Voter Privacy Research Articles

Hybrid-Blockchain-Based Electronic Voting Machine System Embedded with Deepface, Sharding, and Post-Quantum Techniques

The integrity of democratic processes relies on secure and reliable election systems, yet achieving this reliability is challenging. This paper introduces the Post-Quantum Secured Multiparty Computed Hierarchical Authoritative Consensus Blockchain (PQMPCHAC-Bchain), a novel e-voting system designed to overcome the limitations of current Biometric Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) systems, which suffer from trust issues due to closed-source designs, cyber vulnerabilities, and regulatory concerns. Our primary objective is to develop a robust, scalable, and secure e-voting framework that enhances transparency and trust in electoral outcomes. Key contributions include integrating hierarchical authorization and access control with a novel consensus mechanism for proper electoral governance. We implement blockchain sharding techniques to improve scalability and propose a multiparty computed token generation system to prevent fraudulent voting and secure voter privacy. Post-quantum cryptography is incorporated to safeguard against potential quantum computing threats, future-proofing the system. Additionally, we enhance authentication through a deep learning-based face verification model for biometric validation. Our performance analysis indicates that the PQMPCHAC-Bchain e-voting system offers a promising solution for secure elections. By addressing critical aspects of security, scalability, and trust, our proposed system aims to advance the field of electronic voting. This research contributes to ongoing efforts to strengthen the integrity of democratic processes through technological innovation.

Designing a Robust Quantum Signature Protocol Based on Quantum Key Distribution for E-Voting Applications

The rapid advancement of internet technology has raised attention to the importance of electronic voting in maintaining democracy and fairness in elections. E-voting refers to the use of electronic technology to facilitate the casting and counting of votes in elections. The need for designated verification arises from concerns about voter privacy, auditability, and the prevention of manipulation. Traditional e-voting systems use cryptographic techniques for security but lack verifiable proof of integrity. Integrating e-voting with a quantum designated verifier could address these challenges by leveraging the principles of quantum mechanics to enhance security and trustworthiness. In light of this, we propose a quantum e-voting scheme that uses a designated verifier signature. To ensure the confidentiality and authenticity of the voting process, the scheme uses quantum features like the no-cloning theorem and quantum key distribution. The proposed scheme has security properties like source hiding, non-transferability, and message anonymity. The proposed scheme is resistant to many quantum attacks, such as eavesdropping and impersonation. Due to designated verification, the scheme minimizes the risk of tempering. This paper provides a detailed description of the proposed scheme and analyzes its security properties. Therefore, the proposed scheme is efficient, practical, and secure.

An Efficient Blockchain Enabled Score Voting with Face Recognition

The security considerations of the votes are based on blockchain technology using cryptographic hashes to secure end-to-end verification. To this end, a successful vote cast is considered as a transaction within the blockchain of the voting application. Therefore, a vote cast is added as a new block (after successful mining) in the blockchain as well as being recorded in data tables at the backend of the database. The system ensures only one-person, one-vote (democracy) property of voting systems. This is achieved by using the voter’s unique face image, which is matched at the beginning of every voting attempt to prevent double voting. The Face Recognition is the study of physical or behavioral characteristics of human being used for the identification of person. So implement real time authentication system using face biometrics for authorized the person for online voting system. This work claims to score voting method and data management challenges in blockchain and provides an improved manifestation of the electronic voting process. Score-based voting methods, also known as range voting or rated voting, are electoral systems where voters are allowed to express their preferences for candidates or options by assigning numerical scores to them. Unlike traditional voting methods where voters choose a single candidate, score-based systems enable voters to provide a more nuanced and detailed assessment of their preferences. It is important here to note that cryptographic hash for a voter is the unique hash of voter by which voter is known in the blockchain. This property facilitates achieving verifiability of the overall voting process. Furthermore, this id is hidden and no one can view it even a system operator cannot view this hash therefore achieving privacy of individual voters.

ENSURING HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE CONTEXT OF IMPLEMENTATION OF ELECTRONIC VOTING IN UKRAINE: PERSPECTIVES AND RISKS

