Resumé The topic of this diploma thesis is Constitutional aspects of postal voting in the exercise of the right to vote. The main aim of this diploma thesis is to provide the answer to the following couple of questions: Should the postal voting be introduced in the Czech Republic? And if the answer is yes, what would be the most suitable form? The right to vote is an essential part of a democratic state and it is a fundamental right of every citizen of the Czech Republic over 18 years of age. The Czech Republic allows its citizens to exercise their right to vote abroad, however, the current state of the legislation may be considered problematic. In the thesis, I provide the arguments for such conclusion; the main argument being very low turnout of voters abroad in comparison with the estimated number of citizens residing abroad on both long and short term basis. Although all citizens have guaranteed the same rights, the current electoral legislation in fact causes serious disadvantages to the voters abroad; the electoral legislation requires repeated personal attendance in distant embassies, where the voter can exercise his right to vote. Furthermore, I mention the problematic aspects of the right to vote within the territory of the Czech Republic, which are connected especially to the possibility of voters...

The main subject of this work is the assessment of electronic voting systems with regard to their required and achieved properties. The goal of this project is designing an electronic voting protocol that satisfies the requirements for privacy protection while also being scalable and fault-tolerant. Existing protocols are examined and compared according to their properties. The design proposed in this work uses smart contracts on blockchain and combines the approaches from the examined solutions. Scalability is achieved by dividing the process of voting between several smart contracts. Each of these contracts carries out the voting in small scale with only a subset of voters and the partial results are then aggregated. The problem of finding a suitable platform for implementation of the proposed protocol is also addressed in this work.

abstract: Many researchers have seen the value blockchain can add to the field of voting and many protocols have been proposed to allow voting to be conducted in a way that takes advantage of blockchains distributed and immutable structure. While blockchains immutable structure can take the place of paper records in preventing tampering it by itself is insufficient to construct a trustworthy voting system with eligibility, privacy, verifiability, and fairness requirements. Many of the protocols which strive to keep voters votes confidential, but also allow for verifiability and eligibility requirements rely on either a blind signature provided by a central authority to provide compliance with these requirements or ring signatures to prove membership in the set of voters. A blind signature issued by a central authority introduces a potential vulnerability as it allows a corrupt central authority to pass a large number of forged ballots into the mix without any detection. Ring signatures on the other hand tend to be overly resource intensive to allow for practical usage in large voting sets. The research in this thesis focuses on improving the trustworthiness of electronic voting systems by providing possible ways of avoiding or detecting corrupt central authorities while still relying upon the benefits of efficiency the blind signature provides. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Computer Science 2020

Voting and general elections serves as a cornerstone of modern democracies as it is through this process that the public makes their political positions heard and collectively elect leaders. While many parts of governments across the world are focusing heavily on digitization, voting is one area that remains offline and analog in many developed countries. Current voting systems continue to be scrutinized, most notably in the US after the 2016 presidential election where integrity of votes was put into question. This calls for innovation in the area of voting and blockchain has proven to be a disruptive technology in other areas to introduce transparency and integrity with an immutable and append-only ledger to store information. While the basic characteristics of blockchain may be desirable for a voting system, there has not yet been an implementation of Blockchain Enabled Voting (BEV). In this thesis, we assess current proposals of BEV in the context of the nine-degree Technology Readiness Level (TRL) scale to get an overview of how mature the technology is in its current state and what needs to be done to reach further maturity. We do this by consolidating necessary requirements to fulfill for a voting system, based on literature review along with guidelines from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). We follow this up with translating the TRL scale to suit BEV, as the scale was originally designed for technology used by NASA, and then we review design artifacts of BEV in light of this scale. This enables us to make an informed argument about the current state of the technology as well as what is needed to advance the technology for further maturity. Based on the review of current proposals, flight-readiness of BEV in its current state is still immature. Our analysis shows that there are two emerging design principles, complete decentralization, and partial decentralization, where the former is structured similarly to the cryptocurrencies Bitcoin and Ethereum, who considers all nodes as equals and only has governance through engineering. The partially decentralized approach on the other hand is built on permissioned blockchain with some centralized authority and considers the blockchain as a ballot box, or storage of votes. The results show that both design principles are far from flight-ready as they either do not meet the basic requirements of a voting system or make assumptions about the holistic voting systems, especially in areas of establishing voter eligibility, ease of use as well as scalability and robustness. Further research of both approaches is necessary to establish systems that are more defined and are ready for experimental testing.

