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We present Phrase-Verified Voting, a voter-verifiable remote voting system easily assembled from commercial off-the-shelf software for small private elections. The system is transparent and enables each voter to verify that the tally includes their ballot selection without requiring any understanding of cryptography. This system is an example of making voter verification usable. The paper describes the system and an experience with it in fall 2020, to vote remotely in promotion committees in a university. Each voter fills out a form in the cloud with their selection $V$ for each race and a two-word passphrase $P$. The system generates a verification prompt of the $(V,P)$ pairs and a tally of the votes, organized to help visualize how the votes add up. After the polls close, each voter verifies that this table lists their $(V,P)$ pair and that the tally is computed correctly. The system is especially appropriate for any small group making sensitive decisions. Because the system would not prevent a coercer from demanding that their victim use a specified passphrase, it is not designed for applications where such malfeasance would be likely or go undetected. Results from 43 voters show that the system performed effectively for its intended purpose, and introduced users to the concept of voter-verified elections. Compared to the commonly-used alternatives of paper ballots or voting by email, voters found the system easier to use, and that it provided greater privacy and outcome integrity. 

A boardroom election is an election that takes place in a single room — the boardroom — in which all voters can see and hear each other. We present an initial exploration of boardroom elections with ballot privacy and voter verifiability that use only “low-tech cryptography” without using computers to mark or collect ballots. Specifically, we define the problem, introduce several building blocks, and propose a new protocol that combines these blocks in novel ways. Our new building blocks include “foldable ballots” that can be rotated to hide the alignment of ballot choices with voting marks, and “visual secrets” that are easy to remember and use but hard to describe. Although closely seated participants in a boardroom election have limited privacy, the protocol ensures that no one can determine how others voted. Moreover, each voter can verify that their ballot was correctly cast, collected, and counted, without being able to prove how they voted, providing assurance against undue influence. Low-tech cryptography is useful in situations where constituents do not trust computer technology, and it avoids the complex auditing requirements of end-to-end cryptographic voting systems such as Prêt-à-Voter. This paper’s building blocks and protocol are meant to be a proof of concept that might be tested for usability and improved.