Introduction. The article focuses on the advantages of e-voting and the insufficient study of human rights aspects in this process. Therefore, the purpose of the study is to identify public policy strategies for the successful implementation of e-voting in Ukraine, taking into account international experience and ensuring human rights and freedoms in the electoral process. Summary of the main research results. The main findings of the study point to the relevance of introducing e-voting in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and other challenges. An e-voting system can ensure compliance with international electoral and human rights standards, such as privacy, accessibility, non-discrimination, information, and verification of votes. The experience of foreign countries, in particular Estonia, confirms the success and benefits of e-voting, the analysis of which is important for other countries, including Ukraine, in implementing their e-voting systems. Switzerland, the United States, Norway, Sweden, India, and Brazil have also used e-voting, with varying degrees of success and challenges related to security and privacy. For example, in Switzerland, e-voting was used experimentally in some cantons but faced significant security issues, while in India, EVMs have become standard in most polling stations, increasing public confidence in the electoral process. However, recent events in Brazil and the United States show that unscrupulous politicians can challenge the operation of any electronic voting system, which can lead to mass protests and unrest. The Council of Europe and the Venice Commission have formulated principles and standards for the use of information and communication technologies in electoral processes, which include security, transparency, and respect for fundamental human rights. Ukraine is actively preparing for the introduction of electronic voting, as evidenced by the large number of draft laws that have been registered in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine but have not yet been adopted, although this indicates an awareness of the need to use digital technologies to ensure citizens' voting rights. Conclusions. The experience of foreign countries confirms the popularity of e-voting due to the development of information and communication technologies. Ukraine, with its high scientific and technical potential, has prospects for introducing e-voting. However, the successful application requires comprehensive preparation, including software certification, pilot projects, personal data protection, strengthening cybersecurity, and the adoption of a special law on the use of e-voting at various levels and the introduction of e-voting as an alternative method along with traditional voting.

AI Based Smart Voting using Face Recognition

As society changes and technology plays a bigger role in shaping daily life, the security, effectiveness, and accessibility of traditional voting systems are being questioned. This research presents a novel approach to create an online smart voting system using facial recognition technology. The technology promises to improve the convenience and integrity of electoral processes by integrating cutting-edge facial recognition algorithms with secure online voting platforms. It also addresses common problems such as voter fraud, long lines, and geographical restrictions. The system verifies each vote's legitimacy by registering voters' facial biometric information, securely storing it in a centralized database, and providing live facial authentication while voting. Strong security protocols, such as multi-factor authentication and encryption methods, are notably used to protect voter privacy and prevent election results manipulation. Additionally, the system's removal of the requirement for voters to physically be present at polling places improves voter accessibility, especially for underprivileged or geographically separated groups, which encourages higher levels of political engagement. Through extensive testing and validation that includes both simulated and real-world voting scenarios, the efficacy of this novel approach will be closely examined. Consent, transparency, and data privacy are ethical issues that need to be properly addressed in order to ensure compliance with legal and regulatory requirements. In conclusion, the face recognition online smart voting system is a ground-breaking advancement in electoral technology that might fundamentally alter the way elections are held by enhancing their integrity, efficiency, and inclusivity

An SGX-based online voting protocol with maximum voter privacy

Electronic voting (E-voting), a crucial method in modern society, balances efficiency with the need for equity, reliability, and privacy to accurately record votes and maintain democracy. However, there is the challenge of potential leakage of voting information in scenarios where administrators of voting system may act maliciously. Moreover, contemporary collaborative counting methods face a significant increase in the cost of storage and heightened communication overhead in large-scale e-voting. In response, this paper proposes an innovative online voting protocol that integrates Intel SGX, homomorphic encryption, and zero-knowledge proof. This protocol aims to cut down the cost of communication and storage while maximizing the protection of voter privacy. The protocol relies on SGX to provide a trusted execution environment for the voting process, guarding against malicious attacks from external software or high-privileged administrators. In the proposed protocol, voters apply homomorphic encryption algorithms to locally encrypt their ballots, no longer relying on other entities (such as the voting system or SGX) for encryption. Then the encrypted ballots are submitted to SGX to mitigate the threat of data leakage in SGX. Through the adoption of zero-knowledge proof technology, the voting protocol can verify the legitimacy of votes without revealing their content. The proposed solution introduces the SGXVOT architecture, comprising two enclaves – Enclave V responsible for tallying individual encrypted votes, and Enclave T responsible for decrypting and publishing voting results. This design ensures that individual voters’ ballots remain in ciphertext, preserving the confidentiality of votes and voter privacy. Additionally, the protocol incorporates a “One-Time Pad” encryption communication protocol to guarantee the confidentiality of communication messages between Enclave V and Enclave T. The thorough security analysis and performance evaluation demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed solution in terms of security, practicality, and scalability.

