Secured Electronic Voting System Using the Concepts of Blockchain

Abstract

Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) are replacing paper ballots because of (i) the errors involved in the manual counting process and (ii) the large time period required to count the votes. Even though these digital recording electronic systems are advancements, they are prone to tampering and electoral frauds. The suspected vulnerabilities in EVMs are (i) the possibilities of tampering with the EVM’s memory chip or switching it with a fake one, (ii) their simplicity, which enables them to be tampered without requiring much skill and (iii) the chances of double voting. This paper attempts to solve the above problems by storing the vote data in a decentralized network and securing the data using a security mechanism derived from the blockchain framework (which is currently used for securing cryptocurrencies). The vote data is shared among all the devices in the network and peer to peer verification is done to verify the authenticity of the vote data. In order to successfully tamper with the system, the data stored in all the nodes must be changed. This makes the proposed system more efficient and reliable. In this paper, we propose an algorithm, which is based on the concepts of blockchain, to secure the votes stored in an EVM. A fingerprint authentication system is also added as an extra layer of security to prevent double voting. The proposed EVM will be tamperproof, and any attempt to manipulate the registered votes, will be detected and the tampered data will be replaced with the correct data.