Voting is a fundamental right of every citizen of a democratic country. This is done to choose their government, who work for the betterment of the country. But we come across many instances of frauds happening within the system, from ballot stuffing and voter impersonation, to illegal activities of the electoral officers. Also, there are various ways of casting a vote, be it EVMs or paper ballots, and securing all these methods is challenging. In this paper, we propose a uniform online voting system called VoteChain, using blockchain technology as the security provider. Using this system, the voting process can be secured against vote tampering, as we record all the transactions made.
Today’s elections can be manipulated and voters can be coerced to vote against their will. Many a times, the credibility of the election process itself is questionable. In such a scenario, we need an election process that is transparent, fair, inexpensive and convenient. No singular protocol for managing votes. Voting equipment varies across jurisdiction. Several different voting systems are commonly employed, including paper ballots, Directly Recording Electronic (DRE) systems and Electronically operated vote counting machines (EVMs). Punch card voting systems are also used, as well as ballot marking devices to assist disabled voters. In addition to votes being cast in a multitude of way, that information is also recorded and stored non-uniformly. Paper ballots are typically scanned into a computer system, either at the polling place or a centralized location for that jurisdiction. DRE systems store vote information in the machine’s hard drive and some systems have the capacity to generate a paper audit trail, but not all jurisdictions maintain an audit trail
During the process of voting, various tampering happening in between from the time the vote is casted till it is counted. Since there are many methodologies of voting process, the below listed tampering happens.
Blockchain enables secure method of casting votes. Hyperledger records all the transactions, ensuring fraud detection. Web server facilitates access from remote systems.
The solution explores the current security shortcomings of the voting system, as well as the feasibility of an online voting system implemented using blockchain technology. Despite security risks and concerns, block-chain data storage in combination with electronic voting is a progressive and secure option for our voting systems. Blockchain technology makes it possible to attain a highly credible and verifiable election process at an inexpensive cost.
We have two transfers during this process, one from the creation of template to the polling station. The vote is being casted by the citizen at this place once its been transferred from initial stage and from the polling station we have the second transfer to the counting station. Any changes made in between the transfers will be recorded in the Hyperledger and it can be tracked easily.
