FAQs

What is an e-vote?

An e-vote is a vote cast by electronic means rather than the traditional means of voting in person or by postal vote.

What type of e-votes are used?
E-voting is carried out remotely. Votes are cast from a computer with internet access. 

What are the main advantages of e-votes?

• Speed and precision in the vote count.
• Accessibility for voters with disabilities.
• Flexibility in the design and modification of ballot papers.
• Prevention of accidental errors in the voting process.
• Ease of use for voters.
• Mobility and convenience for voters (which generally means higher levels of participation in elections).

Where is e-voting currently used?Electronic voting is fully binding in the elections of many governments around the world (Switzerland, Finland, Brazil, USA, Australia, for example). Many private sector organisations also use e-voting in their internal election processes (trade unions, shareholder AGMs, professional associations, universities, etc.).

Is e-voting secure?E-voting can be as or more secure than the traditional paper vote as long as the adequate security measures are implemented. Conventional security measures such as firewalls or secure communication via SSL are necessary but not sufficient to guarantee the specific security requirements of e-voting. A specialised security layer must be implemented to address the specific risks posed by e-voting and thereby ensure that the essential requirements are met, such as voter privacy, the integrity of the vote and the opportunity for voters to verify that their vote has been correctly handled.

How do I cast a blank vote?

Do not select any candidates in step 1. In step 2 you will see the option "Blank vote".

When I click "Change vote" or "Confirm vote" I'm taken back to the home screen

That is because the session has expired. You probably took too long to complete the voting process after you signed in. Close the browser and start the process again.

Can I change my vote once I have cast it?
Yes. The voting system allows you to cast your vote as many times as you like but it will only count the last vote cast. Remember that a vote is only considered to be cast when the screen appears confirming that the vote has been stored on the server.
 

What is the vote receipt slip for?

As a record for the voter that they have cast their vote and that it has been registered.

What is the control code for?

It is a digital signature showing that the vote receipt is valid.

I haven't got a printer... can I save the vote receipt slip in a file?
Yes, you can if you have a PDF converter installed on your computer. When you go to the print option select "Save as PDF" as the printer. Alternatively you can use the "print screen" key which most PCs have on the top right- hand side of the keyboard (usually "impr pa", "PrtSc" or similar). When you press this key you can select the image of the receipt slip which will be temporarily saved by the operating system and you can paste it into a document. In Windows, you do this by opening a Word, WordPad of Paint-type document and press CTRL + V.

Can I print my receipt slip if I have closed the session?
No, you cannot print the receipt slip once you have signed out because the receipts are not saved anywhere for security reasons.

How do I know that I am accessing a genuine voting portal and that it is not phishing? When you access the voting portal an HTTPS connection is established which means that the server will authenticate itself to your web browser using a digital certificate. If everything is correct you will be able to access the voting portal without seeing any error messages and your browser will normally display a lock icon or similar to indicate this. However, if a warning window appears indicating that the digital certificate does not coincide with the address you are connecting to, you may be accessing a false portal. If this happens please contact the support team [FK23.1]to report it.

How can I verify the digital signature on the e-voting application? When you access the e-voting page and click on Start voting" a window will open indicating that you are going to run (sometimes it says install although nothing will be installed) a program and it asks for your permission to do so. This window gives information about certain aspects of the program (who created it, if it has been correctly signed, etc.). All of this should be correct and you can accept the program. You can see more information about the author and the program signature selecting the "More information" option or similar in the same window.

How does the e-voting platform ensure "end-to-end" security in the voting process? The e-voting platform provides "end-to-end" security (from individual voters to the polling station officials), avoiding the risk of insider attacks by system administrators. Votes are digitally encrypted and signed by voters on their voting devices (computers, mobile phones, tablets[FK24.1]) before being cast. The private key for decrypting the votes is split into pieces that are distributed among the members of the polling station officials before the start of the election. At the end of the election a minimum number of predetermined officials have to meet to reconstruct the personal code and decrypt the votes.

With the solution that Scytl provides for the e-voting platform, is control of the election in the hands of system administrators? Internet voting via the e-voting platform places control of electoral process exclusively in the hands of the polling station officials, just as would be the case for traditional paper-based elections. The polling station officials are the only people who can reconstruct the private key that allows the votes to be decrypted and counted. System administrators or anyone else with system privileges do not have access to the private key and can therefore neither see nor modify the votes. 

How does the e-voting platform guarantee the privacy of voters? The votes are encrypted in the devices that voters use before casting their votes. Only the e-polling station officials can reconstruct the private key and decrypt the votes. This process is carried out on an isolated and physically secure server, using a mixing technique that breaks the correlation between voters identities and the decrypted votes to ensure privacy.

How does the e-voting platform protect the integrity of the votes? Votes stored on the voting servers are cryptographically protected (digitally encrypted and signed) at all times, and therefore nobody can manipulate them, not even system administrators with privileged access to those servers.

How does the e-voting platform avoid the addition of false votes? Once encrypted votes are digitally signed by the voters. The digital certificates used by voters to digitally sign their encrypted votes could be pre-existing certificates or digital certificates generated ad-hoc for a specific election. Before decrypting the votes the e-polling station officials verify that the digital signatures on the voters are valid. Votes with invalid digital signatures are set aside for later auditing.

Does the vote receipt issued by the e-voting platform facilitate coercion or vote-selling? The vote receipt issued by the e-voting platform is an alphanumerical code that does not reveal the voters selection and therefore cannot allow either vote-selling or the coercion of voters. 

Is the e-voting platform auditable? Transparency is considered an integral part of security. Therefore the e-voting platform provides access to the source code of its solution to electoral authorities and to third parties designated by the electoral authorities. Once the source code has been audited, the electoral authorities can digitally sign it to ensure that the audited solution is the same as that implemented during the election.

Can the electoral authorities audit the election results? The e-voting platform's solution generates records of every action carried out during the election. These records are cryptographically linked (every time a new record is generated) to prevent manipulation. These inalterable records allow a precise audit of the election results by the electoral authorities (and third parties) at the end of the election.

You can find out how to vote step by step in the USER GUIDES