ElectionGuard is an open source software development kit (SDK) that makes voting more secure, transparent and accessible. Announced at the Build developer conference, ElectionGuard enables end-to-end verification of elections as well as support the publication of results from ballot comparison audits. The ElectionGuard SDK leverages [homomorphic encryption][homomoprhic-encryption] to ensure that votes recorded by electronic systems of any type remain encrypted, secure, and secret. Results can be published online or made available to third-party organizations for secure validation, and allow individual voters to confirm their votes were correctly counted.
This library and all linked ElectionGuard projects, are licensed under the MIT license. There is no fee for using ElectionGuard.
ElectionGuard is always improving. To keep up with the latest, check our official site on GitHub Pages and our roadmap. For those looking to get started, we recommend the following repositories.
This repository is a living document to help everyone interact with ElectionGuard. The official ElectionGuard site is built using the /docs folder and mkdocs with mkdocs-material. Ensure you have the python 3.8 or newer installed and run make to install the dependencies and start the site.
A core component of ElectionGuard implemented in python which includes ballot encryption, decryption, key generation, and tallying.
📁 Source | 📦 Package | 📝 Documentation
A subset of the ElectionGuard SDK implemented in C++ to support ballot encryption.
📁 Source | 📦 Package | 📝 Documentation
A Web API that wraps the python package to perform ballot encryption, casting, spoiling, and tallying.
📁 Source | 🐳 Docker | 📄 Documentation
Monorepo in React & Typescript consisting of an api client, components, and apps to demonstrate examples of user interface.
We encourage the developer and security community to conduct research, report issues, and suggest improvements on this code base. However, unlike performance or feature bugs, please do not report security vulnerabilities in public Github comments. Each repository has a SECURITY file with instructions on responsibly reporting security vulnerabilities under Microsoft's CVD process.
Help defend democracy and contribute to the project.
We welcome discussions on our discussions page, feel free to check in and ask your questions and drop your suggestions regarding the specifications over there.
ElectionGuard would love for you to ask questions out in the open using Github Issues. If you really want to email the ElectionGuard team, reach out at electionguard@microsoft.com.
A huge thank you to those who helped to contribute to this project so far, including:
- Josh Benaloh (whose PhD thesis was the genesis of much of this work)
- InfernoRed Technology
- VotingWorks
- Center for Civic Design
- Oxide Design
- Many teams within Microsoft