A Comparative Security Analysis of the German Federal Postal Voting Process

The percentage of votes cast by postal voting increases with every election for the German federal parliament (Bundestag). However, especially compared to Internet voting, concerns regarding security, transparency, and trustworthiness of postal voting are rarely discussed. This paper outlines the established process of postal voting in Germany and evaluates it with regard to various security-relevant characteristics. For this evaluation, a methodology originally developed for Internet voting is used in order to ensure comparability. The aim is to identify weaknesses as well as potential for optimization, to compare German postal voting with selected Internet voting schemes, and to derive implications for policy and further research.