Blockchain-based Voting Research Articles

Blockchain-Based E-Voting System with Face Recognition

Given the increasing importance of technology in meeting human needs, its utilization has become crucial. In contemporary democracies, where public trust in governments is declining and elections play a pivotal role, the widespread adoption of technology has led to new challenges. Elections hold significant importance as they determine the future leaders of countries or organizations. However, certain computerized voting systems have faced criticism for their lack of transparency. Establishing public trust in the government is a formidable task due to the lack of transparency and susceptibility to exploitation in existing voting procedures. Both traditional and current digital voting systems are ineffective due to their vulnerabilities. The main objective is to address issues in conventional and electronic voting systems, including errors and unfairness that may arise during the voting process. Integrating blockchain technology into the electoral process can ensure fair elections and reduce unfair practices. The computerized voting methods do not meet the necessary standards for widespread usage, and the physical voting systems also face numerous issues. This underscores the importance of finding a solution to protect the democratic principles of citizens. By offering a fast and secure voting method, this system has the potential to bring about a revolutionary change in the electoral process. It could lead to higher voter participation and more accurate election results. The proposed approach presents a framework for digital voting using blockchain technology, eliminating the need for physical polling locations. Our suggested design incorporates adaptable consensus algorithms to support a scalable blockchain. Smart contracts ensure secure interactions between users and the network during transaction execution. The security aspects of the blockchain-based voting mechanism have also been addressed, including the use of cryptographic hashes for transaction encryption and prevention of 51% attacks. Furthermore, blockchain technology has been utilized to establish transaction systems throughout the voting process. Performance studies of the proposed system demonstrate its feasibility for deployment in large populations.

ACB-Vote: Efficient, Flexible, and Privacy- Preserving Blockchain-Based Score Voting With Anonymously Convertible Ballots

Blockchain has emerged as a decentralized platform for e-voting. Among various blockchain-based voting systems, score voting provides flexible choices and better reflects public opinions. However, existing blockchain-based score voting systems suffer from heavy range proof overheads, and are much inefficient compared with other blockchain-based voting systems. Besides, voter anonymity in these systems is not rigorously addressed. In this paper, we propose an efficient, flexible and privacy-preserving score voting system, named ACB-Vote, from anonymously convertible ballots. ACB-Vote achieves voting anonymity with BBS+ signature and signature of knowledge. Driven by convertibly linkable signatures (CLS), ACB-Vote allows cast ballots to be converted, where the conversion mechanism prevents anonymous voters from multiple voting. Besides, the proposed system avoids heavy range proofs, enables batch ballot verification and facilitates flexible tallying methods. We formally define a security model for ACB-Vote and provide rigorous security proofs. Experiments show that the efficiency of ACB-Vote is competitive compared with the previous score voting systems and is affordable in blockchain environments.

Preserving Transparency and Integrity of Elections Utilising Blockchain Technology

Digital voting is increasingly important in both established and emerging democracies. Some of the advantages of digital voting are faster vote count and tabulation; accurate results; increased voters’ participation and convenience; and effective handling of complex electoral system formats that require laborious counting procedures. However, transparency, credibility, and integrity concerns, as well as the limited possibility of recount, usually make traditional digital voting systems unpopular. Digital voting using blockchain technology, however, is safe, transparent, and immutable, which makes it a suitable choice for future decentralized voting systems. In particular, the Ethereum blockchain is proposed as an appropriate platform for the backbone of an e-voting system due to its widespread use, transparency, consistency and provision of smart contracts. Initial piloting on the implementation of a blockchain-based voting framework in Jordan shows promising results on its transparency and integrity by incorporating a space for representatives and observers to monitor the election procedure and results as an additional measure to ensure its efficiency and reliability. The uptake of the proposed system calls for further debate and dialogue amongst governments and people, especially in developing countries where democracy is still in its infancy.

