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Caltech Avery House Online Voting Project

Goals:

  1. Create a free, secure, transparent, anonymized, convinient online voting system.
  2. Remove the need for "middleman" survey services.
  3. Avery House glory.

Summary:

This framework interfaces Google surveys with Python for a clean front end and back end. The voting system allows simple referendum voting as well as the more complex IRV (instnt runoff voting) strategy. The workflow can be summarized as:

  1. Manually create a Google survey and link it to a Google spreadsheet. Enter the link to the survey into the Python script.

  2. Python script generates unique links to the survey and emails out links. One link per email addresses. These links can be hardcoded or read from a Google doc (default)

  3. Results automatically go into the linked Google Spreadsheet. As the script waits for the time limit to be reached, it actively checks the spreadsheet for tampering.

  4. When the voting period has ended, the Python script reads in the results from this spreadsheet, parses it, and calculates the winners based on instant runoff. The results are automatically emailed out.

Security and anonymity:

  1. The python script generates a unique 128-digit-time-seeded random int for each email address that is eligible to vote. This number is embedded in the URL of the Google survey link and is automatically added to the “voter ID” field in the survey. When votes are read from the Python script, it will check the “voter ID” field of submitted votes and confirms that they corresponding to originally-generated ID.This makes it so duplicate/unauthorized votes can be invalidated.

  2. Every email also contains a randomly-generated 4 digit pin which represents the survey ID. This survey ID is sent in the initial email as well as the results email. Every voter should see the same survey ID but different voters see differnt survey IDs. The purpose of the survey ID is prevent a scenario where someone termiantes the script and sends out fake results emails.

  3. The voter/survey IDs are not stored anywhere except in the python script’s internal state. This is possible because the script does not finish executing until the final email results are sent out. This prevents manipulation of IDs, ensures that vote results can not be modified, and maintains confidentiality of voters. Furthermore, the “sent” folder of the gmail account hosting the survey has its sent box deleted after the emails get sent - this prevents people with access to the email account from seeing which IDs were associated with specific email addresses.

  4. If someone manually adds a vote to the spreadsheet, it will certainly not have a valid 128-digit entry and will be invalidated in the final count.

  5. While the script waits for quorum to be reached, it periodically compares a local copy of all voter data with the most recent batch of voter data. If the recent data is missing any of the old data, the script emails all voters that the spreadsheet has been tamepred with and terminates. If, by luck, the manipulation occurs before a refresh of the local data, a second layer of security is used - the election results will contain a list of all data from the vote, including the IDs associated with each vote. If someone believes their vote has been deleted, they can compare their voter ID (in the email) with the voter IDs found in the raw vote data which is automatically emailed at the end of a vote.A thrid layer of security is in the Google spreadsheet hosting the survey results which will contain all edit history of the spreadsheet. The edit history can be referenced if a votes legitimacy falls into question

  6. Adding non-eligible emails to the eligible voter list is easily spotted since the email with the results also contains a list of all emails (xlsx format) that participated in the survey. All eligible voters are emailed the raw vote data (xlsx format) in the results email.

Requirements

  • Python 3.x installation
  • Git installation
  • packages in requirements.txt
  • Oauth key for a Google Cloud Project with Sheets, Drive, and Gmail APIs enabled

Instructions for server

  1. Clone this repository into your local machine by running git clone https://github.com/averyhouse/voting.git
  2. Fill in the config.toml file as described in Filling out the config file on your local computer.
  3. Copy the config file to the server using scp <local/path>/config.toml voting@avery.caltech.edu:~/voting
    • replace <local/path> with the directory the file is in on your local computer.
    • you will be prompted for a password. It will be in the Excomm drive with the Avery account passwords.

Steps 4-6 are for creating authorized user keys that are then copied to the server. They are most likely already set up, so check the server's voting directory before performing these steps.

  1. Download an OAuth key from Google Cloud by:
    1. Navigate to console.cloud.google.com
    2. Select the project OnlineVoting in the project menu (top left)
    3. Use the menu (top left) to navigate to APIs & Services > Credentials
    4. Download the OnlineVoting OAuth 2.0 Client ID as oauth.json
  2. Authorize the user by running python3 authorize.py
    • this will open a browser window, log in using the averyexcomm@gmail.com email address and grant all the permissions
    • a file should be generated titled authorized_user.json on your local machine
    • if there are errors with missing modules, run pip install -r requirements.txt
  3. Copy the oauth.json and authorized_user.json files to the server using the commands 
    scp /local/path/oauth.json voting@avery.caltech.edu:~/voting
scp /local/path/authorized_user.json voting@avery.caltech.edu:~/voting
  4. SSH into the server using ssh voting@avery.caltech.edu
  5. Navigate into the directory using cd voting
  6. (Optional) Update the server code by running git pull origin master
  7. Attempt to open tmux by typing tmux attach. If this says "no sessions", then start tmux by running tmux.
  8. Run the script using python3 election.py
    • if there are issues with missing modules, run pip install -r requirements.txt
  9. Press Ctrl+B, D to detach from tmux. The script will now be running with very little risk of interrupts. If you want to check on progress, run tmux attach and detach with Ctrl+B, D when you're done.

