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In emergencies An effort to secure U.S. elections safe and secure, Microsoft’s ElectionGuard software has been a fascinating development. The project, launched in 2019, offers what is called “end-to-end verifiability,” meaning that all voting data is encrypted and private, but there is still full transparency about how votes were calculated and whether the winner’s decision is correct. . It is open source and is designed to access existing voting systems. Last year Microsoft successfully piloted the software real elections.
The question, however, has been whether private voting machine manufacturers (who compete with each other in a regulated market) would be willing to adopt a technology that could be used by any of its rivals. Now, at least one company says yes.
On Thursday, Microsoft and Hart joined InterCivic, one of the U.S.’s largest vendors of voting machines he announced Collaboration to pilot the use of ElectionGuard in Hart’s Verity voting systems. The idea is to combine Hart’s existing voting equipment with ElectionGuard’s vastly expanded software capabilities. The system will always create paper backups that are encrypted in a unique way while preserving the complete security and privacy of the voter while allowing for the ability to count and conduct post-election audits. Hart’s ElectionGuard bid will also allow voters to check whether the vote has been counted. And the system is independently verified; anyone will have an application that can confirm the number of votes for a given election.
The news has come at a time of doubt and uncertainty among U.S. voters. While election officials said the 2020 election is one of the safest in the country’s history, the country still has clear scars left by former President Donald Trump. efforts ra weakens voter confidence in the election. In January, Pew found More than three-quarters of Trump’s voters believed Trump would probably or definitely win the election – despite Joe Biden he was a legitimate winner. Audit of the results of the 2020 presidential election (controversial and much persecuted) Crawling in Arizona. And in many states, Republican lawmakers have been pushing for a a wave of voting reform laws in recent months critics say they are undermining citizens ’right to vote.
“Election officials are eager for any tool that improves audience, verifiability, and transparency, which improves voter confidence,” says Julie Mathis, InterCivic’s CEO and president of Hart. “It’s important that this product is designed to meet the needs of real-world elections.”
Hart InterCivic is one of three private vendors that manufacture most of the voting equipment used in the U.S. election, along with ES&S and Dominion. Hart is the smallest of the three, but it includes voting equipment, touch screen voting machines and paper scanners, used in voting districts in more than a dozen states, including Texas (the company’s headquarters), California, Michigan, North Carolina, and Kentucky. . The company has been producing ballot boxes and other election equipment for more than 100 years.
But while it’s a step towards publicly announcing a partnership with Microsoft, the ElectionGuard software actually determines where it will be used. “We’ve been working on refining where the right Pilis location would be, talking to jurisdictions of all sizes,” Mathis says. “We’ve also been working with states, because it’s important to get state approval to integrate one of these pilots.”
Microsoft’s ElectionGuard is certainly a newer offering, but it’s the origin research for more than a decade. ElectionGuard is based on a technique called “homomorphic encryption”To protect the sanctity and security of secret ballots at every step of the journey through the electoral system, allowing these votes to be counted and the results inspected.
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