An overview of Blockchain Technology towards E-voting in Malaysia

This paper gives a general overview of blockchain-based electronic voting systems. The aim of this paper is to examine the status of blockchain-based voting research, as well as any potential difficulties, with the aim of predicting future developments in the Malaysia scenario. This paper was conducted based on literature review. A conceptual description of the planned blockchain-based e-voting application is provided after an introduction to the fundamental structure and characteristics of the blockchain in relation to e-voting. In addition, this paper also highlights several issues related to blockchain technologies and e-voting. Keywords: e-voting, Blockchain, Blockchain technology eISSN: 2398-4287© 2022. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BYNC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under the responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians/Africans/Arabians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.

A Blockchain Based Portal for Online E-Voting

In place of traditional electoral systems, the implementation of e-voting systems is widely adopted which still has major problems in the results. Online voting is an alternative to the old paper voting system and today's popular Electronic Vote Machine (EVM). E-voting systems are very susceptible to manipulation issues, such as alteration of election results by hacking or by the manufacturer of the voting system. To solve this problem, we use distributed ledger technology to create a voting application that is accessible to everyone and everywhere. Blockchain, which is the technology behind the first Bitcoin cryptocurrency, has attracted a lot of attention globally in recent years. This paper proposes a blockchain-based voting system that removes some limitations of existing voting systems. The application is based on the Ethereum blockchain which makes the entire system secure and immutable in nature. The presented implementation is suitable for small-scale elections such as inside corporate homes, meeting rooms, and more.

SECURE E-VOTING USING BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY

An election is an important event in all countries. Traditional voting has several drawbacks, including the expense of time and effort required for tallying and counting results, the cost of papers, arrangements, and everything else required to complete a voting process. Many countries are now considering online e-voting systems, but the traditional e- voting systems suffer a lack of trust, it is not known if a vote is counted correctly, tampered or not. A lack of transparency means that the voter has no assurance that his or her vote will be counted as they voted in elections. Electronic voting systems are increasingly using blockchain technology as an underlying storage mechanism to make the voting process more transparent and assure data immutability as blockchain technology grows in popularity. The transparent feature, on the other hand, may reveal critical information about applicants because all system users have the same entitlement to their data. Furthermore, because of blockchain's pseudo- anonymity, voters' privacy will be revealed, and third parties involved in the voting process, such as registration institutions, will be able to tamper with data. To overcome these difficulties, we apply Ethereum smart contracts to blockchain-based voting systems. Keywords— Blockchain, e-voting

Implementation and Early Adoption of an Ethereum-Based Electronic Voting System for the Prevention of Fraudulent Voting

Today’s online voting systems pose security concerns and cannot be used for public elections, while offline voting costs significantly more. As a result, a decentralized electronic voting system is emerging, backed by blockchain technology. With blockchain technology applied to online voting, the system can guarantee transparency and confidentiality because individual voter information and aggregate information are stored in a distributed fashion. Due to its decentralized nature, a blockchain-based voting system is more secure than the existing central server-based online voting system. In this study, an Ethereum-based electronic voting system was developed. This system resolves the issue of fraudulent voting by enhancing the safety and reliability of the electronic voting system.

A Proposed Blockchain-Based Voting System with User Authentication through Biometrics

Transparency and security in an electoral process are fundamental to the legitimacy of the results and the confidence of voters. Thus, it is necessary to assess opportunities to improve traditional voting systems. Among the main problems is the lack of transparency, due to the impossibility of a voter checking their vote and the lack of access to the source from which the results are obtained. Another problem is mobility, due to the impossibility of performing remote voting, as traditional voting systems continue to require the physical presence of the voter in an electoral zone. Thus, the objective of this work is to propose a voting system that is functional, transparent, safe, and accessible to everyone. Voters can vote through a mobile application with biometric authentication using fingerprint and password access. In our proposal, votes are registered in an Ethereum Blockchain through a Smart Contract, allowing the voter to check their vote. The results are expected to collaborate with the evolution of studies necessary to improve traditional voting systems, especially in fundamental aspects such as security, transparency, and mobility.

