Can Blockchain change the Election Scenario in India?

Exploring potential implications and advantage of Blockchain Technology adoption in Indian Election Scenario

For the largest democracy in the world, Elections are the biggest celebration of freedom and equality of choices. In India, the government is chosen by the people, of the people and for the people but the dilemma of inefficient and non-transparent elections continues for decades.

The Dilemma between Technology and Elections

Off lately our country has been scandalised by electronic voting machines (EVMs) scam, several reports and studies have been bought into the public domain that alleges that EVMs hardware and software can be tampered with. Though the Election Commission of India (ECI) has denied each report stating that EVMs have equipment or programming vulnerabilities that can be abused to confer election malpractices. All these incidents clearly point out, how little faith we have in the technology currently being used to decide the fate of our democracy. One technology which many technical experts believe to be capable of solving the EVM tampering debates all at once is Blockchain.

Blockchain for Voting and Elections

Blockchain with its inherent features and innumerable applications can be used at multiple stages of Voting and elections. The decentralised technology can play a vital role in how citizens learn about candidates and vote, how secure our voting systems are and how Blockchain along with the support of other emerging technologies can help secure them. Blockchain can also be used to accurately and efficiently keep track of each voter’s eligibility and legitimacy to participate. It is overwhelming to see how Blockchain is the solution looking for problems to solve!

How does Blockchain Voting work?

The primary step during elections is voter registration. The voter registration is still going to be off the chain process, where the eligible voter would be identified by their national Identity Cards like AADHAR, PAN card etc. Once the voter registration agency determines that someone is eligible to vote, their vote would be taken into account via blockchain platform which will also be an online ledger where every vote will be registered. Each voter would be allowed to vote only once by implementing the same mechanism used to ensure that the double spending problem does not exist, but now with voting. On a blockchain-enabled voting platform, each vote would be added as a block where each one is verified by every stakeholder based on agreed algorithms.

Source: dev.to

On a Blockchain-enabled voting platform, the country would no longer need a central agency which must be trusted to conduct the elections fairly and securely. Instead, the whole voting process would be decentralized i.e. rather than keeping the vote at a single location, an identical copy of the blockchain is stored on every user’s server.

Voting on Blockchain empowers each and every citizen to vote and become a node in the system, as long as they meet requirements which are confirmed during registration. The blockchain-based election platform would enhance voting integrity and voter confidence, given its ability to secure votings and ensure traceability through the anonymity of voters, Public key encryption and Audit trail.

In the Blockchain voting process, a separate blockchain application would be built for counting the votes in the digital ballot box. The digital votes can be randomized more than three times in the digital ballot box to ensure that the identity of the voters’ is never revealed. The system would not involve a delay between polling and results as results could be declared in real-time. Thus, greatly reducing the chance of fraud in elections.

Advantages of Voting on Blockchain

Elections are the heart of democracy. The idea of implementing blockchain in the biggest voting event in the world can yield incredible results.

Source: imarticus

Eliminate voter fraud and ensure Right to Vote: Blockchain experts are confident that the blockchain’s attributes of transparency, immutability and trust can work wonders for ensuring Right to vote for every citizen. It would virtually eliminate voter fraud by making sure that everyone is who they say they are i.e. authenticating voters’ identity.

Transparent Elections: Integrating Blockchain into elections can revolutionize voting and the infrastructure of our democracy. Blockchain’s inherent feature transparency, allow for votes to be followed, counted, and correlated by many different sources while maintaining the privacy of the voters due to the anonymous transactions. An open source blockchain voting platform that does not have any proprietary elements to it, would allow any citizen or agency to audit the functionality of the application and contribute to improving its security and transparency.

A secure Voting Platform: Blockchain technology has the ability to introduce a voting system that is impossible to hack. On such a platform, a block is added unto the chain only after it has been verified according to the agreed algorithms ensuring that there is no security breach during voting. The votes could be verified right after the voting is finished so that the votes are counted correctly and in real-time.

Voting made Accessible to every citizen: It won’t be wrong to say that the blockchain technology is the missing link in the architecture of a viable online voting system. It must also be taken into account that going truly digital with our polls will allow the voting process to move out of the polling booths and safely onto our smartphones. It would make polling much more convenient while making it accessible to voters in terror-affected areas.

Is our nation prepared to embrace blockchain-enabled elections?

There are several reasons that Blockchain is the perfect technology to address many of the issues that make the current voting system so inefficient and debatable in the first place. By adopting Blockchain into the electoral system, we could complete the pooling process at a substantially lower cost, and, all the while, in a much more secure and transparent manner. The Indian government has to be at the forefront to embrace blockchain innovation for elections. However, no government wants to risk the election going wrong. So we should start by adopting Blockchain for small-scale voting in universities, and in council elections on trial. It is the perfect time that India should start experimenting with Blockchain so as to leave behind the EVM tampering debate as move ahead with its glorious democratic history.