Blockchain in the Field of Voting

Olga A. Safaryan

, Kirill S. Lemesko

and Elena V. Pinevich

Don State Technical University, Rostov-on-Don, Russia

Keywords: Blockchain, Innovative Technologies, Electronic Voting, Distributed Ledger.

Abstract: Using a distributed ledger allows you to create a simple and at the same time reliable system for storing and

processing any digital data. So, on the basis of a distributed ledger, the Blockchain technology was developed,

which is a sequential combination of blocks (a specific set of data) into a chain. This chain is protected by

methods of hashing and cryptography, which makes it very difficult for an unauthorized user to access the

data. Blockchain found active use of in the financial sector, where most modern cryptocurrencies are built on

its basis. Over time, it became clear that Blockchain technology can be used in many areas of activity, for

example, in the field of electronic voting. Research on the development and implementation of a Blockchain-

based electronic voting system is underway in many developed countries and universities. In this article, we

consider and analyze the prospects for the transition from the traditional voting system to voting based on

Blockchain technology, as well as the possible risks of using the technology. Also, within the framework of

the article, an example of software implemented on the principles of Blockchain technology is presented,

illustrating the main functions of working with data.

1 INTRODUCTION

The effective life of any human society is inextricably

linked with the voting process. With the help of this

process, important economic, social, industrial and

political issues are resolved, on which the future well-

being of countries and states depends. That is why the

voting process must be convenient, efficient, and

most importantly, safe.

For a long time, public issues were resolved by a

narrow circle of people by raising a hand or throwing

a set object into an urn (Khmurovich, 2018). With the

development of society and the increase in the

number of citizens living in the states, the voting

methods have also changed. They became more open

and accessible, polling stations, ballot boxes and

ballots appeared (Safaryan, 2020). These changes

made it possible to register and take into account the

opinion of millions of people throughout the state.

However, such a system has significant drawbacks:

the possibility of forging ballots, forgery of voting

results; social pressure on voters; high cost of

conducting electoral activities (presidential elections

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7508-913X

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9114-9721

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6008-7222

in the Russian Federation in 2018 - about $ 250

million).

Today, it is relevant to conduct digital electronic

voting (Russia, USA, India, Canada, Estonia) jointly

or instead of traditional voting using paper ballots.

The transition to the electronic form made it possible

to minimize the costs of organizing and conducting

voting, however, the issue of the safety of this process

remains open. Hacking or falsification of votes is the

most frequent and main problem faced by participants

in the electronic voting process in today's elections

(Golubitchenko, 2019). This is due to such factors as:

low security of the hardware of the electronic system,

errors in the compilation of software, errors and

vulnerabilities of the server component of the system.

Due to these vulnerabilities, an attacker can gain

unauthorized access to stored confidential

information, modify or download it. That is why the

issue of security of electronic voting systems is

relevant at the moment (Izotov, 2018).

Creation of technologies and tools based on a

distributed ledger can improve the level of security,

quality and performance of a variety of digital

systems, as well as solve the problems inherent in

Safaryan, O., Lemesko, K. and Pinevich, E.

Blockchain in the Field of Voting.

DOI: 10.5220/0010617200003170

In Proceedings of the International Scientiﬁc and Practical Conference on Computer and Information Security (INFSEC 2021), pages 48-53

ISBN: 978-989-758-531-9; ISSN: 2184-9862

 2023 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

these systems (Melanie, 2017). So, on the basis of

Blockchain technology, it is possible to build an

electronic voting system, with a minimum potential

probability of hacking this system. Therefore, the use

of secure distributed registers in electronic voting

systems on the Internet is relevant and legitimate.

Such decisions and agreements tend to increase the

number of voters, simplify the voting process and

reduce costs by eliminating paperwork and requiring

fewer human resources.

