The Wisconsin COVID-19 Primary Election and Blockchain Technology
While the 2020 primary season is winding to a close, during a time when COVID-19 has many Americans still under the grip of lockdown, let’s take a look back at a potential turning point in the storied history of democracy: April 7th.
By this point on the calendar, Joe Biden had pulled away from his closest competitor, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, and with the country weeks into an ordered lockdown for non-essential workers, questions began to arise about what the Democratic National Committee would do with the remaining primary elections. For many states like Alaska, Wyoming, Louisiana, and others, the choice was clear to postpone their elections.
However, for Wisconsin, the choice was to hold elections as usual. The media erupted with some even calling the decision “just plain stupid.”
On the day of the election, voters turned out to stand in line, social distancing themselves from their fellow community members. Many were seen in line with face masks adorned, ready to participate in their civic duty. Biden went on to win comfortably, so was it worth it? How do the number of coronavirus cases look since the primary experience in Wisconsin?
Well, it seems to be a mixed bag of sorts. On one hand, we see inconclusive evidence that 71 cases were reported after the primary from those that participated, but these cannot be tied directly to the experience of heading to the ballot box. On the other hand, a journal article currently under review for publication out of Stanford University and the University of Hong Kong have found no evidence of a surge in cases due to the primary being held during the crisis.
While the numbers can be combed through, and the debates can rage about whether or not the decision to allow citizens access to stand in line to vote on April 7th was dangerous, we can also use this opportunity to talk about how all of this could be potentially avoided in the future.
There is a growing interest in America for an implementation of online voting. States like West Virginia have expanded access to their electronic voting portal to those with disabilities. They join members of the military who are registered in the state with this capability. Their Secretary of State, Mac Warner, recently contributed an Op-Ed in the Jackson Herald heralding the decision to hold their upcoming June 9th primary due to the many options they have for members of their electorate to vote.
With the extraordinary breakdown of the technology associated with the Iowa Caucus that was designed to help streamline the event, critics, including the Council on Foreign Relations, have raised skepticism for expanding access to electronic voting. They claim that, “Even in the best-case scenario that a county has its own staff dedicated to securing the cybersecurity of its elections and the help of the National Guard, it will be no match for a sophisticated foreign adversary with virtually unlimited resources.”
The security concerns raised are legitimate, but are surprisingly short-sighted in understanding today’s technological capabilities.
Enter blockchain technology. As this is being typed, the cryptocurrency market cap is valued at over $260,000,000,000. The king of cryptocurrency is Bitcoin which has never experienced a hack in its history. While many satellite entities of the coin have been infiltrated, like exchanges and coin pools, the network that runs the general ledger has never had one cent worth of crypto pulled from its clutches, unless done so by its owner.
The secret is in the math behind the big numbers associated with the private key and public addresses. In order for the fastest supercomputer to guess this number to gain access to just one wallet, it would need to guess a number between one and the number of atoms in the universe! This would take a long time (forever), and this again will only gain access to one wallet that might not even have anything in it. You have to ask yourself why millions of people would leave billions of their own dollars just sitting in a wallet if they didn’t find it to be one of the most secure vaults ever created in the history of mankind?
Hacking into the mass of votes occurring in real-time during an election would be impossible in this moment of technology’s history. There are many companies that also disagree with the Council on Foreign Relation’s assessment, and have begun to develop their own blockchain specifically designed to promote safe electronic voting online. A simple Google query for blockchain voting companies unveil the actors involved there.
There are many upsides to voting with blockchain technology. First, having a secure system at the fingertips of all voters will lead to higher participation rates, and a potential closing of the participation gap that exists between younger and older voters. Second, online voting is just one aspect of participation that an e-government platform could help engage our citizenry with the governmental process. We have the ability to incorporate deliberative democratic practices, crowdsource law, and much more. Third, the ability to educate those that are interested in learning more about one or more issues that they would like to be more engaged with, and then allow them to participate in creating change to better the world would again be just a click away in atmospheres created to be far more civil than what we find today on most social media platforms.
And finally, we could avoid needing to make the decision ever again to have our citizens choose between risking their lives standing on a sidewalk during a global pandemic and not cast a ballot due to the fear of death.
It’s 2020. We can do better.
