Confidence and satisfaction in democracies are waning worldwide according to a report published by the University of Cambridge’s Centre for the Future of Democracy.1 A trusted electoral process is the bedrock of a free democracy, yet, in the United States and abroad, centralized electoral processes allow opportunistic candidates and authoritarian regimes to subvert the will of the people, eroding confidence in democratic systems.
More than 40% of Americans believe the 2020 US election was illegitimate, despite an exhaustive investigation revealing no widespread evidence of voter fraud.2,3 In fact, former President Donald Trump’s reaction to defeat, denouncing the process as rigged, is a common refrain from losing candidates in struggling democracies abroad such as Bangladesh, Egypt, Kenya, and Afghanistan.4 Despite the veracity of claims that an election may be fraudulent, the potency of the accusations and their subsequent embrace by a portion of the electorate erodes confidence in the democratic process and invites a regression to authoritarianism.
Blockchain-enabled voting would likely improve voter access and participation rates as real-time voter identification using smart technologies would be an improvement over the status quo of government-issued photo verification at physical poll booths.
I predict blockchain technology will be embraced in political elections and eliminate the potential for voter fraud, thereby increasing confidence in elections, improving voter turnout, and restoring faith in democracy.
Nir Kshetri and Jeffrey Voas imagine a way blockchain voting might work:
Eligible voters cast a ballot anonymously using a computer or smartphone. BEV [Blockchain-enabled voting] employs an encrypted key and tamperproof personal IDs. For example, the mobile e-voting platform of the Boston-based startup Voatz employs smart biometrics and real-time ID verification. The public ledger ties each cast ballot to an individual voter and establishes a permanent, immutable record. No bad actor can engage in nefarious activities because such activities will be evident on the ledger or corrected by a peer-to-peer consensus network.5
Nir Kshetri and Jeffrey Voas
In such a system, votes are recorded securely, anonymously, and permanently – tampering with votes would be all but impossible. Blockchain-enabled voting would likely improve voter access and participation rates as real-time voter identification using smart technologies would be an improvement over the status quo of government-issued photo verification at physical poll booths. Blockchain voting can be tabulated faster and with less ambiguity than current processes. Indeed, there will be no hanging chads on the blockchain.6 In weak democracies around the world, voter intimidation from partisans is a serious concern that has adverse democratic consequences. With blockchain-enabled voting, voter intimidation would no longer be a concern.
Despite its great utility, blockchain voting has significant challenges to overcome before its realization. First, the complexity of using the blockchain may serve as a significant barrier for public adoption. Similarly, countries that value centralization and the strength of the State over transparency and decentralization are unlikely to adopt blockchain in voting. Additionally, the very nature of a blockchain’s decentralization lacks a central point of control, so “it takes more time and effort to deploy security fixes in a decentralized system than in a centralized one, and blockchain systems can be vulnerable for longer periods of time than centralized counterparts.”7 Finally, while the compiled data is immutable, there would still remain a number of attack vectors on an individual’s credentials where one could have their vote stolen.
While implementation, adoption, and maintenance will be difficult and take many years to build, the emergence of blockchain technologies in political voting will increase confidence in elections worldwide and improve voter access, strengthening democracies worldwide.
Sources
1 “Global Dissatisfaction with Democracy at a Record High,” University of Cambridge, January 29, 2020.
2 Maya Yang, “More than 40% in US Do Not Believe Biden Legitimately Won Election – Poll,” The Guardian, January 5, 2022.
3 “Exhaustive Fact Check Finds Little Evidence of Voter Fraud, but ‘Big Lie’ Lives On,” PBS, December 2021.
4 Eric Bjornlund, “Here’s How the 2020 U.S. Elections Resemble Those of Fragile Democracies,” Foreign Policy.
5 Nir Kshetri and Jeffrey Voas, “Blockchain-Enabled E-Voting.”
6 Ron Elving, “The Florida Recount Of 2000: A Nightmare That Goes On Haunting,” NPR, November 12, 2018.
7 Sunoo Park, et al, “Going from Bad to Worse: From Internet Voting to Blockchain Voting,” November 6, 2020. Updated and published in the Journal of Cybersecurity, February 2021: https://doi.org/10.1093/cybsec/tyaa025
Jack McAuliffe is from McLean, Virginia. Prior to attending Harvard Business School, he served in the United States Marine Corps for five years. He enjoys studying emerging technologies because it makes him hopeful for a better future.
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