The Swiss Post/Scytl Transparency Exercise and Its Possible Impact on Internet Voting Regulation

Abstract

In Switzerland, internet voting has been in the experimental phase for over fifteen years. With a view to putting an end to trials and normalizing its use alongside the paper-based channels (polling station and postal voting), a thoroughly updated federal regulation entered into force in January 2014. Only systems that are formally certified and offer complete verifiability can be authorized to propose internet voting in an unrestricted manner, i.e. to all the electorate. Furthermore, since July 2018, the publication of the source code of fully verifiable systems is mandatory. A major transparency exercise took place in February – March 2019. The first system to introduce complete verifiability – the Swiss Post/Scytl system – was submitted to a public intrusion test (PIT), open to anyone interested. In a parallel development, the source code of the same system was published on the internet. Researchers found critical errors in the source code of both individual and universal verifiability. The PIT revealed other, less critical issues. This experience has fuelled the already heated debate over the future development of internet voting in Switzerland. It questions the procedures for controlling verifiability solutions and, ultimately, the consensus to develop such solutions. Lessons learned will most probably be reflected in the future update of the regulation.