Abstract
E-voting is one of the valid use cases of blockchain technology with many blockchain e-voting systems already proposed. But efforts that focus on critical analysis of blockchain e-voting architectures for national elections from stakeholders’ perspectives are mostly lacking in the literature. Therefore, government decision-makers and election stakeholders do not yet have a sufficient basis to understand the potential risks, challenges, and prospects that are associated with blockchain e-voting. This paper demonstrates how the use of the Architecture Trade-off Analysis Method (ATAM) can enable stakeholders in national elections to understand the risks, prospects, and challenges that could be associated with a blockchain e-voting system for national elections. By using a study context of South Africa, a proposed blockchain e-voting architecture was used as a basis to aid election stakeholders to reason on the concept of blockchain e-voting to get them to understand the potential risks, security threats, critical requirements attributes, and weaknesses that could be associated with using blockchain e-voting for national elections. The study found that blockchain e-voting can prevent many security attacks, internal vote manipulation, and promote transparency. However, voter validation and the security of the blockchain architecture are potential weaknesses that will need significant attention.
Highlights
Credible elections are the foundation for lasting democracy and good governance
In this paper we show that despite several efforts that have been made to propose novel designs and system implementations of blockchain e-voting, adequate attention has not been given to the adoption of a stakeholder-centric approach
This has provided an insufficient basis for government decision-makers and key election stakeholder to be able to make an informed decision on the merits of blockchain e-voting for national elections
Summary
Credible elections are the foundation for lasting democracy and good governance. Elections in many developing countries are historically marred with difficulties, errors, and institutional manipulations which reduces their credibility. Background information, the topics of e-voting for national elections, and blockchain technology are presented. It closes with a review of related work. E-voting is appealing for national elections in many countries because of its potential to eliminate many of the challenges that are associated with traditional paper-based elections. Some countries are known to have utilised e-voting systems for national elections These include Estonia, Norway, and Switzerland [3]. The design of most e-voting systems are based on centralised coordination that makes them vulnerable to cyberattacks, and distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks, which may impair the outcome of elections. E-voting systems have been implemented in countries like Brazil, Estonia, India, and the USA, several shortcomings have been observed [2,6]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
