election software

[Ben Adida]

Luis Villa wrote:
>>> http://www.heliosvoting.org/
>>  ^^^
>> Anyone know what's the purpose of the Google API stuff in this code?
>> (Not necessarily a question just for Luis, but for anyone knowledgeable
>> looking at the code.)
> 
> Author cc'd. Ben?

It's written to the Google App Engine API, so that it can be hosted with
scalability and reliability more or less for free:

http://code.google.com/appengine/

common question: "So I have to trust Google?"

Actually no. That's the point of cryptographically verified voting: you
do NOT trust the host of the election, you verify the results using the
built-in verifier code (which you can run as the standalone Python
script from your home machine.)

Also, the only Google-based login is for the election administrator.
Individual voters do *not* need Google accounts.

That said, if you still want to take on the hosting of the software
independently, I'm working on a PostgreSQL-backed version of the code.
You can actually see the beginnings of that in the source tree.

Happy to answer any additional questions.

-Ben

PS: the Information Card Foundation just used Helios for their board
election, 2-person board with 50 voters, worked without a single voter
complaint.