Towards Legally Binding Online Elections in Germany

Our paper contributes to the interdisciplinary foundations for legally binding online elections in Germany. We focus on long-term retention of election documents as this is an issue of vital importance in terms of verifying the legitimacy of an election. With regard to conventional paper-based elections, specific documents have to be retained (for example the ballots or the voters’ register) for later review in the case that an election contest is filed. Such retention obligations apply to online elections as well. However, this important issue has so far received only little attention in the research field of e-voting. We therefore address the following questions: Which legal obligations regarding long-term retention of election data have to be complied with? What must therefore be taken care of while carrying out an election and afterwards? In this respect, what can we learn from the case of paper-based elections regarding the implementation of online elections? We approach the issue as follows: Based on an analysis of the existing legal framework for parliamentary as well as non-parliamentary elections in Germany, we derive the objectives of longterm retention for elections. Then we investigate how these objectives can be adapted to the e-voting scenario and derive concrete security requirements for online elections. We argue that meeting these requirements verifiably, even in the long term, will be a prerequisite for legally binding online elections. Hence, our work may help to establish e-voting as a true alternative to conventional paperbased elections.