Usability Analysis of Helios - An Open Source Verifiable Remote Electronic Voting System
Fatih Karayumak, M. Maina Olembo, Michaela Kauer, Melanie Volkamer · Repository KITopen (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology) · 2011
Currently, rather secure cryptographic voting protocols providing verifiability exist. However, without adequate usability and abstraction concepts to explain the voting process and, in particular, the verifiability steps, they are not ready for legally binding elections. This holds in particular for remote electronic voting systems because of the absence of poll workers who can support voters by explaining single steps. In this paper, the usability of the ballot casting and verifiability procedures of the Helios open source end to end verifiable remote electronic voting system is analyzed using the cognitive walkthrough approach by security, electronic voting and usability experts. We demonstrate the need for improvements to the usability and verifiability of Helios, before it is used in large scale elections outside of an academic context. Based on our results, we propose new interfaces for improved usability of Helios and future end to end verifiable electronic voting systems. 1