The security challenges faced by electronic voting

systems today can be overcome by applying the

replication, cryptography and verification

mechanisms that Blockchain technology uses in their

development (Chernikova, 2017). This technology

will provide an ubiquitous, scalable solution to

current and legacy voting methods, providing safe

and secure digital voting, which will have a positive

impact on the security and transparency of such

systems, and therefore on user confidence in them.

2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This article presents the results of work on an

analytical study of the possibility of using distributed

ledger technology - Blockchain, in electronic voting

systems. Also, the results of work on the empirical

development of a program for introducing

Blockchain into an electronic voting system are

presented in the form of software implemented on the

principles of Blockchain technology, which

illustrates the main functions of working with data.

2.1 Main Part

The center of the e-voting system proposed for

implementation is the distributed register technology.

A distributed registry is a database stored on multiple

devices, which in turn have a complete copy of all

information contained in the database (Krivoshapkin,

2018). The work of distributed ledger technology is

to integrate all these devices into one network.

The first practical application of distributed ledger

networks was Blockchain, which is a network

consisting of a chain of blocks organized in a linear

order. Each of the blocks contains information about

the changes taking place, and also contains a unique

identifier or hash code of the previous block,

including the very first block written to the network

(Kuteinikov, 2019). As soon as the block size reaches

its maximum size, it is joined to the previous block in

strict chronological order. On the basis of the

Blockchain, the world's first cryptocurrency Bitcoin

was built, which revolutionized the world financial

market.

To ensure the reliability of the information

entered into the distributed network, the principle of

consensus is used (Kuzmin, 2017). The essence of the

method is that all information potentially entered into

the registry is checked by every device on the

network. Information is entered into the register only

when a consensus (agreement) is reached between all

network users. This allows you to protect the network

from entering inaccurate information, and also

prevents attempts to change already recorded

information.

Achieving consensus in distributed networks can

be implemented by the "proof of work" method, the

"proof of stake" method, or the PoW + PoS method,

which is a mixture of the first two methods. These are

the most applicable methods at the moment, however,

work is constantly underway to improve these

methods or create new ones.

The proof-by-work method is characterized by the

solution of a complex cryptographic problem by each

device. In Blockchain, the essence of the problem is

to find the case of addition to the block hash code, so

that a condition of a special kind is satisfied, for

example, so that the first twenty bits of the hash code

are equal to zero. If the calculation is successful, the

participant receives a reward in the form of

cryptocurrency, this process is called mining. When

proving shares, each network node gets the right to

assign the block created by the network to itself,

having assured it with its electronic signature. This

right is randomly transferred from one node to

another with a probability proportional to what share

of the cryptocurrency of the total volume of the

cryptocurrency issued in the blockchain network it

possesses.

The security of the distributed ledger network is

organized by the method of secure information hiding

- cryptography. In the Blockchain, in order to disclose

information inside a block, a network participant

needs to know how the information was encrypted,

that is, to know a unique cryptographic key assigned

to each block.

At the moment, cryptocurrencies are not the only

application of distributed ledger technology. A smart

contract is an agreement that enforces the rights and

obligations of the contracting parties by performing

digital transactions in a distributed ledger in a strictly

defined sequence and upon the occurrence of certain

circumstances (Tenetilova, 2018). Such a "smart"

contract allows you to exclude a third party in the

process of concluding and executing an agreement,

which allows you to reduce the cost of the transaction

Blockchain in the Field of Voting

and increase its reliability. It is the smart contract that

is the main tool for creating a secure electronic voting

system on the Blockchain.

Distributed ledger technology, although quite

progressive, still remains a technology at an early

stage of development, which has its own problems

and limitations. The advantages of distributed ledger

networks are: openness and transparency;

decentralized organization of the system;

immutability of the information entered; equal rights

of all users of the system; high resilience due to the

distribution of a large number of copies of data;

uninterrupted operation of networks; simplified

nature of transactions (Safaryan, 2020).

