Keeping the secrecy aspect in mass e-voting.

ABSTRACT

Two years of the COVID-19 pandemic have pushed society's digitalization forward like nothing ever before. Activities that weren't achievable without personal contact, became present online. Currently, when the COVID-19 restrictions are being lifted and personal meetings are becoming possible, in some cases, it still appeared to be more convenient to "meet" virtually than physically. Some actions proved to be more effective when performed online. That is why some people didn't want to come back to the previous form of communication anymore. Many decision-makers who see all the advantages of online communication have turned to the new possibilities that are served by Internet systems. Hence, they intend to keep it virtual even now, when pandemic restrictions have been lifted in most cases. This situation implies lots of great ideas for virtualization. One of those is online voting and polling conducted on many voters - groups larger than just board members or delegates. Such balloting could be performed using a voting system. Unfortunately, in the case of the decision-making process, which should be treated as a one-time event, using typical solutions is mostly very ineffective. Observations revealed that e-voting procedures conducted on a large number of electors may be challenging for many, not computer-experienced users. The procedure of authentication has to stay present in order to protect the votings against ballot stuffing. Particularly in secret voting, the problem remains the same how to verify the user for a secret ballot without revealing his data. In mass voting, additional issues appear such as how to complete the procedure on multiple (often not ICT-experienced) voters and how to make the system accessible and credible at the same time.