Can Blockchain Technology stop Election Malpractice?

[Wenbing]

I see blockchain to be a transparent ledger that makes it possible for activities going on in a particular industry  to be transparent.

One of the applications of this software technology is cryptocurrency.

 Other applications according to an article I read on Quora are: healthcare application, real estate application, legal industry application, security application , government application, rentals and ride sharing application, charity organization application and education application. Here is the link below:

https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-coolest-application-of-Blockchain-technology

This made bitcoin to have a decentralized system, transparent and built on the basis of trust in such a way that the users are anonymous.

My consideration is this:
I believe the blockchain technology can be applied in election processes, so that we can solve the problem with many elections malpractices such as hacking of election documents in developed countries and rigging of election results in developing countries.

But the bottleneck is this. How can we know exactly those that vote being that the addresses make people to be anonymous?

How can we solve this anonymous issue when applying this technology to election processes?

Kindly drop you opinion on this issue.

[avikz]

Election is a billion dollar industry! It sounds dumb but that's the truth! It's an industry to manipulate people to ensure power mongers retaining their power to rule a so called democracy.

Blockchain can beautifully solve the issue of manipulation but it can't remain decentralized in any way! Blockchain can ensure transparency in the election process but there has to be a central authority who will ensure the transparency parameter is not compromised and to declare the result. The anonymity factor must be retained within the blockchain for the general mass but not for the centralized authority. That can be achieved by creating a private blockchain with customized set of rules - probably a programmer will be able to share technical side of it.

But the issue is that, because of the transparency factor of blockchain- majority of the nations will not allow its implementation! This way they will loose their power to manipulate the system! Especially in countries like India where democracy exists on the books only!

[pakhitheboss]

I am not sure how it will be implemented? but, it can be done. If every individual is provided a unique identification number  or alphanumeric ID on the Blockchain then the problem can be solve. To generate this ID they have to go through KYC.

The best part about Blockchain is that you cannot manipulate with this ID as once it is created you cannot delete or edit it.

But, will the government of these countries allow this to happen?

[Wind_FURY]

There's a debate that cryptography can, but "blockchain-technology"? The term itself already sounds like a scam. Use a database. Cheaper, and more efficient.

[Wenbing]

<snip>
But the issue is that, because of the transparency factor of blockchain- majority of the nations will not allow its implementation! This way they will loose their power to manipulate the system! Especially in countries like India where democracy exists on the books only!

Democratic form of  government exists in books in manay countries.
There are countries where their politician buy votes.
There are countries who hire thugs to rig elections.
What about the famous Russia hacking the Trump election and influenced it.

Corruption in election indeed.

<snip>
The best part about Blockchain is that you cannot manipulate with this ID as once it is created you cannot delete or edit it.

But, will the government of these countries allow this to happen?

We need government approval in order to realise this transparent electioneering processes. We also need good legal system in place so that any defaulter will be penalized and it'll serve as a deterrent to other potential defaulters.

[moderator's note: consecutive posts merged]

[20kevin20]

I don't think anonymous voting & transparency could work together. If the government allowed us to see a list of all voters, it'd mean no privacy and although we may not know who is who as our name could be transformed into codes/IDs, the government would.

The old ways of elections are still the best imo, although they can manipulate votes. Let's be honest for a minute: if they have a plan to manipulate them, they'll surely find a way to do so as they've done it for decades or even centuries. Blockchain won't solve it without sacrifices/consequences.

[joniboini]

I also believe that e-voting is a bad idea, blockchain (or any jargon) included. Here's the thing, you can't make sure somebody vote without knowing their identity at one point or the other, and who knows what exactly happens in the machine or the code itself. It is difficult to trust the code especially if the government is the one who made it. Somebody can cast doubt over the machine and then everyone would start doubting the entire election itself.

Tom Scott made a good video about this (about e-voting in general but I believe the risk is the same)[1].

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkH2r-sNjQs

[Yaunfitda]

How can we solve this anonymous issue when applying this technology to election processes[/i]?

Kindly drop you opinion on this issue.

We have seen this discussions before.

1. Blockchain technology in election polls
2. A  Radical Plan for Blockchain Based Voting And Much More
3. Blockchain Technology Revolution For Elections, what happens?
4. Can you see the blockchain being used to register votes in general elections?
5. Ukraine Election Body Trials Voting on an NEM Blockchain

[ice18]

While this technology can really bring us into election transparency and tampered-less result the main questions is, Is the government are willing to use this technology? most governments has many manipulation histories for a long time and until now this practice is still abused by incumbent leaders  and I dont think this will end by using latest technologies like blockchain.

