Best Practices for E-election Systems

Executive Summary The widespread adoption of e-election systems (that is, any IT system used for elections) in Australia has introduced many challenges in ensuring the quality and transparency of our elections. So far the development and operation of e-election systems has been in accordance with standard industry practice. However this is inappropriate for mission critical systems where security and reliability are imperative. The current practice has resulted in a number of examples of poor quality e-election systems, which have experienced failures in many recent elections. In this submission we identify changes that must be made in order to pursue best practices that ensure e-election systems are secure, reliable and transparent. Our submission addresses general issues that are common to all e-election systems including e-voting and e-counting. Additional issues specific to the cryptographic security of e-voting and e-counting have already been addressed in our first submission (CORE, 2011). The measures needed to raise the standard of e-election systems include the following: 1. rigorous development and auditing processes to ensure the systems meet the highest standard of security and reliability, 2. comprehensive risk assessments involving broad consultation to account for the full range and extent of potential system vulnerabilities and continually evolving threats to election quality, and 3. full transparency of the systems and processes to facilitate oversight and public scrutiny, with particular regard to personal voter information on the electoral roll. Without doubt achieving best practice for e-election systems is a very difficult and complex task. However we cannot afford further delays given that electoral commissions are in the process of implementing multiple large e-election projects at great expense. Solutions to technical problems can be difficult or impossible to apply to existing e-election systems that are inherently flawed. Moreover some of these issues were previously raised at JSCEM inquiries up to ten years ago, but have yet to be properly addressed. Electoral commissions must be provided with the necessary assistance and resources to promptly deal with these problems, and thereby assure the quality and trustworthiness of e-election systems. Recommendations Recommendation 1. E-election systems must be developed using best practices for mission critical systems rather than standard practices for commercial IT systems. 1. The development process must use rigorous, well-established software engineering practices that are specifically designed for mission critical systems. 2. The development process must produce comprehensive and objective evidence that the systems are secure and reliable. 3. Electoral commissions must …