Microsoft announces new solution to safeguard electronic voting systems

Microsoft has unveiled ElectionGuard, a new system intended to enhance the validity, robustness and security of public-representative selection. The Redmond company intends to make it available to the applicable officials in the United States and other nations that identify as democratic.

ElectionGuard is a software development kit (SDK) that, according to Microsoft, can enhance the voting systems in which it has been deployed. It apparently incorporates advanced encryption developed at Microsoft Research, and also supports verification processes by (ideally) independent third parties that may apply to a given election. Similarly, it also allows for risk-limiting audits of election processes.

This new software is also open-source and contains standard accessibility tools in order to enhance the voting experience. Microsoft ElectionGuard has been developed in partnership with Galois, a DARPA-funded body charged with research into election-related hardware. The software giant also intends to partner with academic (e.g. statistics and political science) experts at Columbia University in order to deploy ElectionGuard in time for the 2020 US elections.