Practical mix-based election scheme

Details Practical mix-based election scheme Practical mix-based election scheme

1998-11-23

2001-11-13

Peeso, Thomas R. (Department: 2132)

Electrical computers and digital processing systems: support

Multiple computer communication using cryptography

Particular communication authentication technique

C713S176000, C380S030000, C380S047000, C705S012000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06317833

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to encryption and, more particularly, to voting arrangements that employ encryptions and decryptions.
The last few years have seen a large number of election schemes being proposed, introducing an array of attractive features, but often with an increasing degree of complexity in terms of computation and communication. There are two main approaches in proposed voting schemes. In the first, employing mix networks, votes are encrypted with the public key of a mix network, the encrypted votes are submitted to a distributed authority which decrypts the encrypted votes while it permutes them. Consequently, in the straight application of the mix network privacy is maintained as to who voted which way. In this approach robustness typically does not come easy, or at the price of lost privacy, because the talliers cannot prove that the correct computation was performed without revealing the permutation used. This is, of course, a major drawback in a setting where both privacy and correctness are paramount. It is easier to obtain robustness (without sacrificing privacy) for schemes of a second type, exemplified by the teachings of J. Cohen, M. Fischer, “A robust and verifiable cryptographically secure election scheme,” FOCS '85, pp. 372-382; R. Cramer, R. Gennaro, B. Schoenmakers, “A Secure and Optimally Efficient Multi-Authority Election Scheme,” Eurocrypt '97, pp. 103-118; R.
Cramer, M. Franklin, B. Schoenmakers, M. Yung, “Multi-Authority Secret-Ballot Elections with Linear Work,” Eurocrypt '96, pp. 72-83; among others. These schemes, however, impose restrictions on the format of votes (typically limited to binary votes) and are more cumbersome to the voters, as they have to employ zero-knowledge proofs to prove that their votes are of a valid format.
Recently, an improved mix network has been disclosed in my copending application titled “Improved Mix Network,” which was filed in the U.S. Patent Office on Jan. 13, 1998, and bearing the Ser. No. 09/005,920, U.S. Pat. No. 6,048,613.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Influenced by methods used in both of the-above described types of schemes, and utilizing the benefits of a recently disclosed, improved, mix network, this invention combines the advantage s of the prior art approaches, but avoids their disadvantages.
A voter constructs his or her vote message (potentially padded with a random string) and simply encrypts it, using ElGamal encryption, or a related scheme. The voter then signs the encrypted vote and posts the signed, encrypted, vote on a bulletin board. After the voting period has ended, a set of talliers decrypt the encrypted votes with the aid of the mix network, to obtain the final tally, but without revealing or being able to notice the relationship between votes cast and votes in the tally.
The election scheme of this invention allows votes of arbitrary length to be cast, while at the same time simplifying the vote casting process. Additionally, while voters still have to trust that at least one of the participating talliers is honest, it is still an improvement over existing art, which still needs some authority to correctly certify registered voters; and the honesty of this authority seems like a much stronger trust assumption. Of course, in this scheme as well as in the other schemes, there is a certification authority that effectively indicates who is authorized to vote.


REFERENCES:
patent: 5682430 (1997-10-01), Kilian et al.
patent: 6021200 (2000-02-01), Fischer
patent: 6081793 (2000-06-01), Challener et al.

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