TC:Medium:Collaborative Research: Technological Support for Improving Election Processes

该项目正在开发和评估迭代程序改进技术的应用，以确保选举的私密性、安全性、可靠性和可信性，而这些正是民主的基石。该项目的重点是查明现有投票系统与目前在选举中使用这些系统的进程之间的不匹配情况。这些不匹配可能导致选举中的漏洞或不准确。本项目演示了如何通过使用迭代过程改进来补救此类漏洞。该方法通过对进程建模并检查这些进程的特征与进程使用的投票系统的行为之间的差异如何导致此类漏洞来揭示漏洞。通过这种方式，这个项目为捍卫民主最关键的过程之一做出了新颖而重要的贡献。该项目测试了约洛县的选举过程和制度的结果。研究的一部分是使用过程定义语言对该县的过程进行建模，并检查这些过程对它们所使用的投票系统的要求和期望。然后可以检查现有的投票系统，以确定它们是否符合使用它们的进程的要求和期望。在发生不匹配的情况下，可以评估这种不匹配造成的漏洞，提出改进建议，并且该方法可以显示所建议的改进如何解决不匹配并消除漏洞。

This project is developing and evaluating the application of iterative process improvement technology to assure the privacy, security, reliability, and trustworthiness of elections, which are the very cornerstone of democracy. The focus of the project is to locate mismatches between existing voting systems and the processes that are currently using them in the conduct of elections. These mismatches can result in vulnerabilities or inaccuracy in elections. This project demonstrates how to remediate such vulnerabilities through the use of iterative process improvement. The methodology uncovers vulnerabilities by modeling processes and examining how discrepancies between the characteristics of these processes and the behaviors of voting systems that are used by the processes can lead to such vulnerabilities. In this way, this project is making a novel and important contribution to defending one of the most critical processes of democracy.The project tests the results on the election processes and systems of Yolo County. Part of the research is to model that county's processes using the process definition language, and examining what these processes require and expect from the voting systems they use. The existing voting systems can then be examined to determine whether they meet the requirements and expectations of the processes using them. Where mismatches occur, the vulnerabilities created by such mismatches can be assessed, improvements suggested, and the methodology can show how the suggested improvements address the mismatches and remove the vulnerabilities.