Scytl based on its 18 years of research experience in the
electronic voting security field, a recognised voting platform used in real elections. The
solution implements a unique and patented cryptographic protocol, which combined with
physical and logical security measures, provides electronic voting platforms with the highest
security levels available today.
Figure 1 - Solution Overview
Specifically, Scytl Online Voting implements a set of cryptographic protocols and
mechanisms which jointly guarantee reliable and secure elections, ensuring voter privacy and
providing end-to-end security by creating a virtual secure channel between voters and the
Election Committee and putting the control of the electoral process in the hands of the
Election Committee (rather than the system administrators or technicians). In addition, Scytl
Online Voting uses digital certificates to strongly authenticate voters before allowing them
to access the voting process and cryptographic means to ensure the integrity of election
results, preventing and detecting the addition of bogus votes and the manipulation or removal
of valid ones.
Regarding voter verifiability and auditability, Scytl Online Voting implements a unique and
patented mechanism, called “ballot receipt” (also named as “voting receipt”), which allows
voters to anonymously verify that their vote was recorded by the system as cast. Additionally,
Scytl Online Voting stores all the important actions performed by the system, including
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voters’ and administration users’ activities, in logs protected by means of cryptographic
mechanisms (called immutable logs), ensuring that nobody can manipulate the entries stored
in the log. Scytl e-voting system has been audited and certified by governments all over the
world, which have verified and approved the use of Scytl Online Voting in binding elections.
Voting process flow
Accessibility and usability are key factors towards making a remote voting project a success,
as both the voters and the Election Committee must feel confident with the technology. For
that reason, all the voting interfaces have been developed taking into consideration
accessibility standards and usability guidelines to facilitate the voting process for everyone.
Thus, the voting process flow is very intuitive, allowing voters to vote without requiring
previous training.
Internet Voting Solution
1. Using a web browser, the voter connects through a secure channel (e.g., HTTPS) to
the voting web page.
2. The voter introduces his credentials - based on his unique national identification
number (Kennitala) – which are validated, using SAML protocol, through the
Registers Iceland Authentication Service which also checks the voters register for
voter’s eligibility.
3. If the authentication and authorizations are successful the Registers Iceland will
return an identity assertion which will be used by Scytl’s platform (acting as Service
Provider) to represent and identify the voter during the session.
4. Once satisfactorily fulfilled the previous steps, the voter will see on the screen the
personalized ballot contents for all election events assigned to him. The voter will
be able to easily navigate through them. Voter is allowed to vote as many times as
wanted, only the last vote counts.
5. The voter will then be able to select the appropriate number of candidates/answers
and continue to the next election event (or alternatively, proceed to cast the ballot).
The system can warn about undervotes and overvotes, and can even block certain
options (e.g. do not allow overvotes that spoil the ballot). This is customizable per
election and will be configured to comply with the relevant legislation.
6. Once the options are selected, a confirmation screen will display the selected
options/candidates. The voter will be able to confirm (and cast the ballot) or to go
back and change his/her selections.
7. If the voter confirms the options, the vote is then individually protected using a
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specific cryptographic protocol and it is safely stored in the ballot box.
8. Once the ballot is cast, the voter will obtain a special “counted-as-cast” receipt that
tells the voter that his/her ballot was recorded by the system. It can also be used by
the voter to validate, after the counting has completed, to check whether the cast
ballot was included in the final count. This is a patented feature of Scytl’s
technology.
Furthermore, it is to be noted that the proposed solution is multi-lingual. Users will be able to
easily switch language (Icelandic and English) at a click of a button.
Figure 2 - Voting process flow
Process management overview
With the proposed solution, the same computer can be used to cast different ballots from
different voters. The online connections are secured via SSL, plus the encryption at
application level provided by Scytl Online Voting. The solution does not allow reuse of any
data and information from a previous cast vote on the same computer. This data and
information is securely erased after the encrypted ballots are securely and successfully stored
in the ballot box.
Regarding client layout, Scytl Online Voting is very flexible and will be configured to display
all the candidates within the same screen in case of a race or use single/multiple pages in case
of a referendum. It is always designed considering visual, audio and speech challenges. In
fact, Scytl has an extensive track record of supporting elections where voters with disabilities
vote on their own without external assistance.
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The voting system automatically stops accepting e-votes at the time specified by the Electoral
committee during the configuration. Voters in the process of voting when this situation occurs
(already logged in) can be granted extra time to cast their votes.