Blokzincir Teknolojisi Yerel Yönetimlerde Katılımı Artırabilir Mi? Yerel Yönetimlerde Blokzincir Tabanlı Oylama Sistemleri Üzerine Bir İnceleme

The purpose of this study is to examine the impacts of applications that use blockchain-based electronic voting systems on local participation. The study is structured in this framework to contain three sections. The conceptual framework of the study is presented in the first section. The major concepts (participation, digitization, blockchain, and local governments, among others) to be used in the contents of the study are addressed. The second chapter provides a brief overview of blockchain technology, as well as its applications and historical evolution. The third section discussed what blockchain technology was, as well as its attributes and potential benefits to local participation. The main finding obtained in this study shows that the implementation of blockchain-based voting systems will increase local participation

E-Voting using Blockchain Technology

Blockchain is a decentralized, digital, and consensus-based secure information storage system. This article gives an overview of how to use the blockchain to construct a secure and trustworthy electronic voting system. The main goal of this paper is to investigate the most recent state of blockchain-based voting research while attempting to foresee the accompanying potential issues future developments. This paper's technique is as follows: a methodical approach to review and following an overview of the blockchain's core structure and properties in relation. We present a conceptual definition of e-voting. Desired e-voting application based on blockchain symmetrical improvements in asymmetrical cryptography are also important. We gathered and examined a number of research papers from scientific databases that advocated for the use of the blockchain architecture in voting systems. These articles suggested that blockchain-based voting systems may offer alternatives to standard e-voting. The most pressing challenges were divided into five categories: general, integrity, coin-based, privacy, and consensus. As a consequence of this study, it was discovered that blockchain systems can help solve some of the issues that now plague election systems. We are attempting to design a system that respects the essential and most significant aspects of a voting system, such as transparency, secrecy, security, and decentralisation, while also providing the extra benefit of mobility.

Exploratory Review: Decentralized Voting System Using Blockchain

Abstract: Electronic voting, often known as e-voting, has been utilized in various forms since the 1970s, with basic advantages over paper-based systems such as improved efficiency and lower error rates. However, achieving widespread acceptance of such systems remains a problem, particularly in terms of strengthening their resistance to possible failures. Blockchain is a modernday disruptive technology that promises to enhance the overall robustness of electronic voting systems. This article describes an effort to use blockchain's features, such as cryptographic underpinnings and transparency, to create an effective e-voting mechanism. The suggested method meets the basic requirements for electronic voting systems and provides end-to-end verifiability. The proposed e-voting method is described in depth, as well as its implementation on the Multichain platform. The article provides an in-depth analysis of the scheme, demonstrating its efficacy in achieving an end-to-end verifiable e-voting system. Electronic trust services are becoming an integral part of the information space. With the reliable implementation of basic services as an electronic signature and electronic authentication, it is possible to build more complex systems that rely on them, particularly the electronic voting system. In the paper, the new concept for developing a decentralized electronic voting system using blockchain technology is proposed. The two-level architecture provides a secure voting process without redundancy of existing (not based on blockchain) systems. The presented blockchain-based voting protocol ensures all requirements that are put forward to such types of protocols including voting transparency and anonymity. This project is aimed to design a decentralized e-voting system. The core idea is to combine the blockchain technology with secret sharing scheme and homomorphic encryption to realize the decentralized e-voting application without a trusted third party. It provides a public and transparent voting process while protecting the anonymity of voter’s identity, the privacy of data transmission and verifiability of ballots during the billing phase. Keywords: Blockchain, Multichain, authentication, decentralized, anonymity

Blockchain for Electronic Voting System-Review and Open Research Challenges.

