Ballot secrecy and ballot independence: definitions and relations

Ben Smyth & David Bernhard (2014) Ballot secrecy and ballot independence: definitions and relations. Cryptology ePrint Archive Technical Report 2013/235.

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Abstract

We study ballot independence for election schemes. First, we formally define ballot independence as a cryptographic game and prove that ballot secrecy implies ballot independence. Secondly, we introduce a notion of controlled malleability and prove that it is sufficient for ballot independence. We also prove that non-malleable ballots are sufficient for ballot independence. Thirdly, we prove that ballot independence is sufficient for ballot secrecy in a special case. Our results show that ballot independence is necessary in election schemes satisfying ballot secrecy. Furthermore, our sufficient conditions enable simpler proofs of ballot secrecy.

Bibtex Entry

@TechReport{2014-ballot-independence-for-election-schemes,
	author = "Ben Smyth and David Bernhard",
	title = "{Ballot secrecy and ballot independence: definitions and relations}",
	year = "2014",
	number = "2013/235",
	institution = "Cryptology ePrint Archive",
}