„The impact of blockchain technology on the trustworthiness of online voting systems”-„elections and trust“

Online Voting evidently increases election turnouts. However, recent state-owned initiatives have failed due to security concerns and a lack of trust in the systems. Blockchain seems to be a very suitable technical solution to establish transparency in online voting and thus, create trust. We have built our own, blockchain-enabled voting platform and utilized it to run an A/B-testing experiment at a university election to investigate its effect. Our results show that students trusted the blockchain-based voting version less than the control version. However, literature and our focus group findings revealed that there is an interrelation between the distrust among the students and a low level of familiarity with blockchain technology. Hence, we conclude that people should be educated before being confronted with blockchain-enabled online voting to take advantage of the technology’s potential

From Blockchain to Internet-based Voting

Blockchain has been one of the hottest topics among the state-of-the-art technologies. As the enabling technology for Bitcoin, the pioneering cryptocurrency, blockchain is an append-only distributed ledger that is virtually impossible to attack. Hence, blockchain holds great promises as the fundamental technology to enable Internet-based electronic voting. However, Internet-based voting has additional requirements than what monetary transactions such as Bitcoin have to offer. In this thesis, we discuss the key differences of a blockchain-based voting system with digital currencies. In this context we also highlight the requirements, review existing proposed solutions, and outline possible improvements. Specifically, we propose several schemes on how to tackle various issues such as authentication, privacy, transparency, scalability, safety, as well as several other practical aspects of the platform. Most importantly, a blockchain-based voting system needs to ensure that the prospect of tampering with the election result is to a large extent eliminated. At the same time, the voting platform should have proper performance characteristics, i.e. sufficient throughput, for a voting of large magnitude such as a presidential election. Being heavily linked together, security and performance should be investigated in a unified framework to capture the interaction effects between the two. To address this concern, for the first time, we will study the performance and security implications of the blockchain voting system in a quantitative manner, using a blockchain simulator developed by researchers at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zurich. In our analysis, we will specifically investigate the stale block rate and relative mining share of the dishonest network, as the central security measures, as a function of important network parameters that determine the throughput of the network, i.e. block size and block interval. Ultimately, we focus on selfish mining and eclipse attacks as the most critical threats to the integrity of the blockchain voting in order to find the optimal network parameters

Conceptualization of a Blockchain Based Voting Ecosystem in Estonia

Demokraatia on iidsete kreeklaste poolt välja töötatud mõiste, mille tähendus on "inimeste valitsemine". Maailm on arenenud sellest ajast kaugele edasi – impeeriumidest kuningriikideni ning lõpuks jõudnud demokraatiani nagu me seda tänapäeval teame. Praegustes demokraatlikes riikides põhineb rahva poolne juhtimine perioodilistel valimistel, mis viiakse läbi otsese või kaudse hääletamise teel. Hääletamisviisid on olnud kuni 20. sajandini ühtsed, kasutades hääletamissedeleid ja füüsilist loendamist. Tehnoloogia ja tehnika on sellest ajast alates olukorda muutnud, juurutades elektroonilised hääletamismasinad, näiteks Indias, ja elektroonilised hääletamisvõimalused Interneti kaudu, nagu näiteks Eestis, mida kasutatakse järjepidevalt. Kuid kõige selle juures jääb midagi ikkagi lahendamata. Peale kandidaatide või valitsuse valimist võivad ja saavad nad oma kohustusi ja ülesandeid täita ebapiisava korrektsuse, vähese või puuduva vastutuse ning järelevalveta. Isegi pärast valimisi võib valitsus olla oma kodanike seas ebapopulaarne, kuid enne järgmisi valimisi ei ole kodanikel võimalust midagi muuta. See väitekiri aitab selle lünga täita värskelt kasutusele võetud plokiahela ja hajusraamatu tehnoloogia kasutamisega ning ka äsja väljatöötatud uuenduslike kontseptsioonide abil.Democracy is an age-old concept coined by the ancient Greeks meaning, ‘Rule by People’. World has come far from that, from empires, to kingdoms to finally democracy as we know it. In current democracies, the exercise conducted to be ‘Ruled by People’ is based up on periodic elections and those elections are conducted via voting, direct or indirect. The ways of voting have been consistent up until the 20th Century with the use of ballot papers and physical counting. The age of technology and engineering since, have brought about changes to the status quo, with introduction of Electronic Voting Machines such as, in India and Electronic Voting via Internet such as, in Estonia which are practiced in every election. But in all of this, something still remains unresolved. When candidates or in turn a government is elected, they are meagre obliged to perform their duties correctly, with little or no accountability and oversight. Even after elections, a government might be unpopular among its citizens, but the citizens don’t have means to change anything, before the next elections. This thesis helps to fill this gap with use of newly introduced technology of Blockchain and Distributed Ledgers, and also with the help of newly conceptualized innovative concepts