The main disadvantages of a distributed ledger

are:

 low speed of networks, depending on the

capacity of hardware equipment. For example,

the processing speed of one transaction in

Bitcoin is 10 minutes, while the centralized

operator of VISA payment cards routinely

processes 2000 transactions per second;

 there is a possibility of a cryptographic

algorithm vulnerability, the so-called "attack

51" when an attacker, having at his disposal

enormous computing power, takes control of

transaction confirmation and block generation;

 distributed ledger technology is a threat to the

existing financial system, as a result of which

many states are in no hurry to introduce

technology inside the country, which

significantly hinders the development of

technology.

Despite a number of limitations, e-voting systems

are being actively developed all over the world. For

example, in 2020, a nationwide vote was held in the

Russian Federation on amendments to the

Constitution of the Russian Federation. Most regions

used well-established voting methods, however, in

the Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod regions of the

Russian Federation, it was possible to vote through an

electronic voting system based on the Blockchain.

Also, in 2019, a vote was held in the State Duma of

the Russian Federation based on Blockchain. Despite

the fact that such a system cannot be called

completely decentralized (voting took place through

state servers), experts note that these are confident

steps of Blockchain technology in the field of

selective activity (Korneev, 2020).

In world practice, cases of using Blockchain

voting are also not uncommon, however, most of such

systems are developed mainly by startups of

enthusiasts (followmyvote.com, agora.vote) and only

a small part - by state companies. And yet,

experiments on public voting using Blockchain are

carried out annually in many developed countries.

It took Blockchain a decade to finalize its

efficiency and reliability in the financial sector

(cryptocurrencies, smart contracts). The

technological community is daily working on

modifying ready-made solutions and creating new

ones, thanks to which, today we can confidently say

that Blockain technology will soon be generally

recognized as a new field of activity - the field of

electronic voting.

2.2 Research Results

The distribution, safety and immutability of data in

the form of a block chain allow the use of Blockchain

technology in an electronic voting system in order to

eliminate shortcomings and improve the security of

electronic voting.

The Blockchain voting system has the following

qualities and capabilities:

 the ability to create polls and lists of objects to

vote for them;

 registration of participants for each created

poll;

 decentralization of data;

 availability;

 transparency;

 inability to make unauthorized changes

affecting the voting results.

In this system, each user will be given the

opportunity to create polls or polls, after which the

user will be assigned the status of an administrator,

which will allow him to change the lists of

participants. In addition, in order to ensure the

transparency of voting, each user is given access to

the results of a vote or poll, as well as access to

viewing the blockchain.

The operation of this system should be

independent of the operation of the central server, and

should continue to function in the event of a server

failure. The distributed registry allows you to ensure

the smooth operation of the system due to the fact that

a complete copy of the data is stored on each device

connected to the system, shifting part of the server's

work to the devices.

In order to exclude the possibility of influencing

the course of voting and its further results, methods

of cryptography and hashing are used, which protect

the electronic voting system from unauthorized

access by an attacker.

To implement the software product, the Python

programming language is used, since it has all the

tools you need to create software.

INFSEC 2021 - International Scientiﬁc and Practical Conference on Computer and Information Security

The software implementation is presented in the

following steps:

 we create the first genesis block, from which

the entire subsequent chain of blocks will

begin.

 create a block.py file and include libraries:

json, os, hashlib;

{

"vote": "Lemeshko Kirill

Sergeevich",

"passport": 1111 111111,

"candidate": "1",

"hash" = " "

}

Listing 1: The first block.

 we write the path in the directory: this line

saves new blocks:

blockchain_dir = os.curdir +

'/blockchain/'

Listing 1: Directory path.

 block hashing: the function performs block

hashing when using the md5 method:

def get_hash(filename):

file = open(blockchain_dir +

filename, 'rb'). read() #sending the

hash of the pre-existing block

return hashlib.md5(file).hexdigest()

Listing 2: Hashing process.

 moving files: the received files from the

directory are forwarded in blocks to the folder:

def get_files():

files = os.listdir(blockchain_dir)

return sorted([int(i) for i in

files])

Listing: 3: Moving files.

 data integrity check: this function calculates the

hash value of the created block and the hash

value of the previous block, and then compares

the obtained values. If the hash values match,

then the previous block has not been changed,

and the check function returns the hash value

of the newly created block.

 storage of new blocks: this function is

responsible for the creation and storage of new

blocks and their values based on the entered

data.