E-Voting System Using Blockchain

Abstract: Since the 1970s, electronic voting (e-voting) has evolved, offering efficiency and reduced errors, but faces challenges in security and accessibility. Blockchain technology emerges as a disruptive force with potential to fortify e-voting systems. Voting is fundamental to democracy, yet concerns over reliability and accessibility persist. E-voting, while introduced to address these concerns, remains costly and centralized. Blockchain’s decentralized nature holds promise for overcoming these challenges. This study introduces e-Vote, a blockchain- based voting system designed for privacy, accessibility, and security. Leveraging Ethereum’s blockchain and smart contracts, e-Vote offers a scalable framework for university level elections. Utilizing cryptographic techniques such as homomorphic encryption, e-Vote ensures voter privacy. Our implementation, tested on Ethereum’s Testnet, demonstrates usability, scalability, and efficacy. Successful integration of e-Vote requires two key components: the Election Commission, managing elections and candidates through smart contracts, and the voter’s module, enabling individuals to cast ballots for their respective constituencies, with each ballot recorded on the blockchain to prevent tampering.

Smart and Secure E-Voting Application using Blockchain Technology

The realm of electronic voting systems is experiencing a profound transformation propelled by technological advancements. In response to the demand for secure and transparent voting mechanisms,this project, supervised by Mrs. V.M. Khanapure, endeavors to develop a Smart and Secure E-Voting Application employing blockchain technology. Traditional voting methods often face challenges related to tampering and fraud, which the proposed system aims to mitigate through the decentralized and immutable nature of blockchain. By leveraging the strengths of blockchain, such as transparency and decentralization, the project seeks to establish a trustworthy and efficient electronic voting solution. A primary focus of the Smart and Secure E-Voting Application is the implementation of advanced security measures. Cryptographic techniques are incorporated to secure vote transmissions and protect voter privacy. The application employs end-to-end encryption and multi-factor authentication, fortifyingthe overall security posture of the system. Moreover, the user-friendly interface caters to both voters and election administrators, ensuring accessibility without compromising the high level of security. This project not only addresses current challenges in electronic voting but also lays the foundation for future innovations, setting a precedent for reliable and transparent electoral processes through the utilization of blockchain technology..

Meta-analysis of blockchain-powered electronic voting systems

Electronic voting systems are increasingly becoming popular globally for political and non-political purposes. The three key constraints for lack of trust in e-voting systems are security, transparency, and voter privacy. Blockchain is a promising technology that addresses these needs. This study uses a meta-analysis approach to identify key themes, trends, and considerations from current blockchain-based electronic voting system research. The study lists topics that are of potential future research interest and benefit various stakeholders, including researchers, government agencies, election commissions, and electoral bodies.

DeVoS: Deniable Yet Verifiable Vote Updating

Internet voting systems are supposed to meet the same high standards as traditional paper-based systems when used in real political elections: freedom of choice, universal and equal suffrage, secrecy of the ballot, and independent verifiability of the election result. Although numerous Internet voting systems have been proposed to achieve these challenging goals simultaneously, few come close in reality. We propose a novel publicly verifiable and practically efficient Internet voting system, DeVoS, that advances the state of the art. The main feature of DeVoS is its ability to protect voters' freedom of choice in several dimensions. First, voters in DeVoS can intuitively update their votes in a way that is deniable to observers but verifiable by the voters; in this way voters can secretly overwrite potentially coerced votes. Second, in addition to (basic) vote privacy, DeVoS also guarantees strong participation privacy by end-to-end hiding which voters have submitted ballots and which have not. Finally, DeVoS is fully compatible with Perfectly Private Audit Trail, a state-of-the-art Internet voting protocol with practical everlasting privacy. In combination, DeVoS offers a new way to secure free Internet elections with strong and long-term privacy properties.

The Voter Next Door: Stigma Effects on Advance Voting for Radical Right Parties

Despite the influence of stigmatization on vote choices, little attention has been given to the impact of social stigma on voters’ selection of voting procedures. To bridge this gap, our study focuses on Sweden, where the open-display ballot system at polling stations potentially compromises vote secrecy. Using survey data from the Swedish National Election Studies in 2014 and 2018, we examine the relationship between citizens’ voting procedure choices and their support for a highly stigmatized radical right party, the Sweden Democrats. Our findings reveal that voters of the Sweden Democrats are more inclined to vote in advance, particularly in districts with low general party support, indicating a high level of stigma. We argue that advance voting can be seen as a strategy to safeguard vote secrecy when voting for stigmatized parties within an institutional context featuring public displays of ballots. In addition, our research sheds light on the importance of electoral integrity in maintaining the confidentiality of voters’ choices.

