Can Blockchain Replace Current Methods In Elections?

GSBS6042 Employment Relations

Blockchain and Elections: Overview of the Literature

Most modern-day voting and election systems in the world still rely heavily on outdated methods. Everything from voters actually placing their votes, to counting votes and finalizing the results seems to be from a previous century. The need for voters to physically go to the polls, where they wait in queues only to place their votes on paper ballots (or more recently in some places: voting machines), which then get counted by people just seems off in an age of digitalization, artificial intelligence, space-travel, blockchain, and robots. If humanity can make cars that don’t need drivers, apps that connect people from all parts of the world in a small fraction of a second, and cryptocurrencies that are unhackable and untraceable, can’t we – and shouldn’t we – modernize the methods used in elections as well?

But appearing to be slightly off in today’s digitized world isn’t the biggest problem with the methods used today. Current elections can be influenced either intentionally by third parties, or by accident: ballots can be miscounted, altered, or destroyed – purposefully or not –, voting machine software can get hacked, and voters’ – dead or alive – identities can be stolen only to falsely impersonate them in the upcoming elections.

The current methods aren’t optimal for voters either. Physically going to the polls, waiting for a turn to vote, and actually voting are all associated with various costs: the cost of transportation, and the opportunity cost of the time and energy spent on voting. If we look at the influence that a single vote has on the outcome of the elections, the Downs-paradox – the fact that voting is an irrational behavior – becomes obvious: high costs for marginal returns. Realizing this, many citizens whom are eligible to vote choose not to participate in elections at all. If the voting turnout for a particular election is low, one can argue that the results are undemocratic in a sense that they don’t actually represent the preferences of the population. Governments – such as the current Hungarian government – can even make it more difficult for some groups of voters to place their votes, while simplifying the process for other groups. This way, by increasing the costs of voting for some groups, while decreasing the costs for others, governments can also influence the outcome of a particular democratic election.

In this paper, I will pursue to answer the question: Can blockchain replace the current methods used in elections to build a more efficient, democratic, and secure election system?

In the second chapter, I will attempt to summarize our existing knowledge on the subject. First, I will analyze how blockchain could be used in elections. By focusing on the technology, how it can be used for elections, and by bringing up real-world experiments on using blockchain for voting, I hope to identify clear advantages and disadvantages of replacing the current election methods.

The third chapter is about going beyond and extending the scope of the articles discussed in the second chapter by creating new connections between the articles, identifying similarities and differences, and ultimately coming up with new conclusions.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Blockchain in Elections

In the final chapter, I will discuss and summarize the findings of this paper, while giving an in-depth answer to my research question.

Currently the main issues (Jones, 2001) with today’s general voting-methods are security, possible fraud, and the voting-associated opportunity costs for voters. Therefore, any attempt to reform the election methods and system should be aimed at addressing one or more of those issues, while preserving the main benefits – guaranteed anonymity, accessibility for the voters, and relative inexpensiveness for the government – of paper-based voting. Furthermore, any form of electronic voting system should comply with the following criteria (Neumann, 1993): system integrity, accountability, disclosability, availability, and reliability; data confidentiality, integrity and reliability; voter anonymity; operator authentication; interface usability; personnel integrity.

Some experts argue, that two of the three mentioned issues – security and possible fraud –  can be resolved in the near future using blockchain technology (Osgood, 2016). In his article, Osgood argues, that “by storing blocks of information that are identical throughout the network, the blockchain does not have a single point of failure and cannot be controlled by a single entity”. Besides being more secure and nearly incorruptible, using blockchain in elections would make data accessible and verifiable – thus transparent – to all voters. This in turn could lead to increased trust in the voting system. However, after inductively analysing various startups focused on developing blockchain-based election systems, Osgood came to the conclusion that it would be unrealistic to expect blockchain to address the third issue and resolve the Downs-paradox – at least in the near future. Remote voting raises a set of new challenges that cannot be solved easily with blockchain: securing the device (e. g. smartphone or computer) of each voter, preventing coercion, preventing voters from selling their votes, ensuring that voters aren’t intimidated by third parties to vote a certain way, and remotely verifying the identity of voters while guaranteeing anonymity – just to name a few of the challenges. Therefore, Osgood recommends a system in which new – secure – voting machines that run blockchain technology are placed in the voting centers. This would resolve the security issue and minimize the chance of possible fraud, but wouldn’t raise significant new challenges.

