E-Voting Enabled Using BlockChain
Technology
1
Akash Chauhan 2Ankit Garg 3Ayush Agarwal 4Ravi Pathak
ABSTRACT: E-voting is among the key
public sectors that can be disrupted by
Blockchain technology. The idea in
Blockchain enabled e-voting (BEV) is
simple. To use a digital-currency analogy,
BEV issues each voter a “wallet”
containing a user credential. Each voter
gets a single “coin” representing one
opportunity to vote. Casting a vote transfers
the voter’s coin to a candidate’s wallet. A
voter can spend his or her coin only once.
Blockchain might address two of the most
prevalent concerns in voting today: voter
access and voter fraud. The idea is as
follows. Eligible voters cast a ballot
anonymously using a computer or
smartphone. BEV employs an encrypted key
and tamperproof personal IDs. For
example, the mobile e-voting platform of the
Boston-based startup Voatz employs smart
biometrics and real-time ID verification.
The public ledger ties each cast ballot to an
individual voter and establishes a
permanent, immutable record. No bad actor
can engage in nefarious activities because
such activities will be evident on the ledger
or corrected by a peer-to peer consensus
network. To compromise the network,
hackers would need to successfully hack
most of the blocks (files with transaction
records) before new blocks were introduced.
The Blockchain audit trail ensures that no
vote has been changed or removed and that
no fraudulent and illegitimate votes have
been added. Simply, Blockchain enables the
creation of tamper-proof audit trails for
voting.
KEYWORDS: Voter access, Voter
fraud, immutable, tamperproof.
1. INTRODUCTION
Free and fair elections are a central feature
of democracy. As the world becomes more
digital and mobile phones more widespread,
online voting and blockchain technology
have the potential to make voting more
accessible and improve election integrity.
Although at an early stage, these blockchain
initiatives demonstrate that blockchain can
be used to create secure, online voting in
government and private elections. The
potential benefits are huge given the current
problems relating to election integrity and
accessibility around the world.
On the other hand, voting and cyber security
experts have strong concerns about whether
online voting can be secure and whether
blockchain technology is necessary for
online voting. To better understand these
issues, it is necessary to separate the
concerns into two parts. Firstly, I explore
governance and privacy issues within
blockchain voting systems. Different
blockchain architectures can affect who
controls, validates and views data on the
blockchain. Examining how these case
studies address governance and privacy
issues in their blockchain platforms can help
us understand the current criticisms of
blockchain technology in online voting.
Secondly, I look at security issues relating to
the use of personal mobile phones and
computers for online voting. Blockchain
technology is often one part of
end-to-end solution in electronic voting.
Cyber security issues relating to how users
access voting systems affect blockchain as
well as non-blockchain voting systems. To
separate these cyber security issues from
blockchain technology, I look at two online
voting case studies that do not use
blockchain technology. Interestingly,
although cyber security concerns are very
real, these case studies demonstrate the
viability and long-term use of secure online
voting, including the case in Estonia where
online voting has been used for government
elections since 2005.
While all the blockchain case studies appear
to successfully address the security concerns
relating to online voting; only Voatz and
Votem believe they have addressed
governance and privacy issues. Smart matic-
Cybernetica believes these issues need
further examination and continue to research
these issues as part of a European
consortium. These differences highlight the
fact that blockchain technology in online
voting is still early stage and we need
significantly more testing and validating
before it can become mainstream. It is worth
noting that blockchain technology has
already moved at a quicker pace than most
people anticipated. The current applications
are really impressive and it promises to
solve some really big problems.
BLOCKCHAIN
A blockchain is a peer-to-peer network of
computers, called nodes that share all the
data and the code in the network. So, if
you‟re a device connected to the blockchain,
you are a node in the network, and you talk
to all the other computer nodes in the
network. You now have a copy of all the
data and the code on the blockchain. There
are no more central
the
servers. Just a bunch of computers that talk
to one another on the same network.
Instead of a centralized database, all the
transaction data that is shared across the
nodes in the blockchain is contained in
bundles of records called blocks, which are
chained together to create the public ledger.
This public ledger represents all the data in
the blockchain. All the data in the public
ledger is secured by cryptographic hashing,
and validated by a consensus algorithm.
Nodes on the network participate to ensure
that all copies of the data distributed across
the network are the same.
PILLARS OF BLOCKCHAIN:
The three main properties of Blockchain
Technology which have helped it gain
widespread acclaim are as follows:
1. Decentralization
2. Transparency
3. Immutability
1. Decentralization: Before Bitcoin
and BitTorrent came along, we were
more used to centralized services.
The idea is very simple. You have a
centralized entity that stores all the
data and you‟d have to interact
solely with this entity to get
whatever information you require.
