New Delhi, Feb 20: Microsoft has begun testing its free open-source software called "ElectionGuard" in a small Wisconsin town in the US that aims to make voting more secure, verifiable and efficient.
"ElectionGuard" will enable end-to-end verification of elections, open results to third-party organisations for secure validation, and allow individual voters to confirm their votes were correctly counted.
It enables government entities, news outlets, human rights organisations or anyone else to build additional verifiers that independently can certify election results have been accurately counted and have not been altered, according to the company.
The software would create a paper trail and assure voters their votes were properly tallied.
"On Tuesday, Fulton residents are using the technology while choosing who will join the local school board and hold a seat on Wisconsin's state Supreme Court," reports CNBC.
With the test, the company aims to see if voters like the experience and make sure everything works fine.
In May last year, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced "ElectionGuard".
According to Tom Burt, Corporate Vice President, Customer Security and Trust, voting system manufacturers will be free to build ElectionGuard into their systems in a variety of ways.
"These are exciting steps that enable individual voters to confirm their vote was properly counted, and assures those voters using an ElectionGuard system of the most secure and trustworthy vote in the history of the US," Burt said in a recent blog post.
"ElectionGuard" is not intended to replace paper ballots but rather to supplement and improve systems that rely on them, and it is not designed to support internet voting.
The software provides each voter a tracker with a unique code that can be used to follow an encrypted version of the vote through the entire election process via a web portal provided by election authorities.
During the process of vote-casting, voters have an optional step that allows them to confirm that their trackers and encrypted votes accurately reflect their selections.
But once a vote is cast, neither the tracker nor any data provided through the web portal can be used to reveal the contents of the vote.
After the election is complete, the tracker codes can be used by voters to confirm that their votes were not altered or tampered with and that they were properly counted, said Microsoft.
On the security front, "ElectionGuard" uses something called homomorphic encryption - which enables mathematical procedures "like counting - to be done with fully encrypted data".
Comments
Shobha Kandodi,
I am not a Hindu but I can assure that the temples of Karnataka are much safer than Pakistan.
Modi belongs to Chaddi group. If he is really thretened why Shoba did not sugest Chaddiwlas boss Bhagawat to send his army which he claim to be far superior to our National Army.
Shoabha akka.. I guess you are a big threat to his life.. may be you are planning to become next PM..
This krishna mutt is safe for each and everyone.. Such a peacefull temple it is..
Good that he was not paid a visit. Or else you would have sent your goons and made it look like some terrorists entered from Arabian sea :D or from kaup beach :D
Our Temple is in NAMMA HEMMEYA UDUPI, not in KASHMIR where safety is a concern with few number of GOONDAS.
Once again dont make such statements highlighting safety concerns.. Our PM was in UDUPI, India.
She is a Joker in Beti Jalawo/rape karo Party. She never uttered a truth in her life. She has PhD degree from Nappur University in telling lie and fooling people. she is a waste to Karnataka and people should kick her out to Andaman.
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