A bolder approach would be to not only implement blockchain technology in elections, but actually allow remote voting (Lee, James, Ejeta, & Kim, 2016). Once the consensus to implement blockchain into the voting system is reached, Lee et al. identify the authentication process as the main barrier to remote voting. Therefore, the main challenge is to create an efficient process for voter authentication without violating the other criteria of electronic voting systems – with special regards concerning voter anonymity. The article suggests splitting the authentication process into two distinct steps, done by two separate organizations. One of the organizations has the list of registered voters, whilst the other one receives voters’ declarations to vote. The second organization then reports each one of the declarations to the first organization (without revealing the vote), and receives a binary confirmation whether a given declaration came from a registered voter or not. Besides the previously mentioned benefits of a blockchain-based voting system – security, transparency, and auditability – such a decentralized and remote system would significantly reduce the opportunity costs associated with voting, therefore making elections more accessible, further increasing the willingness to vote, thereby increasing overall the turnout rate – ultimately making elections more democratic.

Expanding and Connecting the Literature

Despite the advantages blockchain-based voting has to offer, there is an ongoing debate about whether blockchain is the next step towards digitized voting, or if it’s just an overhyped new trend. Skeptics claim that  

Introducing blockchain as an alternative election-method isn’t a novel concept. Since the rise of blockchain and cryptocurrencies, experts have been searching for new ways to take advantage of the technology – including digitizing elections.

According to the author (Hreiðarsson G. K.) a blockchain is divided into four categories mainly distributed, immutable, public ledger and incontrovertible. Apart from this there are four essential requirements that are needed to be full filled while using an e-voting system. This will help in using the system effectively. The requirements essential for election are:

• The developed election system should not be able to coerced voting.
• Election system should not be traceable and should not disclose the credentials of voters.
• This is the responsibility of the new system to ensure that the vote is being counted properly.
• The developed election system should not have any connection with third party or in tampering the vote.
• Election system should not count single entity over tallying votes and determine this as elections result.
• The newly developed election system should allow only the eligible candidates to vote in the election.

The author Ferrer, (2018) discusses about the importance of blockchain and the main barrier that is being encountered in this paper is related to authentication process while performing remote voting. Blockchain, is a developing technology that is generated from the fields of Bitcoin. This also describes the peer-to-peer networks within the cryptographic algorithms. In this an agent group is allowed to focus on agreement of a particular state and record the views associated with the agreement without the need of interference of authority. In order to improve the working of the blockchain, distributing the system with other system may help. This includes the use of robotic swarm system with blockchain will help to provide the necessary competences. This will help to make the operation of robotic swarm more secure, independent, reliable, flexible and even more profitable. The authors have explained the working of blockchain technology and the innovative solutions that is provided with the use of this technology (Ferrer, 2018, November). Thus, the main challenge is to create an efficient process so that the authentication of the users can be maintained without violating the criteria of voting system.

In this report, we have analyzed 6 articles that focuses on the use of blockchain in the voting system. Every author has different perspective about this topic. With time and advancement in technology people has moved to better version that will help them in putting their vote efficiently and effectively. Electronic voting machines are the one additional technology that is being implemented for voting purposes. But there are several security issues regarding to the use of electronic voting machine. Thus, including a blockchain technology within the electronic voting machine will provide better function and security. The voting procedure involves moving t places physically, waiting for their turn to vote in along queue. With the help of blockchain technology. The currently used voting system faces a major drawback regarding the security purpose. This is necessary to manage and overcome the issues related to fraud, security and voting associated opportunity costs for voters. Thus, while developing a system for reforming the election method it is necessary to overcome this issues and also includes preserving the main benefits. The benefits includes guaranteed anonymity, relative inexpensiveness for the government and accessibility of voters. According to (Neumann, 1993) every voting system needs to implement the following criteria within their system, this includes: accountability, availability, reliability, integrity, data confidentiality, voter anonymity, operator authentication and interface usability. In the article written by Osgood it is stated that “it will be challenging for the blockchain technology to resolve the third issue that is the Downs-paradox”. With the implementation of remote voting their arises a set of new challenges that are hard to be solved with the blockchain, this includes: securing the devices used by each voter, preventing coercion, preventing voters from selling their votes and also to determine that the voters are not initiated by other parties to vote in a particular way. In order to overcome this challenges, Osgood recommends a system that will include a voting machine that will be new and secured and will be running with the use of blockchain technology and will be placed in the voting canters. Apart from implementing blockchain technology in election, including remote voting will improve the working (Lee, James, Ejeta, & Kim, 2016). While implementing a blockchain within the system a barrier is being encountered that is the authentication problem. Thus, the main challenge is to create an efficient process so that the authentication of the users can be maintained without violating the criteria of voting system. Whereas the author (Hreiðarsson G. K.) states that blockchain can be divided into four major component, this are distributed, immutable, incontrovertible and public ledger. There are four essential requirements that are necessary to be kept in mind while developing a voting system. The last article describes the importance of blockchain and the possible barrier that are likely to be faced while using this voting process.

