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Microsoft Offers Software Tools to Secure Elections


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An active polling place during an election.

Microsoft is working with Galois, a firm producing a secure prototype voting system under the aegis of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, to develop open source software to secure elections.

Credit: Getty Images

Microsoft has announced it is working with Galois, a firm producing a secure prototype voting system under the aegis of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, to develop open source software to secure elections.

Microsoft said the software, called ElectionGuard, will be released this summer, with early prototypes ready to be tested for the 2020 general elections.

Microsoft Research's Josh Benaloh said the software kit "can be used with a ballot-marking device...[and] with an optical scanner, on hand-marked paper ballots."

By registering an encrypted version of each vote, ElectionGuard will help guarantee accurate counting, as well as supporting dependable post-election audits and recounts.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said the system would help “modernize all of the election infrastructure everywhere in the world.”

From Associated Press
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Abstracts Copyright © 2019 SmithBucklin, Washington, DC, USA


 

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