After the election is automatically closed, the digital ballot box (the database) is sealed and its
contents can be decrypted following a mixing service. The mixing service validates the
integrity of the ballot box and of each individual ballot, and shuffles its contents to remove
any correlation between voters and votes while deciphering its contents. To perform this
action, it is absolutely necessary to obtain the participation of the Electoral Committee
members, whose members hold different pieces of the decryption key. This event is usually
conducted in front of the public, the media and election observers for maximum transparency.
The output of the mixing process is twofold: (1) the decrypted votes are counted, and (2) the
“counted-as-cast” receipts are associated to the decrypted votes, so they can be published for
voter individual verifiability (allowing voters to check that their cast ballot was counted). All
this information is digitally signed by the Electoral Committee ensuring that it cannot be
changed.
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Pilot Implementation Approach
Project Outline
In order to gradually introduce and empower Internet Voting in Iceland as well as to provide
real experience and indicators to Registers Iceland in this matter, it is envisioned to prepare
and execute some pilot elections using Scytl Online Voting platform before the end of the
year 2014. In case there are no referendums happening in Iceland during calendar year 2014,
the project will be extended until June 30, 2015.
In order to define a reasonable scope for these first elections through the internet, the
following premises will be considered:
- Election type: Referendum (i.e. Direct vote on a ballot question )
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Electorate: Citizens of some selected municipalities. The recommended election roll
should comprise some 3,000 voters.
-
Voting Period: Voting period should be from 7 to 10 days.
-
Number of elections:
o Option 1: 2 referendums events (increasing the numbers of voters in the second
one).
o Option 2: 1 referendum events involving two municipalities at a time.
-
Special case: Municipality of Reykjavik: In order to embrace online voting as soon
as possible, Scytl offers as a special proposal to include the city of Reykjavik in the pilot
phase. Consequently one of the two online referendums in the pilot can take place in
the capital of Iceland.
The project tasks needed to set-up a referendum with Scytl Online Voting platform considering the previously mentioned premises – would encompass:
- Development:
o Customization of the Look and Feel of the Web Interface (including Icelandic
language)
o Integration of Scytl Online with Registers Iceland Authentication system
(SAML)
-
Configuration:
o Configuration of the referendum in Scytl Online Voting Back-Office
-
Deployment and Testing:
o Installation of the platform in Icelandic
o End-to-End Testing
o Stress Testing
o User Acceptance Test
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-
Election Support:
o 1st, 2nd and 3rd level support during election period
o Hands-on shadow training
o Election Opening On-Site Support (Election Committee Creation)
o Election Closure On-Site Support (Mixing, Election Results)
o Pilot Analysis report (post-election).
-
Crosscutting tasks:
o Project Management
o Quality Assurance
Hardware Requirements
The Scytl Online Voting platform, for high-availability and security purposes, requires the
following hardware infrastructure (considering 200 concurrent users):
- 6 servers:
o 2 Front-End (Apache) – Dual Core, 2 GB RAM
o 2 Middle-End (Tomcat) – Quad Core, 6 GB RAM
o 2 Databases (Oracle 11g) – 300 DB Connections
o 1 Firewall
o 1 Load Balancer
o 1 Intrusion Detection System
o 1 Back-up System
o 1 laptop for offline Mixing (Windows 32-bits)
Note: The servers can be deployed in a virtualized environment.
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Responsibility Matrix
The following table shows the responsibilities of the several stakeholders during the project.
Element
Scytl
Authentication Portal
Registers Iceland
X
Scytl Online Voting Developments
X
Project management
X
X
Translations of Templates to Icelandic
X
Electoral Roll (authorized IDs)
X
Election Configuration
X
Online Voting Platform Hosting (and support hosting)
X
Deployment and Testing
X
Platform Validation
X
Platform acceptance
X
Election Management
Online Voting Platform Support –
X
1st
level (Icelandic)
Online Voting Platform Support – 2nd level
X
X
X
Online Voting Platform Support – 3rd level
X
Table 1 - Responsibility Matrix
For further referendums beyond the pilot ones, it is an open option to get Registers Iceland
trained so that no further service is needed from Scytl after the two initial pilot referendums.
In order to make this possible, Registers Iceland should assign a resource to shadow Scytl’s
team during implementation of the pilot project and receive additional five days of training
just before the implementation kick off of the new referendums after pilot phase.
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