Distributed creation of the ballot form in Prêt à Voter using an element of Visual Encryption

In this paper we present an extension of the Prêt à Voter e-voting system that introduces visual encryption to solve the chain voting problem and ensures that no organisation sees the layout of the ballot form prior to its use. The chain voting problem in Prêt à Voter is that anyone who can see the ballot prior to its use can coerce a voter by noting down the details of the form and then requiring it to be used by the voter. This solution is based on requiring the tellers to be active in ballot creation. Further benefits are the use of symmetric key encryption to potentially provide higher cryptographic security, automatic and mandatory well-formedness checks on the ballot forms used can be performed and visual encryption also results in a solution to the problem of enforced destruction of the candidate list.