Another example of a centralized
system is the banks. They store all
your money, and the only way that
you can pay someone by going
through the bank. In a decentralized
system, the information is not stored
by one single entity. In fact,
everyone in the network
owns the information. In a
decentralized network, if you want to
interact with your friend then you
can do so directly without going
 through a third party. That was the
main ideology behind Bitcoins. You
and only you alone are in charge of
your money. You can send your
money to anyone you want without
having to go through a bank.
2. Transparency: One of the most
interesting and misunderstood
concepts in blockchain is
“transparency. A person‟s identity is
hidden via complex cryptography
and represented only by their public
address. So, if you were to look up a
person‟s transaction history, you
will not see “Bob sent 1 BTC”
instead you will see
“1MF1bhsFLkBzzz9vpFYEmvwT2
TbyCt7NZJ sent 1 BTC”. So, while
the person‟s real identity is secure,
you will still see all the transactions
that were done by their public
address. This level of transparency
has never existed before within a
financial system. It adds that extra,
and much needed level of
accountability which is required by
some of these biggest institutions.
Speaking purely from the point of
view of cryptocurrency, if you know
the public address of one of these big
companies, you can simply pop it in
an explorer and look at all the
transactions that they have engaged
in. This forces them to be honest,
something that they have never had
to deal with before.
3. Immutability: Immutability, in the
context of the blockchain, means that
once something has been entered
into the blockchain, it cannot be
tampered with. The reason why the
blockchain gets this property is that
of the cryptographic hash function.
product development. Blockchains take this
In simple terms, hashing means
taking an input string of any length
and giving out an output of a fixed
length. In the context of
cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, the
transactions are taken as input and
run through a hashing algorithm
(Bitcoin uses SHA-256) which gives
an output of a fixed length.
The blockchain is a linked list that
contains data and a hash pointer that
points to its previous block, hence
creating the chain. What is a hash
pointer? A hash pointer is similar to
a pointer, but instead of just
containing the address of the
previous block it also contains the
hash of the data inside the previous
block. This one small tweak is what
makes blockchains so amazingly
reliable and trailblazing.
ASSETS OF BLOCKCHAIN
The blockchain network gives internet users
the ability to create value and authenticates
digital information. Here are some assets of
blockchain:
1. Smart contracts: Distributed ledger
technology enables the coding of simple
contracts that will execute when specified
conditions are met. Ethereum is an open-
source blockchain project that was built
specifically to realize this possibility.
2. The sharing economy: By enabling
peer-to-peer payments, the blockchain opens
the door to direct interaction between parties
— a truly decentralized sharing economy
results.
3. Crowdfunding: Crowdfunding initiatives
like Kickstarter and Gofundme are doing the
advance work for the emerging peer-to-peer
economy. The popularity of these sites
suggests people want to have a direct say in
interest to the next level, potentially creating
crowd-sourced venture capital funds.
4. Governance: By making the results fully
transparent and publicly accessible,
distributed database technology could bring
full transparency to elections or any other
kind of poll taking. Ethereum-based smart
contracts help to automate the process.
5. Supply chain auditing: Consumers
increasingly want to know that the ethical
claims companies make about their products
are real. Distributed ledgers provide an easy
way to certify that the backstories of the
things we buy are genuine. Transparency
comes with blockchain-based timestamping
of a date and location — on ethical
diamonds, for instance — that corresponds
to a product number.
6. File storage: Decentralizing file storage
on the internet brings clear benefits.
Distributing data throughout the network
protects files from getting hacked or lost.
7. Prediction markets: The crowdsourcing
of predictions on event probability is proven
to have a high degree of accuracy.
Averaging opinions cancels out the
unexamined biases that distort judgment.
Prediction markets that payout according to
event outcomes are already active.
8. Protection of intellectual property: As
is well known, digital information can be
infinitely reproduced — and distributed
widely thanks to the internet. This has given
web users globally a goldmine of free
content. However, copyright holders have
not been so lucky, losing control over their
intellectual property and suffering
financially as a consequence. Smart
contracts can protect copyright and automate
the sale of creative works online,
eliminating the risk of file copying and
redistribution.
and at the same time increase monitoring
and analysis effectiveness.
9. Internet of Things (IoT): What is the
IoT? The network-controlled management
of certain types of electronic devices — for
instance, the monitoring of air temperature
in a storage facility. Smart contracts make
the automation of remote systems
management possible. A combination of
software, sensors, and the network
facilitates an exchange of data between
objects and mechanisms. The result
increases system efficiency and improves
cost monitoring.
10. Neighbourhood Microgrids:
Blockchain technologies enables the buying
and selling of the renewable energy
generated by neighborhood microgrids.
When solar panels make excess energy,
Ethereum-based smart contracts
automatically redistribute it. Similar types of
smart contract automation will have many
other applications as the IoT becomes a
reality.
