Demo/testing a Live Conference election
Once you are done with setting up your election, you should now proceed to test it. To test your election setup, you will start by sending out an email template to a demo voter. Refer to the guide https://assemblyvoting.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/KB/pages/10027048 to read more on how to send out an individual template. Make sure that this email template has the correct injectable attributes which are specific to Live Conference Voting. Refer back to the subsection on Injectable Voter attributes and the guide https://assemblyvoting.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/KB/pages/10289223 for more detailed instructions.
Once the email template has been sent out, you should have an email in your inbox which looks similar to the image shown below. From this email, you can access the Login page of the election by clicking on the button “Go to login.” This will open a new browser window with the election front page.
Conductor panel and casting a vote
The next step in the process is to test the conductor panel flow while also casting a vote. For that, you need to have the conductor panel and the voter’s frontend open simultaneously.
Open the Conductor panel in a different tab in your browser by right-clicking on the “Conductor panel” tab in the menu on the left and selecting “open in new tab”.
*As the name suggests, the conductor panel is the place from which the election is conducted by making use of the slides we have set up before.
Go back to Electa while making sure to keep the conductor panel open.
Click the “Voting frontend” button from the “Frontend” dropdown menu.
Once the election front page is open, check that the “Username” field has been pre-filled and matches the code in the email you previously sent out.
Under “Password,” insert the birthdate from the “John Doe” voter: 01011999.
Sign in as the voter. Once you successfully log in, you screen should look like this:
*Make sure to have your voter’s window open in a separate tab from the conductor panel. This will make it easier to switch between the two.
In the conductor panel window, click on the first slide in the left menu under “Slide navigation.” It should now display the first presentation slide with the welcome title. Make sure that this is the same in the voter’s window.
Conductor panel
Voter’s screen
Hit “Next >” in the conductor panel window to move to the next slide. This will change the slides for the voter too. Switch between the two open tabs to confirm that this occurs.
Conductor panel
Voter’s screen
Click the green “Open” button in the conductor panel to start the voting process.
Return to the voter’s window.
Cast a ballot by clicking on the desired option, and hitting “Continue.”
Click “Continue” to save your choice. It will lead you to a confirmation screen, where you click “Submit vote.” You will then see a receipt confirming the reception of your ballot.
While this is happening, you can see a progress bar indicating the progress of the voting both in the conductor’s panel and on the voter’s screen.
When the voting is complete, hit the yellow button “Close now” in the conductor panel to close the voting session. The voters will then no longer be able to vote.
Click “Calculate result” to generate the vote results.
*You may track the progress under the “The result is being calculated” bar.
Once the results are ready, you can preview them before publishing them to the voters by clicking on the “Voting rounds” button at the bottom of the page.
Click on “Test Vote” under “Finished round” to see the results of that vote.
When you are ready to share the results with the voters, click “Make public” to make the results visible to the voters. The results will then be displayed in the slide for all present voters and any observers to see.
When the election is finalized, click “Stop presentation.”
Hit the “Exit mode” button to close the conductor panel and the election. This will stop the presentation for both the conductor and the voters, which means that the slides will no longer be visible.
The voter can sign out by closing the browser window or by clicking on the exit symbol, which will direct them back to the sign in page of the election event.
You have now successfully tested your election event’s setup. Be sure to make any necessary changes to your event before you proceed to the actual election event.
1.1. Video guide
Another voting flow which should be tested is one which utilizes the end-to-end verification process. This involves testing a ballot before submitting it and tracking that ballot once it has been submitted.
Before testing the end-to-end verification voting flow, make sure that you have the relevant E2E verifiability features configured – refer to the section End-to-End (E2E) verifiability to read more about this.
2.1. Vote verification using the Ballot Tester
Testing a ballot (also known as the Benaloh challenge or vote verification) happens after a voter has made a selection on their ballot but before it has been submitted. Refer to the previous section for the voter flow.
Once a voter marks their choice(s) on the ballot, they will need to check the “Vote verification” option just under the “Continue” button. This will enable the voter to perform the vote verification (as shown below).
The voter selects their desired choices on the ballot and clicks “Continue.”
The voter will now be presented with two choices: “Test ballot” and “Cast ballot.” Additionally, a verification code with a QR code will appear.
Test ballot: This will start the process of testing the vote by going to an external ballot verification page within the EVS.
Cast ballot: This will conclude the voting process by pinning the encrypted ballot to the digital bulletin board.
Open the Election Verification Site. Voters can do this by either scanning the QR code with a separate device or clicking on “click to open it on this device.” The latter option will open the EVS in another browser window on their computer.
On the EVS page, the ballot tester should have found the voter’s ballot.
The voter clicks “Test ballot” to start the process of testing their vote.
A pairing code will appear both on the Election Verification Site and in the election system. The voter must compare these two pairing codes.
If they match, they click on the “Does match” button.
Pairing code in the ballot: | Pairing code in the EVS: |