Conclusion

With the growing technologies and the need for a better democratic country this is necessary to understand the importance of secured procedure of voting. The secured procedure of voting will help in gaining exact feedback. But apart from the technologies many country and their election system still uses the old voting procedures. The procedure of election and the voting process is a very long process with step by step execution. With time and advancement in technology people has moved to better version that will help them in putting their vote efficiently and effectively. Electronic voting machines are the one additional technology that is being implemented for voting purposes. But there are several security issues regarding to the use of electronic voting machine. Thus, including a blockchain technology within the electronic voting machine will provide better function and security. The voting procedure involves moving to places physically, waiting for their turn to vote in along queue. With the help of blockchain technology. The time incorporated in travelling can be saved with the use of technology, moreover this also ensures that only authenticate person with correct identity is allowed to put their vote. Voting is a major aspect as it needs to be authenticate else it can put a lot of effect on the building of constitution and for choosing the right leader for the society. Implementing blockchain into election systems would have its benefits. The main indisputable benefits of blockchain are its transparency and auditability. In current election systems, voters can never be completely sure if their vote was counted or not. Voters might never find out if there was an election fraud, or if a third party – for example a foreign nation – hacked into their election system. By using blockchain, all data would be unchangeable as well as accessible and verifiable by all voters.

The report has discussed about the importance of blockchain in voting system. The paper has critically analyzed 6 articles in order to understand the working of this system. The main advantage of using blockchain is that it improves the security provided towards the voters and decreases the cost of hosting an election nationwide. With the help of blockchain system the voting process can be done exactly and will receive genuine feedbacks. The main advantage of using blockchain in voting includes transparency, inherent anonymity, reliable and secured, immutable. Immutable features include maintain the integrity of the voters strictly and follows the voting scheme properly.  It also provides better security that ensures protection against Denial of Service Attacks. With the help of blockchain technology the time incorporated in travelling can be saved with the use of technology, moreover this also ensures that only authenticate person with correct identity is allowed to put their vote. Voting is a major aspect as it needs to be authenticate else it can put a lot of effect on the building of constitution and for choosing the right leader for the society.

After reviewing the articles and analysing their paper it can be stated that implementing blockchain technology for voting purpose will be beneficial. As we all know that voting is a major aspect and hence it needs to be authenticate properly, else it can put a lot of effect on the building of constitution and for choosing the right leader for the society. Implementing blockchain into election systems would have its benefits. After analyzing the papers, I can state that while developing a system for voting purpose it is necessary to overcome this issues and also includes preserving the main benefits. The benefits includes guaranteed anonymity, relative inexpensiveness for the government and accessibility of voters. According to me, it is better to implement blockchain with remote voting. This will help in resolving all the issues and to develop a secured system.

References

Ferrer, E. C. (2018, November). ). The blockchaiin: a new framework for roboticcs swarm system.

Hreiðarsson, G. K. (2016). Blockchain-Based E-Votin System.

Jones, D. W. (2001). Problems with Voting Systems and the Applicable Standards. Washington D. C.

Lee, K., James, J. I., Ejeta, T. G., & Kim, H. J. (2016). Electronic Voting Service Using Block-Chain. Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law, 11.

Neumann, P. G. (1993). Security Criteria for Electronic Voting. 16th National Computer Security Conference. Baltimore, Maryland.

Osgood, R. (2016, 12 14). The Future of Democracy: Blockchain Voting.