Free and fair elections are the basis for democracy, but conducting elections is not an easy task. Different groups of people are trying to influence the outcome of the election in their favor using the range of methods, from campaigning for a particular candidate to well-financed lobbying. Often the stakes are too high, and the methods are illegal. Two main properties of any voting scheme are the privacy of a voter’s choice and the integrity of the tally. Unfortunately, they are mutually exclusive. Integrity requires making elections transparent and auditable, but at the same time, we must preserve a voter’s privacy. It is always a trade-off between these two requirements. Current voting schemes favor privacy over auditability, and thus, they are vulnerable to voting fraud. I propose two novel voting systems that can achieve both privacy and verifiability. The first protocol is based on cryptographical primitives to ensure the integrity of the final tally and privacy of the voter. The second protocol is a simple paper-based voting scheme that achieves almost the same level of security without usage of cryptography.

Digitalization has led to the development of electronic voting systems, which in turn influences electoral integrity. Since the fairness of elections plays such an important part for democracy, the security aspects that keep an election's integrity and fairness are of great importance and thus, is the objective of this research. The research question this study aims to answer is “What security differences and / or similarities can be identified between End-to-End and blockchain-based voting systems?”. A comparative systematic literature review was done in order to answer the research question, which started by finding relevant literature needed for the analysis. After identifying the necessary articles, advantages and disadvantages for End-to-End and blockchain-based voting systems were outlined and then compared in a truth table (table 5). The results showed that the two systems share similar characteristics such as: verifiability, voter anonymity / ballot secrecy, integrity and the lack of scalability. Whereas the main differences are found in relation to how susceptible each system is to attacks. This leads to the conclusion that the biggest difference identified between blockchain-based and End-to-End systems is their susceptibility to attacks.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the voting trends in Mobile, Alabama, which have developed since 1948; particular emphasis is placed upon the role of the Negro vote in Mobile politics before and after the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Pela primeira vez em sua história o mercado de capitais nacional lida com uma real, ainda que localizada, tendência de dispersão da titularidade acionária e com certo nível de popularização do investimento em companhias abertas, estimulados por um crescimento econômico, de consumo e de investimento estrangeiro também sem precedentes. A última década foi, de fato, um período fascinante para os entusiastas do direito societário; um período de crescente complexificação e especialização no ambiente societário nacional, que, em conjunto com o desenvolvimento recente das tecnologias de comunicação, vem desafiando os fundamentos da Lei das Sociedades por Ações, de 1976, e testando a capacidade de adaptação das instituições legais e regulatórias brasileiras. Nesse contexto, o estudo dos mecanismos de exercício do direito de voto, dos pedidos públicos de procuração e para o voto e participação à distância nas assembleias, mostrou-se um meio efetivo de contribuição para a construção de uma ponte entre o antigo e o novo mercado de capitais brasileiro. Para tanto, são três as contribuições principais pretendidas por este estudo. A primeira consiste na análise sistematizada inaugural, na doutrina nacional, da legislação e da regulação aplicáveis aos pedidos públicos de procuração, voto e participação à distância nas assembleias gerais. Essa análise conclui pela necessidade da realização de determinados ajustes na regulação do mercado de capitais brasileiro. Entre esses ajustes, estão (i) a construção de uma disciplina para a inclusão de propostas de acionistas no material de pedidos públicos de procuração da administração e (ii) a elaboração de normas que regulem o exercício do direito de voto e a participação à distância nas assembleias gerais, normas essas que devem pressupor ambos como direitos legalmente garantidos aos acionistas e que devem prever a possibilidade de implementação escalonada das correspondentes obrigações das companhias, de acordo com a evolução dos meios tecnológicos disponíveis. A segunda contribuição consiste na reflexão, também seminal no cenário brasileiro, a respeito dos efeitos da dissociação entre a titularidade da ação e o exercício do direito de voto no mercado de capitais contemporâneo, bem como dos efeitos decorrentes da correlata defasagem entre a compreensão doutrinária do direito de voto e a compreensão doutrinária do exercício desse direito. A desatualização da legislação, da regulação e principalmente da doutrina brasileira em relação às normas em vigor nos mercados mais desenvolvidos, no que diz respeito à assimilação do desenvolvimento tecnológico e dos instrumentos financeiros pelo direito societário, é agravada pelo fato de que as transações realizadas no mercado local já envolvem os mais modernos e complexos instrumentos financeiros utilizados globalmente. O consequente descolamento entre o direito e a realidade, verificados concretamente em casos como o aluguel de ações, o uso de derivativos e a venda do voto, por exemplo, desestabiliza as bases para responsabilização pelo cometimento de abusos no exercício do direito de voto, na medida em que a relação entre a titularidade da ação e o exercício do direito de voto já não é mais tão clara. Este trabalho procura trazer à superfície