Security Analysis of the MERGE Voting Protocol

The post critiques the recently published MERGE protocol for the CAC-vote system, in which votes are transmitted over the internet for preliminary tabulation while mailed, voter-verifiable paper ballots back audits and recounts. It concludes that, despite some interesting ideas, the gap between theory and real-world election law, practice, and logistics is too large to make the system trustworthy in the foreseeable future, and urges DARPA to acknowledge that MERGE constitutes internet voting rather than a component suitable for trustworthy elections without sweeping changes.