The Mathematics of Electronic Voting

Abstract: The prospect of e-voting, or electronic voting, is tantalizing: Voting for President at home, conveniently from one's phone or home computer, would alleviate some important ballot access issues and promises increased efficiency in obtaining election results quickly and accurately. However, there are significant limits to the functionality of the e-voting protocols we have available at present. To explain where these limits come from, we will introduce the basic ideas of mathematical public-key cryptography and show how mathematical objects are used to design cryptographic systems. Familiarity with modular arithmetic (addition and multiplication "modulo N") will be necessary to understand the more technical parts of the talk, but the main concepts and ideas of the talk will be accessible to people of all mathematical backgrounds.