essas questões e realinhar o entendimento científico a respeito do exercício do direito de voto com as práticas atuais do mercado. A terceira contribuição consiste no questionamento por este estudo da capacidade da Lei das Sociedades por Ações de enfrentar uma nova realidade, em que deixa de ser certa a existência da polarização de poder entre um controlador majoritário e acionistas minoritários atomizados, e na qual necessidades históricas de fisicalidade e concomitância deixam de ser pressupostos obrigatórios na construção de conceitos relacionados ao relacionamento entre acionistas, administradores e a companhia. O trabalho constata que a Lei das Sociedades por Ações não está inteiramente preparada para uma realidade em que nem sempre haverá um acionista controlador definido e em que o acionista minoritário nem sempre será um pequeno e pouco informado investidor, mas eventualmente um investidor institucional, com escala e recursos suficientes para efetivamente processar as informações divulgadas pela companhia e interferir em sua gestão. No mesmo passo, constata-se também que a ideia da realização de assembleias que deixem de ser delimitadas no espaço e no tempo, e que não mais dependam da interação física e simultânea de seus participantes, perfeitamente aceitável na atual dimensão das interações sociais, está ainda longe de ser consistentemente recepcionada pela legislação societária nacional. Uma análise abrangente dos efeitos para o mercado Brasileiro dos limites de uma magistral, mas já trintária lei societária, em contraste com o impacto do desenvolvimento financeiro e tecnológico experimentado pelo mundo em anos recentes, já era, assim, mais do que devida. Este estudo procura, assim, fazer frente a essa necessidade ao identificar alguns dos sinais de defasagem da lei societária e colocá-los em discussão. / For the first time in history the country is dealing with a real, although restricted, tendency of corporate dispersion, and a certain level of popularization of the investment in listed companies, all stimulated by an unprecedented expansion of the economy, consumption, and foreign investments. It has been indeed a fascinating period for the corporate law enthusiasts; a period of growing complexity and specialization in the national corporate environment, which, altogether with the new communication technologies, has been challenging the foundations of the Brazilian Corporation Law, enacted in 1976, and testing the capacity of adaption of Brazilian legal and regulatory institutions. In this scenario, studying the mechanisms of voting, proxy solicitation, and remote voting and participation in shareholders meetings, seemed to be the most natural way to contribute to build a bridge between the old Brazilian market and the new one. The main contributions expected from the thesis are threefold: First, an inaugural analysis of the new legislation and regulation applicable to proxy voting, remote voting and participation in Brazil. The analysis concluded for the necessity of certain adjustments on the Brazilian regulation, e.g. (i) the construction of a discipline for the inclusion of shareholders proposals in the management proxy material, and (ii) the enactment of rules governing remote voting and participation that assumes them as a right of the shareholder, while consenting to the companies certain flexibility of implementation connected to the development of the technologies available. Second, a thorough and also seminal study on the effects of the decoupling of shares ownership and exercise of voting rights in the contemporary market, and a contribution to update the scientific comprehension of the act of voting in corporate law, rather than simply the comprehension of the right to vote. While the Brazilian law and regulation are in certain aspects still trying to catch up with modern markets regulation, concerning the assimilation of new communication and financial technologies by the corporate legal framework, the local transactions already involve the most updated and complex financial instruments. The legal gap created, and concretely identified in cases as the lending of stocks, the use of derivatives instruments, and the sale of votes, puts in risk the stability of the market and destabilizes the discipline of liability for the abusive use of voting power as Brazilian law and courts are used to know, as the link between share ownership and vote are not as clear as before. The study seeks to bring to light these issues and to realign the scientific comprehension of voting with the current markets practices. Third, a first questioning of the Brazilian Corporation Law capacity to face a reality where there may be no power polarization between an absolute controlling shareholder and small minority shareholders, and where historical necessities of physicality and concomitance are, as a consequence of the new means of communication, no longer mandatory elements of the concepts connected to the relationship among shareholders, management, and the company. The study verifies that Brazilian Corporation Law is not prepared for a reality where there may be no clear controlling shareholders anymore and where minority shareholders may not be an uninformed small investor, but a resourceful hedge fund. On the same token, the idea of a shareholder meeting that is not delimited in space and time, and that does not depend on the physical and simultaneous interaction between parties, perfectly acceptable by our current society, is still far from any consistent reception by the corporation legal framework. A comprehensive analysis on the effects for the Brazilian markets of the limits of a great but old law, in contrast with the impact of recent years financial and technological development, were more than due. This study aims to fulfill this scientific gap, identifying some of the items in need of updating and starting discussion over them.