Decentralized universally verifiable stake voting system with perfect privacy

Stake voting is a voting system where the vote cast by a voter is proportional to their account balance/asset. We propose the first implementation of an efficient, fully-decentralized, universally-verifiable stake voting system with perfect voter privacy. Our contribution is two-fold. First, we design a zero knowledge proof (ZKP) for equality of plaintexts of 2 different ciphertexts encrypted under different encryption schemes, one under ElGamal encryption scheme and another under Paillier encryption scheme. We believe that ours is the first ZKP design for this problem statement. Second, we implement a publicly-verifiable Stake voting system using the ZKP design by enforcing perfect privacy to voters and correctness of election results. Our voting system is applicable to many situations like shareholder/stockholder voting in companies. We have also provided the financial and computational breakdown feasibility of our implementation on Ganache local blockchain.

Decentralized Voting System Using Blockchain Technology

Blockchain verifies security using a distributed mechanism. For several new and developing products and services, blockchain technology is touted as a game-changer. Providing a distributed architecture to manage and sustain an open voting system would be the aim of such a plan. A system called blockchain stores data in a way that makes it difficult or almost impossible to make changes to it. The sharing economy may be benefited by a very wide variety of applications made possible by blockchain technology. That will be used to quantify how blockchain technology may be used to facilitate distributed electronic voting. The suggested solution implements a voting mechanism using the Aadhar API on an Ethereum network on a blockchain platform. Electronic voting is expected to promote openness, and voters are required to lessen dishonesty and irregularities in the voting procedures. Voters will be able to cast their ballots from home by using this technology. The technology seeks to improve voting process transparency and strengthen fraud prevention by supplanting the conventional pen and paper method. Key Words: Blockchain, Distributed General Ledger, Ethereum, Smart Contracts, P2P network, Consensus Algorithm, PoW Algorithm, Cryptography, Voter Privacy, Trustless Environment, Electrical integrity.

How efficient are replay attacks against vote privacy? A formal quantitative analysis1

Replay attacks are among the most well-known attacks against vote privacy. Many e-voting systems have been proven vulnerable to replay attacks, including systems like Helios that are used in real practical elections. Despite their popularity, it is commonly believed that replay attacks are inefficient but the actual threat that they pose to vote privacy has never been studied formally. Therefore, in this paper, we precisely analyze for the first time how efficient replay attacks really are. We study this question from commonly used and complementary perspectives on vote privacy, showing as an independent contribution that a simple extension of a popular game-based privacy definition corresponds to a strong entropy-based notion. Our results demonstrate that replay attacks can be devastating for a voter’s privacy even when an adversary’s resources are very limited. We illustrate our formal findings by applying them to a number of real-world elections, showing that a modest number of replays can result in significant privacy loss. Overall, our work reveals that, contrary to a common belief, replay attacks can be very efficient and must therefore be considered a serious threat.

The regulatory ecosystem of data driven campaigning in the UK

Political campaigns are increasingly described as data-driven, as parties collect and analyse large quantities of voter data to target their campaign messages in ever more granular ways, particularly online. These practices have increasingly been facing calls for greater regulation due to the range of harms they are seen to pose for citizens and democracy more generally. Such harms include the intrusions on voter privacy, reduced transparency in how messages are constructed and targeted at voters and exposure to increasingly divisive and polarizing political content. Given that data-driven campaigning (DDC) encompasses a range of different practices that are likely to fall under the remit of multiple agencies, it is not evident how suitable current regulatory frameworks are for addressing the harms associated with the growth of DDC. This paper takes a first step toward addressing that question by mapping an emergent regulatory “ecosystem” for DDC in the particular case of the UK. Specifically, we collect and analyse interview data from a range of regulators working directly or indirectly in the election campaigns and communication arena. Our analysis shows that while privacy violations associated with DDC are seen by regulators to be largely well covered by current legislation, other potential harms are given lesser to no priority. These gaps appear to be due to regulators lacking either the powers or the incentives to intervene.

Preserving Voter Privacy and Security in Online Voting through Diffie-Hellman Encryption

This research paper presents an advanced online voting system, incorporating the Diffie-Hellman encryption algorithm, to ensure voter privacy and address key challenges in digital elections. The system offers additional features such as anonymous authentication, verifiable decryption, and secure ballot transmission. Through a rigorous evaluation process, the proposed approach received an overall evaluation score of 3.55 out of 5, indicating its effectiveness in upholding voter privacy and system efficiency. Specific evaluation criteria revealed accuracy with a score of 3.57 out of 5, efficiency at 3.53 out of 5, reliability at 3.54 out of 5, timeliness at 3.50 out of 5, and a commendable security rating of 3.59 out of 5. These results highlight the system's potential in providing a secure and user-friendly online voting platform, encouraging voter participation and reinforcing the democratic principles of transparency and integrity.

