Blockchain Voting Systems Could Be the Future, but Current Flaws Persist

As shelter-in-place orders are prolonged all through the US as a result of coronavirus pandemic, controversy round on-line voting programs has surfaced. The risks of web voting have been just lately publicly announced by the American Affiliation for the Development of Science, or AAAS.

On April 9, the AAAS Middle for Scientific Proof in Public Points wrote an open letter to U.S. governors, secretaries of state and state election administrators expressing nice concern concerning the safety of on-line voting programs. 

Whereas the letter said that “web voting just isn’t a safe resolution for voting in the US, nor will or not it’s within the foreseeable future,” specialists observe that blockchain might nonetheless play a outstanding position within the development of on-line voting programs.

Is that true?

Stanford College cryptography Ph.D. scholar Ben Fisch informed Cointelegraph that he agrees with the issues expressed within the AAAS letter, which states that web voting is insecure resulting from malware directions, denial-of-service assaults and privateness violations. But, regardless of these vulnerabilities, Fisch defined that web voting is a wholly acceptable utility for blockchain expertise:

“If designed appropriately, blockchains are speculated to be clear and auditable databases, making certain consistency amongst all viewers. That is totally related to the issue of voter-verified ballots. Nonetheless, I might additionally echo the issues expressed within the AAAS letter, which was certainly endorsed by many specialists within the area.”

Fisch additional famous that the assaults related to web voting is huge, saying that “all present technological options are seemingly too immature for use proper now given the excessive stakes.”

Nonetheless, it’s nonetheless vital to acknowledge how rising applied sciences corresponding to blockchain can appropriately be utilized to enhance web voting programs sooner or later. Chief of employees at Voatz, Hilary Braseth, informed Cointelegraph that the five-year-old blockchain-based platform permits these deployed within the army or disabled people the chance to vote utilizing their cellphones:

“At the moment, we run 10 governmental pilots involving much less that 800 voters. Traditionally, these individuals are voting over e-mail, which isn’t safe. The opposite choice can be a paper poll, which is difficult to entry when you’re deployed. We now see that States are eager to supply extra accessible choices for these voters.”

Braseth defined that people utilizing Voatz have the benefit of accessing election ballots from their cell gadgets. She famous {that a} public, permissioned blockchain community is leveraged to document votes, making certain that choices can’t be altered:

“The oval choices people make on voting ballots are equal to 1 token on a blockchain, serving as a transaction that will get recorded to the Voatz blockchain, which is powered by Hyperledger Cloth.”

Braseth additional famous that each poll submitted over a cell phone additionally produces a paper poll that incorporates a protracted stream of characters referred to as an “nameless ID.” This ID is used after every election to audit tabulated choices from ballots towards the blockchain knowledge to make it possible for every little thing matches accordingly. As well as, voters obtain poll receipts that comprise their nameless ID to allow them to be certain their vote was correctly submitted and accounted for.

Blockchain doesn’t present safety

Whereas the idea behind Voatz is sort of revolutionary, MIT researchers uncovered various vulnerabilities in its system. They famous that hackers might alter, cease or expose how a person consumer has voted. Moreover, researchers discovered that Voatz’s use of a third-party vendor for voter identification and verification poses potential privateness points.

Whereas these vulnerabilities are just like these of common on-line voting programs, Braseth defined that blockchain is being leveraged in Voatz to supply transparency somewhat than safety. She defined, “Blockchain is used as an audit mechanism for our governmental voting pilots.”

Moreover, Fisch identified that whereas MIT’s safety evaluation report on Voatz unveils quite a few points with the platform, he notes that the issue just isn’t that blockchain is the unsuitable instrument, however somewhat that Voatz didn’t appropriately use blockchain methods to deal with the elemental points in safe web voting. He defined:

“Particularly, Voatz’s blockchain design doesn’t assure question consistency, which is a fundamental blockchain system requirement. Which means if any two totally different customers question the server(s) internet hosting the blockchain database with the identical query, they get precisely the identical reply. Any inconsistency within the responses given to distinct customers will ultimately be detected. Question consistency is the property that may, in principle, allow voters to confirm that their vote was counted within the election tally.”

A revolutionary idea in growth

Though Voatz should still be a piece in progress, its mission caught the eye of West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner. After serving 23 years in the US Military, Secretary Warner informed Cointelegraph that his army background inspired him to discover a resolution that may enable deployed troopers to simply vote in U.S. elections whereas abroad:

“As soon as elected as West Virginia’s Secretary of State, I had a mission to assist troopers in deployment take part in elections. I used to be by no means happy with army efforts and their voting programs, because the emphasis has all the time been misplaced — sure, troopers have the correct to vote, however they don’t have the capabilities.”

Upon studying that Voatz was a mobile-based voting platform, Secretary Warner signed a memorandum of understanding to conduct a pilot utilizing Voatz in two counties for West Virginia’s Could 2018 main election.

Glad with the outcomes, West Virginia passed a legislation in February of this 12 months requiring its counties to supply voters with disabilities the choice of receiving ballots electronically, beginning with the Could 12 main. But, as a result of vulnerabilities highlighted by the media concerning web voting and flaws in blockchain-based programs, West Virginia just lately decided against utilizing Voatz for the upcoming main election.

Nonetheless, Secretary Warner defined that leveraging Voatz just isn’t totally out of the equation for West Virginia sooner or later. He famous that blockchain was by no means a requirement for West Virginia’s cell voting resolution, however that Voatz initially labored properly for the state’s objective of enabling voters to vote through cell gadgets:

“Voatz labored properly with our functions. We examined the system earlier than it went stay, however due to current scruintity we’ve determined to make use of Democracy Reside, an online based mostly voting resolution, for this upcoming election. This isn’t a few particular concern over Voatz or blockchain. In truth, we could return to Voatz as soon as there’s a wider utility and acceptance of the platform.”

What about paper ballots?

Lastly, as technology-enabled voting programs proceed to advance, officers are actually considering utilizing simply the paper ballots to maintain elections safe in the course of the coronavirus pandemic. But, whereas paper ballots might not be susceptible to the identical safety points confronted by on-line voting programs, there are nonetheless many issues with this mannequin. For instance, Secretary Warner defined the challenges West Virginia is at present dealing with with paper absentee ballots, saying:

“Whereas vote by mail sounds engaging on its floor, I am in a state the place we now have an utility course of to ask for the absentee poll. We’re sending out 1.2 million utility playing cards to our voters, which requires hours of labor and coaching. As an illustration, we now have to consider what number of ballots we have to print now. The place we usually have 2 % of voters vote by absentee, it’s a guessing sport on what number of ballots are wanted now.”

As a result of challenges related to paper voting programs, Warner famous that tech-based options are wanted greater than ever earlier than, although he has by no means been an outspoken advocate of such options prior to now: “But when we had this expertise confirmed and accepted now, then various election officers would have turned to cell voting options.”