Blockchain Electronic Voting System Development – Complete Guide

The advent of Blockchain technology has helped a lot of mobile app development companies and organizations to implement security in their system. It is also stated that the Blockchain technology market size globally was esteemed at US$ 17.46 billion in the year 2023 and it is predicted to evolve at 87.7% CAGR from 2023 to 2030. Considering the escalated demand for security and transparency in every field, we can say Blockchain will rule over all sectors in the coming years.

Continuing with the role of Blockchain in electronic voting systems, the government must ensure the security, integrity, and transparency of the process. Besides maintaining all the required security arrangements for voting, people still raise their concerns about electoral fraud.

The reason behind this is current voting systems like electronic voting or ballot box voting are vulnerable to diverse security threats such as polling booth capturing, DDoS attacks, vote manipulation & alteration, malware attacks, etc. while requiring various resources, paperwork, and lots of time leading to a sense of disbelief among available systems. Is there any solution for that?   

Implementing a Blockchain Voting Management System (BVMS) is the only way to make voting immutable, reliable, simpler yet secure. Even, various countries such as the USA, Japan, Russia, Sierra Leone, etc. have acquired Blockchain-based electronic voting systems so that they can avoid conflicts in the voting process.  

Want to know more about Blockchain and its role in electronic voting systems? Scroll down to get a detailed overview of why a Blockchain-based voting system is necessary to implement. Let’s dive in:

Overview – How Blockchain E-Voting System Works

eVoting or an online voting system allows people to cast their vote for their preferred party remotely in elections. Using a computer system, voters can conduct votes by pressing a button. These voting systems can widely go from easy electronic devices to intricate web-based platforms enabling remote voting. The main emphasis of eVoting systems is to improve the accuracy and accessibility of the voting procedure.

Let’s get to know about how the electronic voting system works-

• Voters register using their verification ID, unique voter ID, etc. and the system records their registration details. 
• Now, voters can cast their vote via ballot box voting or an electronic voting system.
• Once a vote is completed, the system prints an optical scanning ballot.
• The voter verifies the vote and then, adds it to another device to scan and organize it.
• Then, votes will be transferred for final counting with high security.

The Role of Blockchain Technology in Electronic Voting Systems

As we know, present voting systems like electronic voting or ballot box voting are facing security-related issues, including polling booth capturing, DDoS attacks, vote alteration, and others. To resolve these issues and reduce the manpower behind the voting process, Blockchain is the right technology to embrace.

Blockchain technology is already spreading its wings across industries due to its beneficial features such as transparency, immutability, security, etc. Hence, it is predicted that the implementation of a Blockchain-based electronic voting system will surely improve the voting system in countries.

Talking about it in detail, Blockchain-based e-voting systems record every vote as a transaction on a shared and decentralized digital ledger, called Blockchain. It monitors the vote count every second leading to less risk of alteration, hacking, or deleting the sensitive data. It will also be helpful for overseas voters to access the election administration and vote via their smartphones over Blockchain networks. By processing an audit trail of changes, Blockchain allows authorized officials to update the vote records along with the account details that made changes. Autonomous watch-dogs also track the real-time changes done to voter records on a Blockchain to identify any suspicious activities.

The government can hire top Blockchain developers to get efficient solutions as per their specific needs to implement them in the current voting system. They can also go for custom Blockchain solutions to execute transparent voting records, decentralized identity verification protocols, better voter engagement, more accessibility to polling stations, and others.     

Read More – Top Blockchain Development Companies

Must-Add Features to Blockchain-Based Voting Management System Development

When it comes to Blockchain Voting Management System development, you need to integrate beneficial features into it. Have a look at the following features to add to BVMS-

• Flexible Consensus Algorithm

The system will be crafted to support diverse consensus mechanisms including PoW, PoS, PoV, PoT, etc. By default, the Proof-of-Work will be the main consensus mechanism, but an authorized person can change it to other mechanisms to improve the overall performance.

• Smart Contracts

Smart contracts are created to serve different purposes such as checking if a user has voted or not, if they are registered or not to vote, ensuring they have voted only once, and many more. All these can be confirmed via their identification card. There is a voting coin in each user’s wallet, when they vote, it gets removed and users get notified on their registered mobile number.

• Decentralized Identity Verification Protocols

The decentralized identity verification protocols help to register the voters securely with their verified identities via biometrics or other secure ways. Briefly, it is beneficial to alleviate issues such as inaccurate voter lists, duplicate entries, segregation of eligible voters, biased manipulation, admin inefficiencies, bureaucratic obstacles, etc.      

• Chain Security Algorithm

It is used to ensure the Blockchain integrity via automatically verifying the chain validity whenever a new Block is added or there occur unlawful alterations in Block data. It is done by comparing the hash value of old and new blocks. If this chain verifies correctly, the changes will reflect on all nodes in a peer-to-peer network, otherwise, the chain will be declared invalid.

• 51% Attacks Prevention

The system should prevent 51% attacks via different ways including recording the hash rate of minors and prohibiting the ones with more than 51% hash rate from mining at the time of elections. Monitoring pre-selected minors and if any irregularities occur, mining will stop and a 51% attack will be declared.                                

