METHOD FOR ELECTRONIC VOTING USING A TRUSTED COMPUTING PLATFORM

• US 20090072032A1
• Filed: 09/13/2007
• Published: 03/19/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/13/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Landman, Benjamin M., Halcrow, Michael A., Cardone, Richard J., Yoder, Kent
• Application Number:
  US11/854,896
• Publication Number:
  US 20090072032A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 235/386
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 13/00 Voting apparatus

Abstract

A method for voting in a trusted electronic voting system under the control of an election authority, the method comprising: casting a ballot having ballot information, the ballot information representing votes by a voter; receiving a request to cast the ballot by a voting machine, the voting machine running as a trusted computing platform; tallying the votes in a tally module; displaying the status of the vote tallying on the voting machine.

Claims

1. A method for voting in a trusted electronic voting system under the control of an election authority, the method comprising:

a. casting a ballot having ballot information, said ballot information representing votes by a voter;

b. receiving a request to cast said ballot by a voting machine, said voting machine running as a trusted computing platform;

c. tallying said votes in a tally module; and

d. displaying a status of vote tallying on said voting machine.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of communicating over a network with at least one ancillary device running a trusted computing platform, said ancillary device performing mutual attestation with any communicating device in said trusted electronic voting system.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising the step of detecting whether said voting machine and said ancillary devices are in their election configurations.

4. The method of claim 2 further comprising the step of preventing communication with any device during an election if said device is not in its election configuration.

5. The method of claim 2 further comprising the step of checking a challenger list to allow communication only between devices for which communication has been pre-configured.

6. The method of claim 2 further comprising the steps of:

excluding said voting machine from said election if said voting machine is not in its election configuration; and

excluding said any ancillary device from said election if said ancillary device not in its election configuration.

7. The method of claim 2 further comprising the steps of:

establishing an election configuration for said voting machine during a pre-election registration process; and

establishing an election configuration for each ancillary device during a pre-election registration process.

8. The method of claim 2 further comprising the steps of:

issuing cryptographic certificates to said voting machine by a device registration server; and

issuing cryptographic certificates to each ancillary device by a device registration server.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of retrieving said tallied votes from said tally module under the control of the election authority.

10. The method of claim 1 whereby said tally module is part of said voting machine.

11. The method of claim 2 further comprising the step of communicating ballot information from voting machines to tally servers using a well-defined protocol that guarantees the integrity, confidentiality, and accuracy of a tally of said ballot information.

12. A method for authorizing a voter to vote in a trusted electronic voting system under the control of an election authority, the method comprising:

a. requesting authorization by a voter to vote;

b. presenting credentials by said voter;

c. checking said voter credentials;

d. checking said voter authorization to vote;

e. creating an authorization token for said voter; and

f. receiving an authorization token.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising the step of checking said credentials to establish the identity of said voter using an electronic device that runs as a trusted computing platform that is part of said trusted electronic voting system;

said electronic device including;

a bar code reader;

a smart card reader;

a biometric reader; and

a portable storage reader.

14. The method of claim 12 further comprising the step of checking authorization to vote for said voter by communicating with at least one ancillary device that runs as a trusted computing platform, said ancillary device performs mutual attestation with any device it communicates therewith in said trusted electronic voting system.

15. The method of claim 14 whereby said ancillary device is a local or remote voter registration database.

16. The method of claim 12 whereby said authorization token is created prior to an election.

17. The method of claim 12 whereby said authorization token has human-readable and machine-readable representations.

18. The method of claim 12 further comprising the step of aggregating into a voter validation server the functions of checking said voter credentials, checking said voter authorization, and creating an authorization token functions.

19. A method for including a device in a trusted electronic voting system under the control of an election authority, the method comprising:

a. inspecting a device for physical tampering;

b. installing and configuring election software and firmware on said device;

c. running said device as a trusted computing platform in its election configuration;

d. measuring said device when it is running in its election configuration using the facilities of the trusted computing platform;

e. receiving measurements of said device and a public platform key by a device registration server;

f. checking said measurements by said device registration server;

g. adding information into a database on said device registration server; and

h. creating cryptographic certificates for said device.

20. The method of claim 19 further comprising the step of including said device in a trusted electronic voting system during a pre-election process.

21. The method of claim 19 further comprising the step of saving said public platform key of said device registration server on said device.

22. The method of claim 19 further comprising the step of issuing cryptographic certificates and keys for said device by said device registration server.

23. The method of claim 19 further comprising the step of saving said certificates and keys on said device during a pre-election process.

24. The method of claim 19 further comprising the step of distributing said certificates and keys by said device registration server during elections.

25. The method of claim 19 further comprising the step of installing on said device a challenger list that restricts communication with said device.