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Blockchain Technology for Secure Voting: How it Works and Why it Matters?
By Roshani Shingare
In India, voting is not just a civic duty, but also an opportunity to take part in the process of shaping the future of our country. It’s a chance for us to come together and make sure our voices are heard.
Even though India has an independent regulatory body that oversees elections, we have mostly witnessed arguments and cases against the voting process’ transparency. In a meeting with the Election Commission (EC) in 2019, opposition leaders reportedly wanted 100% Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) checks in the event of a mismatch.
In a another instance, the EC informed the Madras High Court that electronic voting machines cannot be rigged using Wi-Fi or other technological equipment.
The 2019 general elections in India involved 912 million eligible voters, 1 million voting centers run by electoral officials of all States and Union Territories, and more than 1 million polling booth officers.
Nearly 300 people work for India’s Election Commission in New Delhi to ensure free and fair elections for all citizens, regardless of race, gender, colour, religion, caste, or region. Additionally, during the general elections, States and Union Territories have approximately 11 million officials on duty, including teachers, professors, and paramilitary personnel.
Any democratic country must have fair elections, and it is inevitable to have a reliable voting system. So, decentralized platform for voting, counting, and declaring results could be a solution to the long-discussed problems with election mistrust in democracies like the US and India.
Blockchain technology has gained popularity for being tamper-proof, transparent, and secure. Which is also used for voting in an election.
So how can we resolve these problems? Why is it necessary to hold elections on a blockchain? How can the electoral process be improved by use of blockchain?
Tamper Proof: Blockchain will make sure that nobody will ever be able change the electoral roll. Voters will be able to submit their biometric information at blockchain-powered voting machines, which will replace EVMs, and a hash key will be generated for them to log in and vote.
Non-Fudging of Data: Data changes over the blockchain are almost impossible. If anyone tries to manipulate the data, the person will be detected utilizing ledger technology-driven tracing.
Transparent Data: Data will be safe, accessible at any time, and visible to all stakeholders.
Private and Public Blockchain? Which one would work for Elections?
A private blockchain could help the election commission in protecting the privacy of polling data as Indian elections happen in multiple phases.
Blockchain could bolster free and fair elections globally by developing more trust in democratic ways of governance.
By offering accurate results, calculation for each participant with ballot reconciliation data, distributed ledger technology (DLT) or public ledger platforms may be able to assist the state-level election commission.
However, there can only be one round of voting. As a result, the election officials could quickly compare the data from the polling places with the official results.
Any fair alteration to polling results would be recorded on the public ledger, and blockchain-based trials would be able to monitor who made the changes and when they were made. The whole process would be independently authenticated by the election officials using DLT applications.
Independent monitoring would be incorporated into a transparent verification of the voting process to support the legitimacy of the outcomes. Political candidates would be unable to alter any data on the DLT, and even if they did, independent auditing by auditors would guarantee that everyone taking part in the voting process received accurate results.
For the municipal elections in Telangana in 2021, blockchain-based voting has already undergone testing in India. This pilot showed that the technology can work and that it could help improve the voting process. To adequately assess the potential of blockchain in voting, however, more pilot projects are required.
Let’s hope, democratic nations like India and USA embrace the blockchain technology wholeheartedly in the upcoming elections to ensure fair and accurate results.
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