Can blockchain change the way we vote?

It is not surprising that in just under 5 years the credibility of the US elections is being questioned again, and this time, the doubts come from POTUS himself. And somewhere we agree with him. The vote as we know it cannot be completely reliable.

Traditional voting is often subject to bribery speculation if there are paper votes or phishing malpractices if it is an online voting system.

While both mechanisms have their pros and cons, a huge step towards the security of our elections could be with blockchain electronic voting: a concept popularized by Thailand in 2018.

The problem with traditional voting

Most elections require voters to physically present themselves at a polling station and vote on paper. While in developed economies the process was more or less harmless, that is, until COVID-19 hit, in developing and third world countries cases of booth manipulation are all too common. After encountering the antitrust surge from the masses, there are a significant number of countries that have since switched to electronic voting machines.

But this is not a silver bullet, if you will, against hackers who can break into sophisticated systems. This has already been demonstrated at the Def Con conference where relatively young hackers have snuck into US electronic voting machines and exposed their vulnerabilities.

Low voter turnout is another problem. Whether it’s a lack of inspiring candidates or a lack of interest, it’s hard to get people to exercise their right to formulate government. Take for example 2016 in which 56% of the US voting age population (VAP) showed up.

This figure places the United States 26th out of 32 nations in the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) for that year. Various other case studies indicate that one-third of non-voters had no say in the government constitution in 2016 due to the failure to reach the polling booths.

Even if it was previous elections, how safe do we think the 2020 US elections? Here’s what respondents to a Black Hat USA poll have to say about it:

Why can electronic voting using Blockchain produce results?

Innate characteristics of this technology have shown over the past decade to be at the forefront of countering typical cyber threats. These symbolic specifications give Blockchain an air of invincibility compared to paper cards:

Immutability

Many experts vouch for the role of Blockchain technology in online voting as the architecture offers an immutable apparatus. Security and privacy are two key aspects that bear the burden of public expectations for online voting systems. As for memory, the Bitcoin Blockchain, which was allegedly the first version of the world-famous technology, has never been tampered with.

The longer the chain of nodes, the harder, more resourceful (and foolish) a 51% attack becomes. It is this formidable, divine, and law-abiding image that Blockchain can attest to in our elections and act as a trusted agent.

Transparency

A Blockchain voting app would naturally offer transparency in terms of validating the accuracy of the track of votes entered. In such a blockchain-based electronic voting system, entries would be time-stamped and encrypted before being protected with private keys. This might sound futuristic for baby boomers and Gen-X, but the truth is that the the next election will be dominated by millennials and Gen-Z.

This has already been proved right in the 2018 mid-term elections, in which the two cohorts surpassed the votes of their predecessors. Not that it needs explanation, but these generations are tech-savvy and require a high level of sophistication from everyday devices and platforms. Blockchain, without a hint of doubt, will not disappoint.

Anonymity

As the nodes are randomly distributed, the dependence on a centralized authority to secure cyberspace is automatically mitigated in a Blockchain electronic voting system. Not to mention the additional levels of anonymity with which the peer-to-peer network enriches the entire system. Electronic voting via Blockchain could introduce familiar identification mechanisms for people, such as 2-factor authentication, to preserve the sanctity of the elections. Depending on the nature of the Blockchain, participation in nodes could be open to public actors, increasing the economy of scale and reducing operational costs.

Processing time

The response time after the election per day of results is a lot, according to the current measure of technology. Such a monumental organization of electoral professionals, coordinating on huge and shocking scales, guarantees equally appreciable times. But all this could evaporate in the blink of an eye with Blockchain which, among other things, offer results in real time.

The Bitcoin Blockchain, which is slower in processing transactions, takes a minimum of 10 minutes to update and transmit new transactions to the network. Ethereum is even faster. Imagine hearing who the public elects as its main representative, minutes after the final round of voting ends. It is possible with Blockchain.

Real-life application of Blockchain voting solutions

While most of the talk about building scalable online solutions for e-voting has been a mere guess, there are cases where it shows governments using blockchain because electronic voting is more than sensationalist journalism.

Use case n. 1 – Voatz

The 2018 mid-term elections in the United States were not only the battleground to decide the winners for 35 of the 100 seats in the United States Senate. He was also a pilot of the Voatz app that experimented, with the approval of federal agencies, to register and deposit the votes of American citizens residing outside the borders.

The app took its platform to 144 voters located in 31 international destinations and successfully assigned their votes to the government. Voatz combines a plethora of technologies, the forerunner of which is Blockchain, along with cybersecurity, malware detection, biometrics and user identification specs. Also an independent test lab has certified Voatz as complying with the guidelines of the federal voting system. As a Blockchain development company, we can authoritatively say that such an app can easily be designed for the country’s discreet needs, with progressive and experienced heads working on the project.

Use case n. 2 – Vote

Votem is another Blockchain based voting app. Center stage was the app of choice used to garner 1.8 million votes from music lovers around the world for the 2018 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominee. Interestingly, it did so without being hindered by cyber attacks, hacking, identity theft, or other security flaws. To date, this is the heaviest use of a blockchain-based tech middleman for online voting.

Use case # 3: Smartmatic-Cybernetica

This was apparently the first ever demonstration of a blockchain-based app in 2016. The Grand Old Party (GOP) caucus caused this app to be used allow 24,486 workers to influence the election results of 45 countries. The review of the app, as well as user participation, was overwhelming and laid the foundation for the prosperity of future projects.

Smartmatic-Cybernetica is a union of European nations whose electronic voting systems have been widely used by governments. Estonia was the most prominent example of this, using a digitized, non-blockchain solution from the company for the 2014 and 2015 elections. Voters used their state-issued IDs and / or mobile IDs to access the Internet-enabled platform and vote.

Even amidst the myriad of real-life benefits and applications of blockchain in voting, there are some challenges involved with incorporation.

Blockchain design that solves the challenges of the decentralized voting system

The 2020 US presidential election sparked a debate on whether sending ballot papers from home can be trusted or not. If duplication of votes has ever been a concern, the fear can be dispelled with an electronic voting system that uses Blockchain.

Also in terms of accessibility, such an app could be cross-compatible and be accessible from PCs and mobile phones. However, there remains a smokescreen on key issues such as who will govern the Blockchain’s day-to-day operations and what information will be open to the public to verify everything.

Based on our experience we have gathered working with government bodies to make their voting process efficient, we recommend that you address the following scope of work if you are considering developing a blockchain-based voting app:

Architecture should balance anonymity with responsibility

Blocks should offer sufficient public inspection of the app as well as maintain voter identity. The distributed ledger should act as a one-stop shop for counting votes, which any party with sufficient resources can verify.

Pay close attention to the design

The layered design could include the distributed ledger that assigns tokens to a polling station. These tokens will help maintain accurate count of the total votes cast and will be further issued under the name of each registered voter in that polling station. The actual vote is recorded on a sidechain. Once the final grade is cast, the entire record is transferred to the main blockchain.

We can use Ethereum for this purpose, and voting records could be done with smart contracts. Federal agencies can then step in and apply a multiple signature to all votes, after which the smart contract associates the same with the actual voter. With a dedicated internal wing offering blockchain development solutions, Appinventiv can offer you many design alternatives for such Business-to-Government (B2G) segments.

Key Takeaway

The future of voting is undoubtedly, electronic and digital. Blockchain certainly has the firepower to augment such systems, but unless you are in contact with the right vendor, imagining not to mention launching such a solution would be unthinkable. There are legions of Blockchain app development services out there and we hope you have the view to differentiate the good from the great.

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