11. Identity management: There is a
definite need for better identity management
on the web. The ability to verify your
identity is the lynchpin of financial
transactions that happen online. However,
remedies for the security risks that come
with web commerce are imperfect at best.
Distributed ledgers offer enhanced methods
for proving who you are, along with the
possibility to digitize personal documents.
Having a secure identity will also be
important for online interactions.
12. AML and KYC: Anti-money
laundering (AML) and know your customer
(KYC) practices have a strong potential for
being adapted to the blockchain. Currently,
financial institutions must perform a labor-
intensive multi-step process for each new
customer. KYC costs could be reduced
through cross-institution client verification
13. Data management: Today, in exchange
for their personal data people can use social
media platforms like Facebook for free. In
the future, users will have the ability to
manage and sell the data their online activity
generates. Because it can be easily
distributed in small fractional amounts.
14. Land title registration: As Publicly-
accessible ledgers, blockchains can make all
kinds of record-keeping more efficient.
Property titles are a case in point. They tend
to be susceptible to fraud, as well as costly
and labor-intensive to administer.
15. Stock trading: The potential for added
efficiency in share settlement makes a strong
use case for blockchains in stock trading.
When executed peer-to-peer, trade
confirmations become almost instantaneous
(as opposed to taking three days for
clearance).
2. EXISTING SYSTEM
Case Study 1: Voatz — State of West
Virginia, 2018 Federal Elections, USA
In the first use of blockchain technology in a
U.S. federal election, the State of West
Virginia used Voatz‟s mobile voting
application to enable overseas voters to vote
in the 2018 U.S. midterm elections. A total
of 144 voters from 31 countries participated
in the pilot. The Voatz application relies on
blockchain technology to create an
immutable record of the votes cast. It also
uses cybersecurity software to detect
malware on smartphones, and biometrics for
identification and authentication.
Case Study 2: Votem — Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame, 2017 & 2018 Inductee
Voting, USA
In 2017, music fans were able to use
Votem‟s blockchain-based mobile voting
assigned by the election commission. This
identification number must be used
platform to vote for the 2018 inductee into
the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Votem
processed over 1.8 million votes without
fraud, compromise, attacks or hacking of
any kind, marking it the largest use of online
voting using blockchain technology to
date.The Votem system was recently used
for the 2018 Inductee Vote.
Case Study 3: Smartmatic-Cybernetica —
Utah Republican Party, 2016 Presidential
Candidate
Election, USA
Smartmatic-Cybernetica delivered the
world‟s first online election using
blockchain technology for the Utah
Republican party caucus in 2016. Nearly
90% of voters registered to vote online. The
platform enabled 24,486 voters.
3. PROPOSED SYSTEM
In ideal condition as occurs with paper
ballot voting, information about whom the
voter voted is kept secret. This information
is not even known to the election
commission. This security aspect is very
central to the electronic voting system. The
system should be secure enough that no one
should be able to know whom the voter
voted for and tamper with it at later stages.
Also, there should be efforts to ensure the
anonymity of the voter. To maintain voting
data confidentiality, trusted third party(TTP)
can be used. TTP acts as an agent between
the voter and the election commission to
authenticate the voter to vote during
elections. Without TTP, it is difficult to
incorporate security and data confidentiality.
BEFORE VOTING: The election
commission should provide a user interface
to the voter to express his intention for
voting. The voter can be identified with any
of the unique identification numbers
consistently throughout the process. In the
registration process, the voter submits a
secret message. As a response to the secret
message, the client site web page generates a
unique random reference number to the
voter which has to be noted for future
reference during voting.
An internally hash secret message and
reference number is generated and stored in
the election commission database. It‟s
important that voter not share this secret
message and reference
number with the election commission.
Otherwise, the election commission writes
to get to know who voted for whom and
potentially manipulate the whole voting
process at later stages of voting.
DURING VOTING: In the real world,
voting happens during the stipulated period.
The same procedure is followed here.
However, the duration of voting can be
extended. During voting, the voter has to
submit the same secret message and
reference number that has been generated
during voter registration to the trusted third
party. Trusted third party has to send the
message hash to the election commission to
verify that the voter is a valid voter. Upon
After the voting completeness, detailed
report about a candidate‟s results party-wise
verification, the election commission returns
the validity of the voter to a trusted third
party.
A voter identified as valid will be taken to
the voting page. There, a list of candidates
will be shown based on constituency.
During this process, a trusted third party
generates a public key for the voter using the
multi-chain network and stores this
information against the hash of the secret
message and reference number of the voter.
The same is depicted in above. There are
cases where a voter might try to vote
multiple times for the same contestant or for
the multiple contestants. In either case of the
system guards against such malicious
voting. This safeguarding is made possible
in a multi-chain by restricting the number of
transactions between 2 parties to one.
