The 2.0 ElectionGuard specification is a major new release enabling new voting methods and significant improvements in performance and legibility. It includes the following key features:
- The size of the proofs in the election record has been reduced by more than 90% – reducing the size of the full election record by about a factor of 3.
- Computing the proofs takes about 20% less time.
- Placeholder selections have been eliminated entirely.
- Guardians are no longer part of the election record as their partial decryptions and proofs have been administratively combined into single full decryptions and proofs.
- Range proofs are now included to support voting systems like cumulative voting, range voting, STAR-voting, Borda count, and others.
- A new pre-encrypted ballot format is included to support vote-by-mail, central count, and paper-only poll sites.
- Support is now available for instant verification allowing voters to confirm the accuracy of challenge ballots without waiting for the election record to be published.
- New default parameters are used with ln(2) replacing the Euler-Mascheroni constant as the basis for generation of the large prime.
- The data format of hashes has been clearly described to eliminate ambiguities.