GS 3: Science & Technology

Why in news?

• Microsoft has announced the launch of “ElectionGuard”, a free open-source Software Development Kit (SDK) to help nations to carry out secure and verifiable voting.
• Microsoft Launches “ElectionGuard” for secure voting

Highlights:

• Developed by Galois, “ElectionGuard” is a supplement to paper ballots.
• It is verifiable as it allows the voters and third-party organizations to verify election results.
• “ElectionGuard” provides a voter a unique code.
• During the process of voting, voters have an optional step which allows them to track their votes from the moment he/she casts it, after the voter has verified the selections are correct to the final step of counting the votes.
• It does not work with vote-by-mail systems and is not designed to work with internet voting schemes as it can be easily hacked.
• In terms of security, “ElectionGuard” uses Homomorphic encryption which enables mathematical procedures.