Filling out the config file

  • vote_type: type of vote
    • either selective, referendum, or 2/3 referendum
  • form_url: link to Google form
    • needs to end in viewform?usp=pp_url&entry.#########=
  • responses_url: link to Google sheet where the form responses go
    • click "Share -> Get link"
    • make sure the sheet is shared with averyexcomm@gmail.com
  • responses_sheet: name of the sheet in Google sheets
    • name on the bottom tab
  • vote_title: title of the election
    • this will show up in the subject line when the emails are sent out
  • voters_file: Google sheet or csv file with names and emails of all voters
    • this sheet must have columns titled "First Name", "Nickname", "Last Name", and "Email"
  • voters_sheet: if using a Google sheet for the voters file, this is the title of the tab in the sheet
  • quorum: number of votes necessary to conclude the voting period

Instructions for a local machine (DEPRECATED, WORK IN PROGRESS)

  1. Install Python (test using python --version)
  2. Install Git (test using git version)
  3. git clone this repository to create a local copy.
  4. Download an OAuth key from Google Cloud by:
    1. Navigate to console.cloud.google.com
    2. Select the project OnlineVoting in the project menu (top left)
    3. Use the menu (top left) to navigate to APIs & Services > Credentials
    4. Download the OnlineVoting OAuth 2.0 Client ID as oauth.json and save this in the voting directory
  5. Run the script to validate credentials by opening a command shell, running cd fetch_token to move into the fetch_token directory, and running go run fetch_token.go.
    1. In the command line, this will print out a URL with a prompt to authorize by following the link. Copy paste this link into a browser window. 2. Select the averyexcomm@gmail.com account to log into. After logging in, you will get a warning about an unverified app (Don't worry, this app is safe :D). Hit Advanced > Go to ov (unsafe) to ignore the warning. 3. Check all the boxes to give all permissions to the script. 4. You will now get an error that says localhost refused to connect. Go to the URL in the address bar. You should see something like ...&code=<long-string>&scope=... in the URL. 5. Copy the string after &code= and paste it into the command line after the authentication URL and hit Enter. 6. This should create a file called token.json in the fetch_token directory. If this worked correctly, it should also print out all the email labels/folders found on the account in the command line.
  6. Install the requirements to run the python script by running pip install -r requirements.txt
  7. Configure the settings in config.toml with:
    • vote type: must be either "selective", "referendum", or "2/3 referendum". If the vote type is "selective", the choices must be multiple choice grid rankings. If the vote type is a referendum type, the questions must be multiple choice with options "YES", "NO", or "Abstain".
    • form URL: must be prefilled link to Google Forms. See below on how to get link.
    • worksheet URL: sheet with results from form, shared with averyexcomm@gmail.com
    • sheet title: i.e. "Form Responses 1" from above
    • vote title: i.e. xxxx Avery Excomm Election
    • voters list: can either be a Google Sheet URL or a CSV text file
    • voters sheet title: if using a Google Sheet, i.e. "Sheet1"
    • quorum
  8. Check that each Google Sheet has been shared with averyexcomm@gmail.com.
  9. You are now ready to run the script! Run python election.py to start the script! DO NOT TOUCH IT ONCE THE SCRIPT HAS STARTED!! Everything will happen automatically, be sure that your computer stays on and the window with the command line stays open.

Forms and Sheets

  1. A manually-created Google Survey (if you want to do an IRV vote)

    • The survey questions must be multiple choice grids
    • For every candidate, make a new column with a "rank"
    • Ranks go from 1 to num_candidates with 1 being the best
    • Last question must be a short answer question that holds voter ID
    • Get the URL from the pre-fill link such that values appended to the URL automatically fill in "voter ID"
    • This URL looks something like: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/xxx...xxx/viewform?entry.1299711861=
    • Required survey option: 1 response per column
    • Suggested survey options: shuffle row order, disable all confirmation page links
    • Example of a valid IRV Google survey: alt tag

  2. A manually-created Google Survey (If you want to do a simple referendum vote)

    • The survey questions must be multiple choice
    • Last question must be a short answer question that holds voter ID
    • Get the URL from the pre-fill link such that values appended to the URL automatically fill in "voter ID"
    • This URL looks something like: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/xxx...xxx/viewform?entry.1299711861=
    • Suggested survey options: shuffle question order, disable all confirmation page links

  3. A new, blank worksheet in your linked spreadsheet (step 3) with a unique name.

    • This worksheet must be created manually and specified as the data destination when creating the survey (step 4)
    • Trying to re-use worksheets will result in failure
    • This step must be completed for every new survey alt tag

Notes:

When choosing a local machine to run this script on, keep in mind that the script's execution can not be interrupted or the vote will end. Additionally, the script needs to internet access throughout the duration of its execution time so that it can actively check for vote manipulation. If you are using Linux to run the script, I highly reccomend runing the script inside a tmux session to avoid accidentally canceling the script.

It is highly reccomended that the script be downloaded directly from this repo and executed in plain sight of several representatives to prevent illicit script modification.

The last few numeric global variables may be tweaked to fit your survey's specific needs.

Contact:

Contact derekqin8@gmail.com for questions/support with the script.

The script should should be portable and has been tested on Windows 10 and Ubuntu 14