Tools and Weapons: The Promise and The Peril of the Digital Age

by Brad Smith

Innovative efforts are starting to spread, including at Microsoft, where research led in May 2019 to the launch of ElectionGuard, an encrypted voting system that protects individual ballots and their collective tallies.12 It’s an open-source-based software system that uses inexpensive and off-the-shelf hardware and combines the best of old and new technology. A voter chooses candidates on an electronic screen, which then records these choices on a paper ballot that’s printed and the voter deposits, ensuring a paper record for any post-election audit that might be needed. The voter also receives a personal printout with an electronic tracking number that uses an encrypted algorithm to reflect his or her selections. This tracking record can be checked online later to confirm that an individual’s votes remain recorded accurately. The overall solution provides a trusted and secure count of every vote cast. It’s the type of approach that is vital to the security and functioning of a democracy.