The International Association of Cryptologic Research—the academic cryptography association that’s been putting conferences like Crypto (back when “crypto” meant “cryptography”) and Eurocrypt since the 1980s—had to nullify an online election when trustee Moti Yung lost his decryption key. > For this election and in accordance with the bylaws of the IACR, the three > members of the IACR 2025 Election Committee acted as independent trustees, > each holding a portion of the cryptographic key material required to jointly > decrypt the results. This aspect of Helios’ design ensures that no two > trustees could collude to determine the outcome of an election or the contents > of individual votes on their own: all trustees must provide their decryption > shares...

Social media has been a familiar, even mundane, part of life for nearly two decades. It can be easy to forget it was not always that way. In 2008, social media was just emerging into the mainstream. Facebook reached 100 million users that summer. And a singular candidate was integrating social media into his political campaign: Barack Obama. His campaign’s use of social media was so bracingly innovative, so impactful, that it was viewed by journalist David Talbot and others as the strategy that enabled the first term Senator to win the White House...

American democracy runs on trust, and that trust is cracking. Nearly half of Americans, both Democrats and Republicans, question whether elections are conducted fairly. Some voters accept election results only when their side wins. The problem isn’t just political polarization—it’s a creeping erosion of trust in the machinery of democracy itself. Commentators blame ideological tribalism, misinformation campaigns and partisan echo chambers for this crisis of trust. But these explanations miss a critical piece of the puzzle: a growing unease with the digital infrastructure that now underpins nearly every aspect of how Americans vote...

Technology and innovation have transformed every part of society, including our electoral experiences. Campaigns are spending and doing more than at any other time in history. Ever-growing war chests fuel billions of voter contacts every cycle. Campaigns now have better ways of scaling outreach methods and offer volunteers and donors more efficient ways to contribute time and money. Campaign staff have adapted to vast changes in media and social media landscapes, and use data analytics to forecast voter turnout and behavior. Yet despite these unprecedented investments in mobilizing voters, overall trust in electoral health, democratic institutions, voter satisfaction, and electoral engagement has significantly declined. What might we be missing?...

Interesting analysis: An Internet Voting System Fatally Flawed in Creative New Ways. > Abstract: The recently published “MERGE” protocol is designed to be used in > the prototype CAC-vote system. The voting kiosk and protocol transmit votes > over the internet and then transmit voter-verifiable paper ballots through the > mail. In the MERGE protocol, the votes transmitted over the internet are used > to tabulate the results and determine the winners, but audits and recounts use > the paper ballots that arrive in time. The enunciated motivation for the > protocol is to allow (electronic) votes from overseas military voters to be > included in preliminary results before a (paper) ballot is received from the > voter. MERGE contains interesting ideas that are not inherently unsound; but > to make the system trustworthy—to apply the MERGE protocol—would require major > changes to the laws, practices, and technical and logistical abilities of U.S. > election jurisdictions. The gap between theory and practice is large and > unbridgeable for the foreseeable future. Promoters of this research project at > DARPA, the agency that sponsored the research, should acknowledge that MERGE > is internet voting (election results rely on votes transmitted over the > internet except in the event of a full hand count) and refrain from claiming > that it could be a component of trustworthy elections without sweeping changes > to election law and election administration throughout the U.S...