A transparent referendum protocol with immutable proceedings and\n verifiable outcome for trustless networks

Abstract

High voter turnout in elections and referendums is very desirable in order to\nensure a robust democracy. Secure electronic voting is a vision for the future\nof elections and referendums. Such a system can counteract factors that hinder\nstrong voter turnout such as the requirement of physical presence during\nlimited hours at polling stations. However, this vision brings transparency and\nconfidentiality requirements that render the design of such solutions\nchallenging. Specifically, the counting must be implemented in a reproducible\nway and the ballots of individual voters must remain concealed. In this paper,\nwe propose and evaluate a referendum protocol that ensures transparency,\nconfidentiality, and integrity, in trustless networks. The protocol is built by\ncombining Secure Multi-Party Computation (SMPC) and Distributed Ledger or\nBlockchain technology. The persistence and immutability of the protocol\ncommunication allows verifiability of the referendum outcome on the client\nside. Voters therefore do not need to trust in third parties. We provide a\nformal description and conduct a thorough security evaluation of our proposal.\n