Comparative analysis of electronic voting methods based on blockchain technology

Abstract

In recent years, electronic voting has become a very popular and topical topic. Electronic voting technology can speed up ballot counting and provide accessibility for voters with disabilities. Electronic voting can also facilitate electoral fraud, especially given the risks associated with remote voting. Building a secure electronic voting system that offers the fairness and privacy of current voting schemes, while providing the transparency and flexibility offered by electronic systems has been a challenge for a long time. In this work-in-progress paper, we evaluate an application of blockchain as a service to implement distributed electronic voting systems. The paper proposes a novel electronic voting system based on blockchain that addresses some of the limitations in existing systems and evaluates some of the popular blockchain frameworks for the purpose of constructing a blockchain-based e-voting system. In particular, we evaluate the potential of distributed ledger technologies through the description of a case study; namely, the process of an election, and the implementation of a blockchainbased application, which improves the security and decreases the cost of hosting a nationwide election.