Online voting is a trend that is gaining momentum in modern society. It has great potential to decrease organizational costs and increase voter turnout. It eliminates the need to print ballot papers or open polling stations—voters can vote from wherever there is an Internet connection. Despite these benefits, online voting solutions are viewed with a great deal of caution because they introduce new threats. A single vulnerability can lead to large-scale manipulations of votes. Electronic voting systems must be legitimate, accurate, safe, and convenient when used for elections. Nonetheless, adoption may be limited by potential problems associated with electronic voting systems. Blockchain technology came into the ground to overcome these issues and offers decentralized nodes for electronic voting and is used to produce electronic voting systems mainly because of their end-to-end verification advantages. This technology is a beautiful replacement for traditional electronic voting solutions with distributed, non-repudiation, and security protection characteristics. The following article gives an overview of electronic voting systems based on blockchain technology. The main goal of this analysis was to examine the current status of blockchain-based voting research and online voting systems and any related difficulties to predict future developments. This study provides a conceptual description of the intended blockchain-based electronic voting application and an introduction to the fundamental structure and characteristics of the blockchain in connection to electronic voting. As a consequence of this study, it was discovered that blockchain systems may help solve some of the issues that now plague election systems. On the other hand, the most often mentioned issues in blockchain applications are privacy protection and transaction speed. For a sustainable blockchain-based electronic voting system, the security of remote participation must be viable, and for scalability, transaction speed must be addressed. Due to these concerns, it was determined that the existing frameworks need to be improved to be utilized in voting systems.

A Blockchain-Based Voting System for E-Elections in Totalitarian States

A Blockchain-Based Voting System for E-Elections in Totalitarian States

A Visionary Approach to Smart Voting System

With the emergence of COVID-19 as a global pandemic, the need for an online voting system is becoming appallingly evident in India. Unfortunately, India still suffers from a flawed electoral system in today's scenario. Ballot rigging, hacking of the EVM (Electronic voting machine), election manipulation, and polling booth capturing are the significant issues in this voting system. To avert such a costly predicament in the future, many countries are currently experimenting with blockchain-based voting systems. However, there are also significant drawbacks to this method. Consequently, our paper proposes a novel online voting system based on hash graph technology. The hash graph encryption method is a superior version of blockchain encryption and eradicates a few drawbacks of blockchain. This system preserves participant's anonymity while still being open to public inspection. Voters are authenticated using their Voter Id, Aadhaar Card Number, and face recognition. Furthermore, JWT Authentication is implemented to enhance the security of the login portal. Additionally, the voters can also assure their cast vote using the highly encrypted unique ID generated by our system. Besides that, the voter data is stored in a highly secured database. Furthermore, homomorphic encryption is used to store the votes and assist in counting the vote securely. Finally, it is also equipped with a chatbot that works as a support to the voters. In conclusion, this paper presents an in-depth evaluation of the scheme that successfully demonstrates its effectiveness in achieving an end-to-end verifiable online voting system.

The Application of the Blockchain Technology in Voting Systems

Voting is a formal expression of opinion or choice, either positive or negative, made by an individual or a group of individuals. However, conventional voting systems tend to be centralized, which are known to suffer from security and efficiency limitations. Hence, there has been a trend of moving to decentralized voting systems, such as those based on blockchain. The latter is a decentralized digital ledger in a peer-to-peer network, where a copy of the append-only ledger of digitally signed and encrypted transactions is maintained by each participant. Therefore, in this article, we perform a comprehensive review of blockchain-based voting systems and classify them based on a number of features (e.g., the types of blockchain used, the consensus approaches used, and the scale of participants). By systematically analyzing and comparing the different blockchain-based voting systems, we also identify a number of limitations and research opportunities. Hopefully, this survey will provide an in-depth insight into the potential utility of blockchain in voting systems and device future research agenda.

AMVchain: authority management mechanism on blockchain-based voting systems.