• Unspent Transaction Output

The system ropes a UTXO mechanism in which when a voter casts their vote, their coin will be sent to the miner as a reward for transaction processing instead of transaction fees. When a user votes with their digital signature, the transaction will be registered, the mining process will start, and the UTXO value will be Zero avoiding repeat balloting.  

Benefits of Developing Blockchain-based Voting Management System

With impressive features and functions, Blockchain Voting Management System drives the political voting system fast while maintaining higher security and integrity. Check out the following benefits of the Blockchain voting system-

• Transparent & Immutable Voting Records

Voters have raised the question of the integrity of voting records multiple times. To resolve this issue, a Blockchain-based voting system should be implemented as it is a distributed ledger that encourages tamper-proof transactions to ensure immutable voting records and prevent any malicious attack.  

• Better Vote Turnout & Engagement

It has been seen that a large number of voters back out from voting due to not being available at the voting place or for other reasons. This Blockchain-based eVoting system with a user-friendly interface will make them use digital channels to vote leading to increased engagement, convenience, and voter outreach.  

• Accessible Multiple Polling Stations

There are various constraints such as improper infrastructure, logistical limitations, geographical barriers, etc. due to which voters sometimes can’t vote. To avoid these, using Blockchain for election voting increases accessibility to multiple polling stations so that voters can securely vote from any location using the internet.      

• Data Security

The Blockchain-based voting system is also a great asset when it comes to the security of overall data and personal information of voters leading to better voter anonymity. Blockchain technology is being integrated into the system to prevent voter fraud during elections. It is also used to record votes on a shared ledger securely without any alteration. This ledger exists on a chain backed by a lot of nodes.  

• No Involvement of Third-party

The Blockchain-based system doesn’t allow the involvement of any intermediary or third party as it works together with smart contracts to ensure the execution of all the aspects. It leads to alleviating the cost-saving for labor and other resources.

Bonus Read – Blockchain Wallet App Development Guide

Key Challenges Blockchain Voting System Development and How to Overcome

The current electronic voting system implemented by various countries is facing a lot of issues that can easily weaken aspects such as security, integrity, and accessibility during elections. The only solution to all these challenges is to implement a Blockchain-based voting system. Have a look below-  

Challenge: There are security vulnerabilities such as impersonation, double voting, etc. in traditional electronic voting systems.

Solution: Blockchain-based voting systems include an immutable ledger, encryption of votes, and the application of cryptography techniques to provide security to voter records. Once a vote is recorded, there is no chance for its alteration or removal. It prevents hacking, unauthorized access, fraud, and tampering with records.

Challenge: Lack of transparency in the process of vote recording and counting leads to uncertainty among voters.

Solution: The Applied Blockchain ledger is accessible publicly permitting any individual to voting process auditing along with the integrity verification of the vote count. Also, voters can keep track of their votes to make sure they are counted with anonymity. 

Challenge: There are accessibility issues due to long distance to polling booths, restricted voting hours, etc.

Solution: Blockchain-based voting system will allow voters to cast their vote from any location using the internet leading to more voter contribution. It will also help with identification methods to ensure allowing only eligible voters participate.

Challenge: There are higher complexity and cost involved in implementing & maintaining the traditional voting system. Secure transportation and storage of voter records also require a large volume of resources leading to huge costs.

Solution: Blockchain-based electronic voting system leads a streamlined & automated process for voting via smart contracts that lessen the need for physical infrastructure and alleviates operational costs.

Challenge: Issues such as slow and time-consuming ballot counting can be seen in traditional voting systems.Solution: Blockchain-based e-voting platforms can provide faster and real-time results in terms of vote counting, voter verification, and accurate outcomes. 

Blockchain-based Voting Management System: The Future of Election?

While seeing in terms of better transparency, integrity, and security in elections, nothing can beat the Blockchain Voting Management System. We can see BVMS as the future of elections due to the following qualities-

–  To make the voting process more reliable, transparent, fast, and accessible.

– To avoid voter intimidation and apply the necessary actions including stopping vote-buying, and maintaining the secrecy & anonymity of ballots.

– The voting management system or software should be independent to lead the voting process fairly.  

Looking at these benefits, we can say that there will be a time when all the countries worldwide will sense the requirement of a Blockchain-based e-voting system during elections. Organizations that are looking for Blockchain-based electronic voting platform development must know that Ethereum and its network are counted among the most appropriate platforms for electronic voting using Blockchain because of its wide range of benefits. It will be a good investment for future purposes to create a Blockchain solution for the voting system.  

In Essence,

In addition to smart contracts, Blockchain technology has a lot of potential to strengthen the country’s election system while resolving various challenges such as lack of transparency, security, reliability, and efficiency. Implementation of Blockchain technology in the voting process can address all of them while making room for improvement. To acquire a feature-rich Blockchain solution, organizations need to hire a top-notch Blockchain Development Service Provider. Octal IT Solution can be the one-stop destination for addressing all your blockchian development concerns. Be it a small, medium-sized, or large-sized organization, we endeavor to provide our best services to them. Contact us if you have any further queries!     

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