This behavioral study examines the users’ engagement on social networking[ sites (SNS) in electoral races for public office in relation to their act of voting. This study was based on the premise that when certain criteria are met then SNS can be used as a predictive tool. The initial technique used was observations of the tools/functions on SNSs such as the “Like” button, favorable comments, retweets, friends/followers. Another technique used was surveys administered to individuals at political rallies, political debates, and college campuses to further analyze if their online engagement in politics translates to their physical participation. A quantitative case study analysis approach was used to analyze data gathered. Results of the data collected suggest that there is a positive relationship between online engagement and physical participation. The conclusion drawn from the findings suggests that SNS can be used as a predictive tool when examining electoral races for public offices.

Pela primeira vez em sua história o mercado de capitais nacional lida com uma real, ainda que localizada, tendência de dispersão da titularidade acionária e com certo nível de popularização do investimento em companhias abertas, estimulados por um crescimento econômico, de consumo e de investimento estrangeiro também sem precedentes. A última década foi, de fato, um período fascinante para os entusiastas do direito societário; um período de crescente complexificação e especialização no ambiente societário nacional, que, em conjunto com o desenvolvimento recente das tecnologias de comunicação, vem desafiando os fundamentos da Lei das Sociedades por Ações, de 1976, e testando a capacidade de adaptação das instituições legais e regulatórias brasileiras. Nesse contexto, o estudo dos mecanismos de exercício do direito de voto, dos pedidos públicos de procuração e para o voto e participação à distância nas assembleias, mostrou-se um meio efetivo de contribuição para a construção de uma ponte entre o antigo e o novo mercado de capitais brasileiro. Para tanto, são três as contribuições principais pretendidas por este estudo. A primeira consiste na análise sistematizada inaugural, na doutrina nacional, da legislação e da regulação aplicáveis aos pedidos públicos de procuração, voto e participação à distância nas assembleias gerais. Essa análise conclui pela necessidade da realização de determinados ajustes na regulação do mercado de capitais brasileiro. Entre esses ajustes, estão (i) a construção de uma disciplina para a inclusão de propostas de acionistas no material de pedidos públicos de procuração da administração e (ii) a elaboração de normas que regulem o exercício do direito de voto e a participação à distância nas assembleias gerais, normas essas que devem pressupor ambos como direitos legalmente garantidos aos acionistas e que devem prever a possibilidade de implementação escalonada das correspondentes obrigações das companhias, de acordo com a evolução dos meios tecnológicos disponíveis. A segunda contribuição consiste na reflexão, também seminal no cenário brasileiro, a respeito dos efeitos da dissociação entre a titularidade da ação e o exercício do direito de voto no mercado de capitais contemporâneo, bem como dos efeitos decorrentes da correlata defasagem entre a compreensão doutrinária do direito de voto e a compreensão doutrinária do exercício desse direito. A desatualização da legislação, da regulação e principalmente da doutrina brasileira em relação às normas em vigor nos mercados mais desenvolvidos, no que diz respeito à assimilação do desenvolvimento tecnológico e dos instrumentos financeiros pelo direito societário, é agravada pelo fato de que as transações realizadas no mercado local já envolvem os mais modernos e complexos instrumentos financeiros utilizados globalmente. O consequente descolamento entre o direito e a realidade, verificados concretamente em casos como o aluguel de ações, o uso de derivativos e a venda do voto, por exemplo, desestabiliza as bases para responsabilização pelo cometimento de abusos no exercício do direito de voto, na medida em que a relação entre a titularidade da ação e o exercício do direito de voto já não é mais tão clara. Este trabalho procura trazer à superfície essas questões e realinhar o entendimento científico a respeito do exercício do direito de voto com as práticas atuais do mercado. A terceira contribuição consiste no questionamento por este estudo da capacidade da Lei das Sociedades por Ações de enfrentar uma nova realidade, em que deixa de ser certa a existência da polarização de poder entre um controlador majoritário e acionistas minoritários atomizados, e na qual necessidades históricas de fisicalidade e concomitância deixam de ser pressupostos obrigatórios na construção de conceitos relacionados ao relacionamento entre acionistas, administradores e a companhia. O trabalho constata que a Lei das Sociedades por Ações não está inteiramente preparada para uma realidade em que nem sempre haverá um acionista controlador definido e em que o acionista minoritário nem sempre será