Dear Mr. Eustis,

My name is Pere Valles and I am the Managing Director of Scytl, a European software company 

specialized in developing secure electronic voting solutions. I am contacting you regarding your 

public invitation to send you information on electronic voting technologies. 

Scytl’s R&D efforts over the last ten years have focused on Internet voting where we have 

developed a wide-range of products (e.g., Pnyx.core, Pnyx.government, Pnyx.corporate and 

Pnyx.labour). Each of these products addresses a specific market segment within the Internet 

voting industry, ranging from elections and consultations for the public sector to shareholders’ 

meeting and labour union elections for the private sector. Pnyx.core, which is the e-voting 

security engine for all the other products, has been awarded the prestigious 2005 IST Prize by 

the European Commission and it has been successfully integrated into numerous Internet voting 

platforms throughout Europe, including one of the only two permanent Internet voting platforms 

for binding elections and consultations in the world. 

We have recently launched Pnyx.DRE, a security solution for poll-site electronic voting that 

provides redundancy, enhanced auditability and voter-verifiability to DREs. Pnyx.DRE is based 

on (i) a simple easy-to-audit hardware device (called the “verification module”) which represents 

a secure and reliable environment in which voters can verify their votes before casting them, 

and (ii) a cryptographic protocol (implemented in this secure hardware device) that protects the 

votes before they are cast and returned to the DRE. 

We were recently invited by the Maryland House of Delegates to present Pnyx.DRE. Enclosed 

please find a copy of the presentation (slides 9 through 13 explain the main objectives of our 

solution and how it works). You can also find a complete white paper on Pnyx.DRE at the 

following link: http://www.scytlcom/docs/pub/a/PNYX.DRE-WP.pdf

Best regards, 

Pere Valles 

Managing Director

email: pere.valles@scytl.com

phone: +34 934 230 324 

fax: +34 933 251 028

mobile: +34 619 761 349
PNYX.DRE

Presentation to the Maryland Ho

Annapolis (Maryland), March 18 2005
Contents Contents

• Presenting Scytl• DREs: Benefits and Drawbac• Our solution: Pnyx.DRE• Conclusions
Contents Contents

• Presenting Scytl• DREs: Benefits and Drawbac• Our solution: Pnyx.DRE• Conclusions
• Scytl is a European software company specialized in ap

and in the development of secure electronic voting solutio

• Scytl was formed as a spin-off from a University resear

two European PhD thesis on e-voting security (with over 2participated in the first Internet binding elections in Europ

• Scytl commercializes a unique software product, Pnyx, 

than 10 years of research and development and is protec

• The objective of Pnyx is to provide electronic voting platfo

trust, privacy and security as the conventional paper-base

• Pnyx has been successfully used in numerous projects, i

permanent Internet voting platforms in the world (Switzerl

• Scytl focuses its efforts on developing and maintaining 

and distributes its solutions through partners such as HOracle and Telefonica

• Scytl has received numerous international awards inc

granted by the European Commission to the best technol

About Scytl About Scytl
Contents Contents

• Presenting Scytl• DREs: Benefits and Drawba• Our solution: Pnyx.DRE• Conclusions
• User-friendly – Easy-to-use voter interface th

process

• Speed and accuracy in the vote counting 

counted electronically in digital format

• Accessibility – People with disabilities (e.g., 

vote without the assistance from a third party

• Flexibility – Allows last-minute changes in 

multiple languages, etc.

• Prevention of unintentional errors – Reduc

“over-voting” errors

DREs - Benefits Benefits
• DREs are perceived by many voters as “black box

• DREs are generally based on proprietary softw• High-level of complexity in the software • Difficult to audit and certify by election authorit• Need to re-audit the software after any change 

• DREs do not provide voters with verification m

their votes have been correctly cast and recorded

• DREs do not provide election authorities and in

with sufficient audit mechanisms (e.g., DREs dparallel recount of the votes independent from the r

DREs

- Drawbacks Drawbacks
Contents Contents

• Presenting Scytl• DREs: Benefits and Drawbac• Our solution: Pnyx.DRE• Conclusions
1. Allow the voter to individually verify the 

his/her vote

• Verification that his/her vote is cast an

intended 

• Assurance that the recorded vote will be c

2. Provide redundancy through a double-regi

• Prevention of the loss of votes• Possibility of an independent parallel reco

3. Facilitate the audit and certification proc

authorities by concentrating the critical securand easy-to-audit device

Objectives of Objectives of Pnyx.DRE Pnyx.DRE
• Pnyx.DRE is based on an independent module (c

connected to the DRE 

• The Verification Module has two components:

• A hardware device with a screen, an audio ou• Software running in this hardware device to c

votes

• The Verification Module represents a secure 

because:• It is independent from the manufacturer of the • It is based on open-source software and on so• It is very simple since it only performs a limited • It is very easy to audit and certify by election a

• Additionally, our solution provides election autho

tools (e.g., one-way accumulators) to check the in

Pnyx.DRE Pnyx.DRE Components Components
1. The voter makes his selection in the DRE

4

Verification Module

Voter

1 3

5

2

DRE

How is the voting process? How is the voting process?

6

2. The selected options are transferred to the Verification Module

3. The voter verifies (via screen and/or audio) and confirms the sele4. The selected options are encrypted and digitally signed in the Ve

the ballot from internal and external attackers

5. The protected ballot is stored in the Verification Module and trans

stored until the end of the election

6. Optional: The Verification Module generates a paper receipt (i.e., 

identifier) that will allow the voter to check this identifier against a 

correspond to the votes manged by the Electoral Board during th
1. The election authorities retrieve the Ballot Box from the DRE

3

Verification Module

DRE

1

How is the audit process? How is the audit process?

2. The election authorities retrieve the Ballot Box integrity record fro

integrity record was generated in a secure environment based on 

3. The election authorities verify that the contents of the Ballot Box 

to the integrity record from the Verification Module

4. If the check fails, the election authorities can retrieve the back-up 

cryptographically-protected voter-verified votes) from the Verificaparallel recount of the votes

5. Optional: The election authorities can publish the unique identifie

corresponding to the votes retrieved from the Verification Module

the election that their votes were present during the counting pro

Election Authorities

2 4

5
Cost of Cost of Pnyx.DRE Pnyx.DRE

• The cost of Pnyx.DRE is approximately $500 p

following:• The hardware device with a color screen, aud

cryptographic capabilities and two buttons

• The software implemented in this hardware d

protect every single vote

• The software used by electoral authorities or 

check the election accuracy and integrity

• There is an additional charge of approximately 

optional feature of providing voters with a 

additional cost includes:• The printer• The software to generate the cryptographic re
Contents Contents

• Presenting Scytl• DREs: Benefits and Drawbac• Our solution: Pnyx.DRE• Conclusions
Conclusions Conclusions

• Pnyx.DRE can enhance the security of your exis

contribute to increase public confidence in this vo

• Allowing voters to verify that their votes were 

inetended

• Simplifying the audit and certification processe

need to focus only on the simple and easy-to-a

• Protecting the integrity and anonimity of every s• Preventing the loss of votes by providing redun• Allowing an independent parallel vote recount

• Pnyx.DRE can be easily integrated with your curr• Pnyx.DRE is a cost effective solution to provide e

to your current voting equipment