Implementing a Blockchain-Based Voting App: Features, Security, and Integration
Introduction
The concept of digital voting has garnered significant attention as an innovative solution to enhance voter participation, reduce costs, and increase election integrity.
Utilizing blockchain technology, a voting app offers a transparent, very secure, and accessible platform for democratic engagement. Imagine voting on an issue as and when a decision is needed, instead of waiting for the next “big bang” election.
We have already tested prototypes. All that is needed is to connect them to the national electoral database.
In this article we explore how such an app could be implemented, focusing on universal access, security features, integration with existing electoral systems, and additional functionalities like public opinion polling.
A blockchain-based voting app could revolutionize how democracies operate, providing an accessible, secure, and transparent platform for voter engagement. By integrating with existing systems like the electoral roll and extending its utility to gauge public opinion, a voting app could enhance democratic processes significantly.
However, its success hinges on building in strong security protocols, ensuring legal compliance, and gaining public trust in the technology, as well as having access to the government electoral roll. That will only be achieved when government replacement is achieved, as proposed in this website.
Implementing the Voting App
1. User Authentication and Access:
- Universal Access: Users would download the free app from app stores or access it via a secure web interface. To ensure users can vote from anywhere, the app would use multi-factor authentication (MFA), leveraging existing national identity systems or mobile network operators for verification.
- Login Process: The login could involve:
- Something the user knows (password or PIN).
- Something the user has (like an electoral Identity Card, or mobile device).
- Something the user is (biometric data, e.g., fingerprint or facial recognition). This ensures that voting can occur securely from any location with internet access.
- Alternative Voting: Not all citizens will have a mobile phone or other digital device they can install the voting app on. In that case citizens will be able to get voting forms at the post office to mail in to the electoral commission.
2. Blockchain Integration:
- Decentralized Ledger: Votes would be recorded on a blockchain, providing tamper-evident records. Each vote would be a transaction on the blockchain, ensuring that once cast, votes cannot be altered.
- Smart Contracts: These would automate the voting process, from eligibility checks to vote counting, ensuring that only registered voters can participate and that votes are counted correctly.
3. App Features:
- Voter Interface: An intuitive UI would allow users to view current issues, learn more through integrated information resources, and cast their vote with clear visual feedback.
- Real-Time Voting: Enable voting on issues as they arise, not just on election day, potentially increasing civic engagement.
- Transparency Tools: Voters could see the blockchain ledger of votes, anonymized for privacy, promoting trust in the system, confident that the results cannot be tampered with.
- Notification System: Push notifications for new issues, voting deadlines, and results.
4. Security Measures:
- End-to-End Encryption: Ensure votes are encrypted on the user’s device and only decrypted when necessary by the blockchain network.
- Auditability: The blockchain allows for end-to-end verifiable (E2E-V) voting, where voters can check if their vote was counted as intended without compromising anonymity.
- Protection Against Coercion: By allowing multiple votes (with only the last one counted), the system could mitigate vote-buying and coercion in remote voting scenarios.
Protection Against Coercion:
- Vote Buying: In traditional voting systems, especially those that are not well-protected, there’s a risk of vote buying where someone might pay a voter to vote a certain way. If a voter can prove how they voted (for example, by showing a screenshot in electronic voting), this opens up opportunities for corruption.
- Coercion: Similarly, coercion involves forcing or pressuring someone to vote in a particular manner. This could be from family members, political entities, or other influential groups.
Mechanism of Multiple Votes:
- Allowing Multiple Votes: The system described allows voters to cast multiple votes, but with a critical caveat:
- Only the Last Vote Counts: Here’s how it works to mitigate the issues:
- Countering Vote Buying: If a voter has been paid to vote for a specific candidate but can change their vote later, they can vote as instructed initially but then cast their final vote for their preferred choice at the last moment. This means the vote buyer can’t ensure the vote will stick.
- Countering Coercion: Similarly, if someone is coerced into voting in a certain way, they can comply with the coercion in the moment but later change their vote in private, ensuring that their final vote reflects their true preference.
Benefits of Such a System:
- Anonymity and Privacy: By only counting the last vote, the system maintains the anonymity of the voter’s final choice. This privacy reduces the effectiveness of both vote buying and coercion since there’s no definitive proof of how someone ultimately voted.
- Enhanced Security for Remote Voting: Remote voting systems, like online voting, are particularly vulnerable to these threats due to the lack of physical oversight. This method adds a layer of security by allowing voters to reconsider their vote without external influence.
- Empowerment: It empowers voters by giving them the autonomy to change their mind, which can be crucial in scenarios where initial votes might have been made under duress or misinformation.
Potential Challenges:
- System Complexity: Such a system requires robust software to manage multiple votes securely and ensure that only the last vote per voter is counted.
- Voter Education: Voters need to be educated about this system to understand how it works to protect their vote.
- Efficiency: Ensuring the system is efficient enough to handle the potential increased load of multiple votes without compromising speed or security.
This approach doesn’t completely eliminate coercion or vote buying but significantly reduces their effectiveness, thereby enhancing the integrity of elections, especially in environments where traditional voting oversight is challenging.
5. Integration with Existing Electoral Systems:
- Electoral Roll Database: The app would need to interface with the current electoral roll, likely through secure API connections. This would ensure:
- Eligibility Verification: Only registered voters can log in and vote.
- Data Synchronization: Real-time updates to voter status (e.g., changes in address or eligibility).
- Regulatory Compliance: The app would comply with existing laws regarding voting, privacy, and data protection, which might involve legislative adjustments to accommodate blockchain voting.
6. Polling Service for Public Opinion:
- Public Opinion Gauge: Beyond formal elections, the app could serve as a tool for government bodies to conduct polls on various issues.
- Non-binding Surveys: These would not have the legal weight of elections but would provide instant feedback on public sentiment, helping policymakers gauge public mood on legislative proposals or local issues.
Challenges and Considerations
- Security Vulnerabilities: Despite blockchain’s robustness, vulnerabilities in mobile devices or network security could be exploited. Continuous security audits and updates are essential. However, a voting app like the one we propose is extremely difficult to hack, and it will provide a much more secure system than the current pen and paper one.
- Privacy Concerns: Ensuring voter anonymity while maintaining transparency is challenging. Zero-knowledge proofs could be employed to verify votes without revealing identities.
- Adoption and Trust: Public and political acceptance of blockchain voting requires education, pilot programs, and possibly parallel systems with traditional voting methods initially.
- Legal Framework: Existing laws might not account for blockchain voting; legislative bodies would need to adapt regulations to ensure the system’s legality and integrity. However, the legislators will be directly accountable to the voters who can replace them if they fail to do their duty. This system will provide secure accountability from our public servants.