BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY IN VOTING

News:

The Election Commission had held an online conference in collaboration with the Tamil Nadu e-Governance Agency (“TNeGA”) and IIT Madras, through which they explored the possibility of using blockchain technology for the purpose of enabling remote elections.

Blockchain Technology:

• A blockchain is a growing list of records, that are linked using cryptography.
• To be more precise, a blockchain is a decentralized, distributed, and oftentimes public, digital ledger consisting of records called blocks that is used to record transactions across many computers so that any involved block cannot be altered retroactively, without the alteration of all subsequent blocks.
• Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, a timestamp, and transaction data.
• By design, a blockchain is resistant to modification of the data.
• The use of a blockchain removes the characteristic of infinite reproducibility from a digital asset.
• It confirms that each unit of value was transferred only once, solving the long-standing problem of double spending.

 

Blockchain Technology in Voting:

• Growing concern over election security, voter registration integrity, poll accessibility, and voter turnout has led governments to consider blockchain-based voting platforms as a means to increase faith and participation in essential democratic processes. Electronic voting has been used in varying forms since the 1970s with fundamental benefits over paper based systems such as increased efficiency and reduced errors. At present, the feasibility of blockchain is being explored for effective e-voting.
• Even the EC had used a one-way electronic system for service electors (consisting of personnel belonging to the armed forces, central para military forces and central government officers deployed at Indian missions abroad) i.e. Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System (ETPBS) in 2019 Lok Sabha Elections.
• Blockchain’s decentralized, transparent, immutable, and encrypted qualities could potentially help minimize election tampering and maximize poll accessibility.

How blockchain technology will work in voting?

• A blockchain remote voting process would involve voter identification and authorisation using a multi-layered IT enabled system (with the help of biometrics and web cameras) at the venue.
• After a voter's identity is established by the system, a blockchain enabled personalised e-ballot paper (Smart Contract) will be generated.
• When the vote is cast (Smart Contract executed), the ballot would be securely encrypted and a block chain hashtag (#) will be generated. This hashtag notification would be sent to various stakeholders i.e. the candidates and political parties.

Significance of Blockchain Technology in Remote Voting System

• Securing the voting rights of migrant workers: The use of blockchain technology in remote voting would appear to benefit internal migrants and seasonal workers who account for roughly 51 million of the populace (Census 2011).
• Alternative to Proxy voting for Indian Armed Forces: The envisioned solution of blockchain voting might also be useful for some remotely-stationed members of the Indian armed forces.
• Introduction of Aadhaar-linked electronic voting system: The model of an Aadhaar-linked electronic voting system that would enable electors to cast their votes from any part of the country, irrespective of where they are registered to vote or even abroad. Boost to voter participation: The blockchain and internet-based voting platforms have been viewed as one way to boost voter participation by making the process easier through mobile apps that allow both registration and ballot casting to occur from anywhere in the world.

Concerns/Challenges in Blockchain Voting:

• In the aforementioned meeting, the Election Commission was explained that electors would still have to physically reach a designated venue in order to cast their vote, adding that systems would use “white-listed IP devices on dedicated internet lines”, and that the system would make use of the biometric attributes of electors.
• Digitisation and interconnectivity introduce additional points of failure external to the processes which exist in the present day. The system envisioned by the Election Commission is perhaps only slightly more acceptable than a fully remote, app-based voting system. Such systems have suffered several blunders too, some of which could have been catastrophic if they had gone undetected.
• Blockchain solutions rely heavily on the proper implementation of cryptographic protocols. If any shortcomings exist in an implementation, it might stand to potentially unmask the identity and voting preferences of electors, or worse yet, allow an individual to cast a vote as someone else.
• The requirement of physical presence and biometric authentication may not necessarily make a remote voting system invulnerable to attacks either. An attacker may be able to clone the biometric attributes required for authenticating as another individual and cast a vote on their behalf. Physical implants or software backdoors placed on an individual system could allow attackers to collect and deduce voting choices of individuals.
• Further, while the provisioning of a dedicated line may make the infrastructure less prone to outages, it may also make it increasingly prone to targeted Denial-of-Service attacks (where an attacker would be in a position to block traffic from the system, effectively preventing, or at the very least delaying the registration of votes).
• Apart from lingering security issues, digitised systems may also stand to exclude and disenfranchise certain individuals due to flaws in interdependent platforms, flaws in system design, as well as general failures caused by external factors. Naturally, the more levers that are involved in the operation of a system, the more prone it would become to possible malfunction.

Why blockchain-based voting could threaten democracy?

• The security experts warn that blockchain-based mobile voting technology is innately insecure and potentially a danger to democracy through "wholesale fraud" or "manipulation tactics".
• The issues around online voting include server penetration attacks, client-device malware, denial-of-service attacks and other disruptions.
• The blockchain and internet voting is a ready target for online attacks by foreign intelligence and transmission of ballots over the internet, including by email, fax and blockchain systems, are seriously vulnerable.
• The infecting of voters' computers with malware or infecting the computers in the elections office that handle and count ballots are both effective methods for large-scale corruption.

Way forward:

• Political engagement could be improved by introducing and improving upon other methods, such as postal ballots or proxy voting.
• Creation of a ‘One Nation, One Voter ID’ system, though it is unclear whether such a radical (and costly) exercise would be required at all for the mere purpose of allowing individuals to vote out of their home State.
• If the only problem that is to be solved is the one of ballot portability, then technological solutions which involve setting up entirely new, untested voting infrastructure may not be the answer.
• It is important to lay stress on the point that further digitisation does not make processes more robust and any solution to electoral problems must be software independent and fault tolerable.
• If the Election Commission is able to design a system which is proven to be satisfactorily secure in the face of attacks, where tampering could be detected, and where the integrity of the ballot is verifiable by electors, use of such a system could perhaps only be justified for lower level elections.
• The idea of adapting digital voting systems to make the public electoral process cheaper, faster and easier and making the electoral process cheap and quick, it normalizes in the eyes of the voters, removes a certain power barrier between the voter and the elected official.
• EC could try blockchain-based voting first as a mock exercise in some locations on a small scale and keep having stress tests to ensure it is durable. Then it can go onto the next level of having mock elections where people can take part using EVMs for their real vote and a mock vote.