On September 19, a delegation of U.S. election officials from 12 states visited the KASTEL Security Research Labs as part of an informational tour. The high-ranking officials were accompanied by representatives from the Aspen Institute Germany.
Secretaries of State hold primary responsibility in their states for conducting secure, free, and fair elections, and are among the highest-ranking officials at the state level. The purpose of the visit was to cultivate transatlantic dialogue on election integrity and the protection of democratic institutions.
After a brief introduction to the KASTEL Security Research Labs by Prof. Jörn Müller-Quade, Tobias Hilt (SECUSO research group) gave a presentation entitled “Verifiable Remote Electronic Voting from a Human Factors Perspective”. He also shared the results of a recent study examining how much trust Americans place in the electronic voting machines used in the U.S. Following that, Prof. Müller-Quade discussed the cryptographic components of electronic voting systems and online elections. This was demonstrated by Felix Dörre (KASTEL) using a voting machine developed by KASTEL researchers, which allowed guests to experience secure and anonymous voting firsthand.
The visitors showed great interest in the topics presented, which was reflected in lively discussions with the researchers.