From Blockchain to Internet-based Voting

Blockchain has been one of the hottest topics among the state-of-the-art technologies. As the enabling technology for Bitcoin, the pioneering cryptocurrency, blockchain is an append-only distributed ledger that is virtually impossible to attack. Hence, blockchain holds great promises as the fundamental technology to enable Internet-based electronic voting. However, Internet-based voting has additional requirements than what monetary transactions such as Bitcoin have to offer. In this thesis, we discuss the key differences of a blockchain-based voting system with digital currencies. In this context we also highlight the requirements, review existing proposed solutions, and outline possible improvements. Specifically, we propose several schemes on how to tackle various issues such as authentication, privacy, transparency, scalability, safety, as well as several other practical aspects of the platform. Most importantly, a blockchain-based voting system needs to ensure that the prospect of tampering with the election result is to a large extent eliminated. At the same time, the voting platform should have proper performance characteristics, i.e. sufficient throughput, for a voting of large magnitude such as a presidential election. Being heavily linked together, security and performance should be investigated in a unified framework to capture the interaction effects between the two. To address this concern, for the first time, we will study the performance and security implications of the blockchain voting system in a quantitative manner, using a blockchain simulator developed by researchers at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zurich. In our analysis, we will specifically investigate the stale block rate and relative mining share of the dishonest network, as the central security measures, as a function of important network parameters that determine the throughput of the network, i.e. block size and block interval. Ultimately, we focus on selfish mining and eclipse attacks as the most critical threats to the integrity of the blockchain voting in order to find the optimal network parameters

An Analysis of Voter Fraud and Proposed Methodology for Recording Numerical Anomalies in Polling Data

Debate surrounding the security and accessibility of voting procedures in the United States has caused the matter of electoral integrity to become a point of contention. Confusion surrounding the Federal government\u27s response to allegations of fraud has decreased the population’s trust in the government and increased voter apathy. The context for an empirical methodology is established with a history of e-voting, voter security, and voter-fraud sensationalism. This research methodology is then described and implemented with a software application that analyzes the proximity of voters to polling locations to study the way people vote and how fraud may be committed at polling stations. The development cycle, design, and use cases of this software are described, and a variety of improvements are suggested as motivation for future application

A proposal for the use of blockchain in the portuguese voting system

Dissertation presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Information Management, specialization in Knowledge Management and Business IntelligenceThe key objective of this proposal is to present one of the problems that the Portuguese economy, as well as other European countries, have been facing in regard to the civil society intervention in the democracy: the decrease of turnover rates in the voting system. The main objective is to propose the use of Blockchain technology in the Portuguese Voting System, as a mechanism to counter this trend. In order to understand how the possible application of a remote e-voting system succeeds, Estonia was selected as the case of study. Its architecture, as well as the legal, social and technological issues and challenges associated are investigated in the light of the information collected in the literature review. Considering the case analysis and discussion, a set of recommendations that purpose the use of a remote electronic voting system in the Portuguese electoral system are presented and a critical analysis about the introduction of a Blockchain algorithm is made. This dissertation concludes about the advantages and disadvantages from the use of this decentralized system when compared with a system involving a third-party as the one used in the Estonian I-Voting. The validation is based on interviews and discussions with professors in the area of information systems and law, and also with a contribution of a Digital adviser of the Estonian e-Governance model

