The idea of using smart contracts for online voting is not new and fits well with the concept of fair and transparent elections. For example, Polys online voting platform is already used smart contracts.

To see how it works, let’s assume there’s a community that needs to reach a decision via a vote. This is an extremely important decision, and the community is not disposed to trust its individual members. How can this be done?

One option is for the entire community to meet in one place and conduct the vote. The result of the voting will be visible to everybody, so trust will be ensured. But what if the community is large and its members live in different places? Online voting may be the next option.

Let’s assume the community uses a service to gather its members’ opinions. This method of voting works well, up to a point. But what is that point? How can the community control the operator and ensure transparency?

This is where smart contracts come in. They could introduce an online watcher role into the online voting process — that role would be filled by a trusted and respected member of that community; or, alternatively, that right can be given to all competing candidates. The watchers will receive the participants’ votes and record them, keeping this process in sync with other watchers. After counting the votes using smart contracts, we arrive at a result that has been verified and approved by all parties.

As a result, the geographically distributed community will be able to achieve a level of trust internally without resorting to a central body.