Hence, even if the voter does more than one
transaction/votes, those will be invalidated
by multi-chain.
AFTER VOTING: Since it is an electronic
voting system, reports can be generated in
real time. However, the real time report of
who is leading and who is lagging should
not be made public as it might affect public
sentiment and could bais to a particular
party or candidate.
results, constituency results etc. can be easily
prepared using any BI tool b coming data
from multi-chain and data stored in Election
Commission records.
dApps: The Ultimate Open Source
Revolution
The dApp concept is still in its nascent
stage. Explaining the same in a single line is
tough because no
a specific definition seems to fit all the
attributes that make an application a
decentralized app. As dApps, an application
is required to exhibit the following four
characteristics:
1. Open Source: The first and
foremost attribute is that such apps
should make their core source code
available to everyone. As the core
characteristic of dApps is autonomy
and unanimous consensus,
essentially the changes must be
decided by all or the majority of the
users. Also, the code should be
available to everyone for checking
out.
2. Decentralized Nature: As the name
suggests, decentralized applications
store everything on a decentralized
blockchain or any cryptographic
technology to save the app from
perils of centralized authority and
emphasize on autonomous nature.
3. Incentivization: As the app is based
on the decentralized blockchain, the
validators of the records on the
network must be
rewarded/incentivized with
cryptographic tokens or any form of
digital asset that has value.
and integrity and lays the ground for
4. Algorithm: Decentralized app needs
to have a consensus mechanism that
portrays proof of value in the
cryptographic system. Essentially,
this endows value to the
cryptographic token and creates a
consensus protocol that users agree
upon to generate valuable crypto
tokens.
4. RESULT ANALYSIS
E-voting is still a controversial topic within
both political and scientific circles. Despite
the existence of a few very good examples,
most of which are still in use; many more
attempts were either failed to provide the
security and privacy features of a traditional
election or have serious usability and
scalability issues. On the contrary,
blockchain-based e-voting solutions,
including the one we have implemented
using the smart contracts and the Ethereum
network, address (or may address with
relevant modifications) almost all of the
security concerns, like privacy of voters,
integrity, verification and non-repudiation of
votes, and transparency of counting. Yet,
there are also some properties that cannot be
addressed solely using the blockchain, for
example authentication of voters (on the
personal level, not on the account level)
requires additional mechanisms to be
integrated, such as use of biometric factors.
5. CONCLUSION
In this project, we introduced a blockchain-
based electronic voting system that utilizes
smart contracts to enable secure and cost-
efficient election while guaranteeing voters
privacy. We have shown that blockchain
technology offers a new possibility to
overcome the limitations and adoption
barriers of electronic voting systems which
ensures the election security
transparency. Using an Ethereum private
blockchain, it is possible to send hundreds of 6. S. Holder, “Can the Blockchain Tame
transactions per Moscow‟s Wild Politics?,” CityLab, 22
second onto the blockchain, utilizing every Dec. 2017;
aspect of the smart contract to ease the load https://www.citylab.com/life/2017/12/can-th
on the blockchain. e-blockchain
For countries of greater size, some -tame-moscows-wild-politics/547973.
additional measures would be needed to 7. “A South Korean Province Used
support greater throughput of Blockchain Tech for Resident Vot- ing,”
transactions per second. CCN.com, 8 Mar.
In future to make the Voting application 2017; https://www.ccn.com/south-korean
more secure we would like to add more -province-used-blockchain-tech
authentication systems like biometrics, face 8. https://ethereum.org/
ID and other authentication units. This way 9. https://www.trufflesuite.com/
we can provide more security and ensure 10. https://www.trufflesuite.com/ganache
that the vote is being casted by the voter 11. https://www.chaijs.com/
themselves. 12. https://mochajs.org/
13. https://solidity.readthedocs.io/en/v0.5.3
REFERENCES:
1. Digital Home Blockchain Voting
System,ActiveCitizen in Moscow Opens,
“BitcoinExchangeGuide.com”.
2. “How Estonia Brought Blockchain Closer
to Citizens: GovTech Case Studies,”
Cointelegraph, 7 Mar.
2017; http://cointelegraph
3. “South Korea Uses Blockchain
Technology for elections,” KryptoMoney, 2
may 2017;
http://KrytoMoney.com/south-korea-uses-Bl
ockchain-technology-for-elections.
4. M.D. Castillo, “Russia Is Leading the
Push for Blockchain Democracy,”
CoinDesk, 2018; https://www
.coindesk.com/russias-capital
-leading-charge-blockchain -democracy.
5. B. Kimathi, “Why You Shouldn‟t Get
Carried Away by Sierra Leone‟s Blockchain
Elections,” Crypto-
Lines, 13 Mar. 2018;
https://crypto-lines.com/2018/03/13/blockch
ain -elections.