For a group of the world’s top cryptology researchers, it was the kind of election you would expect. It was a secret digital ballot whose final tally could be decoded only by using three keys split among select election trustees.
So secure was the annual contest to fill three director and four officer positions that when one trustee lost his cryptographic key to unlock the results, the error made it impossible.
The group, the International Association of Cryptologic Research, or I.A.C.R., was left with no choice but to throw out the vote and call a new election.
“Regrettably, we have encountered a fatal technical problem that prevents us from concluding the election and accessing the final tally,” the group said in a memo on Friday. “We are deeply sorry for this failure and for the disruption it has caused.”