Online Voting Scheme Using IBM Cloud-Based Hyperledger Fabric with Privacy-Preservation

The current traditional paper ballot voting schemes suffer from several limitations such as processing delays due to counting paper ballots, lack of transparency, and manipulation of the ballots. To solve these limitations, an electronic voting (e-voting) scheme has received massive interest from both governments and academia. In e-voting, individuals can cast their vote online using their smartphones without the need to wait in long lines. Additionally, handicapped voters who face limited wheelchair access in many polling centers could now participate in elections hassle-free. The existing e-voting schemes suffer from several limitations as they are either centralized, based on public blockchains, or utilize local private blockchains. This results in privacy issues (using public blockchains) or large financial costs (using local/private blockchains) due to the amount of computing power and technical knowledge needed to host blockchains locally. To address the aforementioned limitations, in this paper, we propose an online voting scheme using IBM cloud-based Hyperledger Fabric. Our scheme allows voters to cast their encrypted votes in a secure manner. Then any participant can obtain the ballot results in a decentralized and transparent manner, without sacrificing the privacy of individual voters. We implement the proposed scheme using IBM cloud-based Hyperledger Fabric. The experimental results identify the performance characteristics of our scheme and demonstrate that it is feasible to run an election consisting of thousands of participants using cloud-based Fabric.

PIWS: Private Intersection Weighted Sum Protocol for Privacy-Preserving Score-Based Voting With Perfect Ballot Secrecy

This article proposes private intersection weighted sum (PIWS), a scalable, fair, and privacy-preserving intersection weighted sum protocol and applies it to voting scenarios. The PIWS protocol can privately calculate the intersection of identity index sets maintained by each participant and can privately calculate the weighted sum of the data associated with the identity indexes of the intersection set. After the execution of the protocol, both parties can only know the weighted sum, but not any additional information, such as any identity index or associated data of the other party. The PIWS protocol is very suitable for the privacy-preserving weighted voting scenarios and has three novel characteristics. First, it does not require as many semitrusted tally clerks as other protocols, which greatly reduces the deployment, communication, and calculation costs involved. It only requires the distributed deployment of voting servers and weight servers that are honest but curious. This is consistent with the deployment framework of the future big data application backgrounds. Second, perfect privacy protection and ballot secrecy are achieved. That is, the voting terminal or polling station provides encryption services for ballots immediately after each ballot is cast. All voting information is then expressed in ciphertext throughout the weighting and counting processes, until the final result of the weighted vote is passed to the voting server in the ciphertext. After decryption, the voting server only knows the results of the voting and it has no knowledge of the content or preference of the ballots, the privacy of the voters, or even the process of counting the votes. This design avoids the disclosure of voter privacy and ballot information, and the ciphertext form also prevents malicious users from cheating or tampering with voter or ballot information during the counting process. To better explain the security of our protocol, we present the provable security of the protocol under the honest-but-curious model and show the formal verification obtained using the Tamarin prover software. Third, our protocol not only achieves the function of an optional weighted voting protocol but also is relatively lightweight and efficient. The efficiency analysis results of the deployed voting system in terms of communication, storage, and calculation show that the protocol meets the requirements applicable to real-world applications. In summary, PIWS is superior to existing voting protocols in terms of function, security, and efficiency, and can be harmoniously applied to model updating of federated learning, consensus building of blockchain systems, or decision-making in artificial intelligence.

A receipt-free quantum voting protocol based on quantum public key encryption and quantum key agreement

To better protect the privacy of voters, a receipt-free quantum voting protocol is first proposed, which adopts quantum key agreement and quantum public key encryption with single photons. We employ Lagrange interpolation polynomials and random numbers to blind the voting information on the bulletin board, so that it can minimize the public information. Furthermore, our receipt-free quantum voting protocol is information-theoretically secure, i.e., the eavesdropper cannot get any voting information by collecting both the quantum ciphertext and the public information. In addition, compared with the existing quantum voting protocols, our protocol can meet more security attributes, such as anonymity, unrepeatability, verifiability legitimacy and especially, receipt-freeness.

SECURE ONLINE VOTING BASED ON BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY

This paper is based on electronic voting machines, which are often used in elections and offer the ability to execute the process safely using blockchain technology. The prime aim of this system is to ensure security, integrity as well as transparency. One of the main considerations in the electronic voting site that offers a blockchain-based voting system to address a number of shortcomings of the current voting methods is voter privacy. The portal also offers a simple, dependable, rapid, and economical e-voting solution. Key Words: Blockchain technology, EVM’s, authentication, validation, security, decentralized voting.