um pequeno e pouco informado investidor, mas eventualmente um investidor institucional, com escala e recursos suficientes para efetivamente processar as informações divulgadas pela companhia e interferir em sua gestão. No mesmo passo, constata-se também que a ideia da realização de assembleias que deixem de ser delimitadas no espaço e no tempo, e que não mais dependam da interação física e simultânea de seus participantes, perfeitamente aceitável na atual dimensão das interações sociais, está ainda longe de ser consistentemente recepcionada pela legislação societária nacional. Uma análise abrangente dos efeitos para o mercado Brasileiro dos limites de uma magistral, mas já trintária lei societária, em contraste com o impacto do desenvolvimento financeiro e tecnológico experimentado pelo mundo em anos recentes, já era, assim, mais do que devida. Este estudo procura, assim, fazer frente a essa necessidade ao identificar alguns dos sinais de defasagem da lei societária e colocá-los em discussão. / For the first time in history the country is dealing with a real, although restricted, tendency of corporate dispersion, and a certain level of popularization of the investment in listed companies, all stimulated by an unprecedented expansion of the economy, consumption, and foreign investments. It has been indeed a fascinating period for the corporate law enthusiasts; a period of growing complexity and specialization in the national corporate environment, which, altogether with the new communication technologies, has been challenging the foundations of the Brazilian Corporation Law, enacted in 1976, and testing the capacity of adaption of Brazilian legal and regulatory institutions. In this scenario, studying the mechanisms of voting, proxy solicitation, and remote voting and participation in shareholders meetings, seemed to be the most natural way to contribute to build a bridge between the old Brazilian market and the new one. The main contributions expected from the thesis are threefold: First, an inaugural analysis of the new legislation and regulation applicable to proxy voting, remote voting and participation in Brazil. The analysis concluded for the necessity of certain adjustments on the Brazilian regulation, e.g. (i) the construction of a discipline for the inclusion of shareholders proposals in the management proxy material, and (ii) the enactment of rules governing remote voting and participation that assumes them as a right of the shareholder, while consenting to the companies certain flexibility of implementation connected to the development of the technologies available. Second, a thorough and also seminal study on the effects of the decoupling of shares ownership and exercise of voting rights in the contemporary market, and a contribution to update the scientific comprehension of the act of voting in corporate law, rather than simply the comprehension of the right to vote. While the Brazilian law and regulation are in certain aspects still trying to catch up with modern markets regulation, concerning the assimilation of new communication and financial technologies by the corporate legal framework, the local transactions already involve the most updated and complex financial instruments. The legal gap created, and concretely identified in cases as the lending of stocks, the use of derivatives instruments, and the sale of votes, puts in risk the stability of the market and destabilizes the discipline of liability for the abusive use of voting power as Brazilian law and courts are used to know, as the link between share ownership and vote are not as clear as before. The study seeks to bring to light these issues and to realign the scientific comprehension of voting with the current markets practices. Third, a first questioning of the Brazilian Corporation Law capacity to face a reality where there may be no power polarization between an absolute controlling shareholder and small minority shareholders, and where historical necessities of physicality and concomitance are, as a consequence of the new means of communication, no longer mandatory elements of the concepts connected to the relationship among shareholders, management, and the company. The study verifies that Brazilian Corporation Law is not prepared for a reality where there may be no clear controlling shareholders anymore and where minority shareholders may not be an uninformed small investor, but a resourceful hedge fund. On the same token, the idea of a shareholder meeting that is not delimited in space and time, and that does not depend on the physical and simultaneous interaction between parties, perfectly acceptable by our current society, is still far from any consistent reception by the corporation legal framework. A comprehensive analysis on the effects for the Brazilian markets of the limits of a great but old law, in contrast with the impact of recent years financial and technological development, were more than due. This study aims to fulfill this scientific gap, identifying some of the items in need of updating and starting discussion over them.