The impact of blockchain technology on the trustworthiness of online voting systems - an exploration of blockchain-enabled online voting

Online Voting evidently increases election turnouts. However, recent state-owned initiatives have failed due to security concerns and a lack of trust in the systems. Block chain seems to be a very suitable technical solution to establish transparency in online voting and thus, create trust. We have built our own, block chain-enabled voting platform and utilized it to run an A/B-testing experiment at an university election to investigate its effect. Our results which show that students trusted the block chain-based voting version less than the control version can be found in Vysna (2020). The following discussion can be found in Konzok (2020

Electronic Voting: 6th International Joint Conference, E-Vote-ID 2021, Virtual Event, October 5–8, 2021: proceedings

This volume contains the papers presented at E-Vote-ID 2021, the Sixth International Joint Conference on Electronic Voting, held during October 5–8, 2021. Due to the extraordinary situation brought about by the COVID-19, the conference was held online for the second consecutive edition, instead of in the traditional venue in Bregenz, Austria. The E-Vote-ID conference is the result of the merger of the EVOTE and Vote-ID conferences, with first EVOTE conference taking place 17 years ago in Austria. Since that conference in 2004, over 1000 experts have attended the venue, including scholars, practitioners, authorities, electoral managers, vendors, and PhD students. The conference focuses on the most relevant debates on the development of electronic voting, from aspects relating to security and usability through to practical experiences and applications of voting systems, also including legal, social, or political aspects, amongst others, and has turned out to be an important global referent in relation to this issue

Sixth International Joint Conference on Electronic Voting E-Vote-ID 2021. 5-8 October 2021

This volume contains papers presented at E-Vote-ID 2021, the Sixth International Joint Conference on Electronic Voting, held during October 5-8, 2021. Due to the extraordinary situation provoked by Covid-19 Pandemic, the conference is held online for second consecutive edition, instead of in the traditional venue in Bregenz, Austria. E-Vote-ID Conference resulted from the merging of EVOTE and Vote-ID and counting up to 17 years since the _rst E-Vote conference in Austria. Since that conference in 2004, over 1000 experts have attended the venue, including scholars, practitioners, authorities, electoral managers, vendors, and PhD Students. The conference collected the most relevant debates on the development of Electronic Voting, from aspects relating to security and usability through to practical experiences and applications of voting systems, also including legal, social or political aspects, amongst others; turning out to be an important global referent in relation to this issue. Also, this year, the conference consisted of: · Security, Usability and Technical Issues Track · Administrative, Legal, Political and Social Issues Track · Election and Practical Experiences Track · PhD Colloquium, Poster and Demo Session on the day before the conference E-VOTE-ID 2021 received 49 submissions, being, each of them, reviewed by 3 to 5 program committee members, using a double blind review process. As a result, 27 papers were accepted for its presentation in the conference. The selected papers cover a wide range of topics connected with electronic voting, including experiences and revisions of the real uses of E-voting systems and corresponding processes in elections. We would also like to thank the German Informatics Society (Gesellschaft für Informatik) with its ECOM working group and KASTEL for their partnership over many years. Further we would like to thank the Swiss Federal Chancellery and the Regional Government of Vorarlberg for their kind support. EVote- ID 2021 conference is kindly supported through European Union's Horizon 2020 projects ECEPS (grant agreement 857622) and mGov4EU (grant agreement 959072). Special thanks go to the members of the international program committee for their hard work in reviewing, discussing, and shepherding papers. They ensured the high quality of these proceedings with their knowledge and experience