[Youghoor]

Absolutely! I once read about a company which used blockchain technology in running an election and it was very successful and they even plan on taking it on a large scale. The transparency of blockchain distributed ledger and its immutability makes it absolutely ideal for things like voting where parties always try to rig the vote in their favour.

[princesspoppy]

The blockchain itself is a powerful technology, and is a complicated one. Although, it is simply a record of transactions, using it as a tool for election will be complicated. People will need ID in order to vote, take note that there are millions of people in each country. These IDs can also be manipulated by greedy politicians that wants to be in a position. These greedy politicians will do everything they can just to be in the position, like no matter it takes.

[Sadlife]

It doesn't need to be Blockchain Technology because it will require a certain amount of hashrate in order for it to be secured and unhackable.
A simple program that counts votes that gets data from other states with hash seed to verify that's its not tampered could be enough.

[pooya87]

this is another good example of how to use the term "blockchain technology" as an empty "buzzword".

there are two ways you can look at using blockchain for voting, 1) a distributed ledger (decentralized way) which means there is no authority to prevent people from making more than one identity which goes against elections. 2) centralized ledger (the centralized way) which means using blockchain is pointless, the same flaws that currently exist would just transfer to the new system without anything changing.

[davis196]

Election malpractices usually happen offline.Some poor people sell their votes,or they are forced to vote for a certain candidate.Implementing blockchain technology into the election process simply won't change anything.
Technology can be used as a supplement to an already working democracy,but if the democracy isn't perfect and it isn't working properly,high technology implementations won't help for improving such rotten democratic system.

[Wexnident]

Senseless tbh. The fundamental problem in election malpractice comes from the corrupt ways that most candidates do. Do remember that negotiation talks of candidates to be voted stem from them taking advantage of the problems most people have. They even bribe them at times (directly or indirectly). Plus, if you were to use a unique id for each user, then there'd basically be no privacy. The government could freely identify anyone registering since a unique id requires KYC. Even if we don't use KYC, users could then vote multiple times since there's no way to differentiate between each person. The current state of election is fine tbh, just that those on control aren't the ones that are fine.

[thirdkiller]

I don't think this can really help, but rather it can become another tool for manipulating elections.

[turkandjaydee]

That means government will know vote result of each citizens since their identity and vote result linked by ID.

It has serious implication if you live on country with dictator or militarism principle.

I don't know if this idea is already mentioned before or not. But what if we change it to be linked to a status such as approved or not approved?

So there will be another database with a list of national id including a status column where a value of true or false will be given and also a list of approved addresses.
And then every person will need to register their address and national id to a program that can set the value of national id status to true or false depending on whether it has been used or not and after that if the address has not been used then their address will be included to the list of approved addresses.

It is difficult to trust the code especially if the government is the one who made it.

This is also the problem, but there is a possibility where the government becomes transparent if their people urge them such as letting the app becomes an open-source app.

[The Cryptovator]

I think it could help but it wouldn't quite easy and there is some other important concern . Government related anything is linked with you National ID card. So implement blockchain technology on election system first challenge is keep your identity anonymous which is most complicated. However it would solve by implement something like bitcoin technology (hash system). There should be separate card without number, but there will be like private key like Ledger nano and it could generated public key. Means private key won't visible to anyone including holder of this card. When this card will be entered on election machine then it will generate hash like public key and system will see this vote came from this public key. That's how we may stay anonymous but I am worried that abuser would create such as card unlimited and abuse whole system. We could solve issue about anonymous but we are unable to solve issue about abuse. So I believe current manual system is better than blockchain technology.

[imstillthebest]

I don't think this can really help, but rather it can become another tool for manipulating elections.

manipulating on a new system is something that is normal but later on it can be solved out and then that new system can now run better than compare to older ones   .  all we need here is trust and patience    .

people always wanted to solve the problem on elections so this could be the way that we are waiting for  .  in the meantime blockchain is being tested out on other business or industries but not really on elections knowing that elections takes a long time to occur  .

[Wenbing]

Absolutely! I once read about a company which used blockchain technology in running an election and it was very successful and they even plan on taking it on a large scale. The transparency of blockchain distributed ledger and its immutability makes it absolutely ideal for things like voting where parties always try to rig the vote in their favour.

We really need disruption of the every world systems that have existed since the existence of humans in the same way bitcoin has or are already disrupting the monetary system.

Pls, kindly send the link to that article so we can also read about the success recorded by such country.