As blockchain technology booms, modern electronic voting system leverages blockchain as underlying storage model to make the voting process more transparent, and guarantee immutability of data. However, the transparent characteristic may disclose sensitive information of candidate for all system users have the same right to their information. Besides that, the pseudo-anonymity of blockchain will lead to the disclosure of voters’ privacy and the third-parties such as registration institutions involved in voting process also have possibility of tampering data. To overcome these difficulties, we apply authority management mechanism into blockchain-based voting systems. In this paper, we put forward AMVchain, a fully decentralized and efficient blockchain-based voting system. AMVchain has a three-layer access control architecture, and on each layer, smart contracts are responsible for validation and granting permissions. Linkable ring signature is adopted in the process of voting to protect ballot-privacy. AMVchain also makes a tradeoff between efficiency and concurrency by introducing proxy nodes. The experiments results show that our system meets the basic requirements under the high concurrent users circumstance.

Going from bad to worse: from Internet voting to blockchain voting

Abstract Voters are understandably concerned about election security. News reports of possible election interference by foreign powers, of unauthorized voting, of voter disenfranchisement, and of technological failures call into question the integrity of elections worldwide. This article examines the suggestions that “voting over the Internet” or “voting on the blockchain” would increase election security, and finds such claims to be wanting and misleading. While current election systems are far from perfect, Internet- and blockchain-based voting would greatly increase the risk of undetectable, nation-scale election failures. Online voting may seem appealing: voting from a computer or smartphone may seem convenient and accessible. However, studies have been inconclusive, showing that online voting may have little to no effect on turnout in practice, and it may even increase disenfranchisement. More importantly, given the current state of computer security, any turnout increase derived from Internet- or blockchain-based voting would come at the cost of losing meaningful assurance that votes have been counted as they were cast, and not undetectably altered or discarded. This state of affairs will continue as long as standard tactics such as malware, zero day, and denial-of-service attacks continue to be effective. This article analyzes and systematizes prior research on the security risks of online and electronic voting, and shows that not only do these risks persist in blockchain-based voting systems, but blockchains may introduce ‘additional’ problems for voting systems. Finally, we suggest questions for critically assessing security risks of new voting system proposals.

An Electronic Voting System adopting Blockchain: Interpretation, Characteristics and Investigation

This article offers an E-voting (Electronic Voting) approach that ensures security, privacy, and transparency. We have decided to use the blockchain system. Blockchain technology lowers the cost of centralized Clouds, Datacenters, and Networking Equipment, decreases the need for middlemen, and provides data privacy and transparency; all of which are critical for a fair election.An Architecture and Algorithm are suggested for the blockchain-based voting system. An internet of things (IoT) based system is designed to exchange data from the electronic voting machine and the nodes. Furthermore, we introduced its features, and we concluded with some future investigations.

A Blockchain-Based Voting System for E-Elections in Totalitarian States

The purpose of the present research was to introduce a blockchain-based voting system so that any state, including totalitarian states, can show interest in using it. In this method, a hybrid voting system with two centralized and distributed systems was used. Its centralized system is one of the most common voter identification and polling models, and its distributed system, which is designed with Ethereum public blockchain, is voting for voters. Totalitarian states are not interested in announcing the results online. Also, the lack of trust in E-voting systems by both states and voters has led to E-voting in important political elections in most states as support for manual or paper voting. Based on the results of field research with this voting system, it was possible to create a 7 min break between the end of the voting process and the announcement of the results for political considerations. This break can be increased by agreement. The results of the votes cannot be manipulated in any way. Survey results should also be communicated to voters before the voting process. This voting system can improve the level of democracy and maximum participation. It is hoped that the spread of distributed technologies, especially the blockchain, will pave the way for the spread of justice and democracy around the world.

Majority and Representation: A Political Economy Analysis of It-Enabled Democracy

Following an increasingly large corpus of literature championing blockchain-based voting systems, this paper disentangles the issues that are blockchain specific and those that belong to the larger scope of e-voting. I provide a political economics analysis of e-voting under different constitutional settings. Using analytical tools from the fathers of Public Choice, I argue that switching to e-voting without modifying the institutions is unlikely to modify choice mechanisms. I then extend the analysis to Liquid Democracy and find that, while it can be well suited to small scales communities, it faces major limitations at large scale because it fails to provide a framework for bundling. All along the paper, examples based on blockchains are discussed to illustrate the analysis and link it with recent literature.