This code was created for the purpose of

decentralized voting (Kobylinsky, 2017). Using

separate blocks, the program encrypts confidential

information about the voter. The application itself has

a simple and user-friendly interface.

def check_intergrity():

#1.read the hash of an existing

block

#2.calculate the hash of an existing

block

#3.compare the received data

files = get_files()

result = []

for file in files[1:]: #[2,3,4,5]

f = open(blockchain_dir + str(file))

# '2'

h = json.load(f)['hash']

prev_file = str (file - 1)

actual_hash = get_hash(prev_file)

if h == actual_hash:

res = 'Ok'

else:

res = 'Corrupted'

#print('Block {} is: {}'

.format(prev_file, res))

results.append({'Block' : prev_file,

'results' : res})

return results

Listing 4: Integrity check.

def write_block(vote, passport,

candidate, prev_hash= ' '):

files = get_files()

prev_file = files[-1]

filename = str(prev_file + 1)

prev_hash = get_hash(str(prev_file))

data = {'vote' : vote,

'passport' : passport,

'candidate' : candidate,

'hash' : prev_hash}

with open(blockchain_dir + filename,

'w') as file:

json.dump(data, file, indent = 4,

ensure_ascii = False)

Listing 5: Storing new blocks.

2.3 The Discussion of the Results

In this article, we pointed out how the Blockchain

distributed ledger technology can be used in

electronic voting systems, how much progress has

been made in this area, and the possible benefits of

introducing technology into the field of public voting.

The solutions proposed by the scientific

community fail to ensure the security and privacy of

traditional choices, or have serious usability and

scalability problems. Therefore, Blockchain is

Blockchain in the Field of Voting

increasingly attracting the attention of the scientific

and political community.

Blockchain shows good results in electronic

voting systems, however, experts note a number of

problems that need to be solved for the subsequent

successful use of the technology. First, most of the

electronic voting systems allowed for use in real

selective activities are under the full control of the

state, for example, as noted earlier, the use of state

servers, which is why such systems cease to be

decentralized. Secondly, there is a controversial issue

regarding the identification of voting users; it is not

beneficial for the state to vote anonymously. Thirdly,

it is necessary to resolve the issues of choosing

software for use in the electronic voting system. This

is due to the fact that blockchain technology has many

types of implementations, with their own advantages

and disadvantages (Hy-perledger, Iota, Ethereum,

and others). For the effective functioning of the

system, it is necessary to find the most suitable

blockchain implementation model and optimize it for

the given goals. Additionally, it is necessary to think

over a solution to the main problem of Blockchain

technology - scalability. Since all the recorded

information is recorded on each device operating in

the system, it is necessary that these devices have a

huge amount of storage memory, calculated in tens

and hundreds of gigabytes.

It can be concluded that today, electronic voting

is still a controversial topic in both political and

scientific public circles. Despite the great potential of

distributed ledger technology and several world

examples of the application of this technology in

voting, it can be noted that for the confident

widespread implementation of technological

solutions based on Blockchain, further research,

testing and refinement of such systems is required.

3 CONCLUSIONS

Blockchain distributed ledger technology offers

democratic countries a new opportunity to move from

traditional elections using ballots and polling stations

to the most economical, efficient, and most

importantly, difficult to hack electronic voting

system.

In the course of the implementation of the work, a

software product of an electronic voting system based

on Blockchain technology was developed. This

software allows you to conduct secure polls of users

of the system, while saving the results obtained in the

form of a chain of blocks. User registration in the

system is organized by creating an account in the

network, in which a smart contract is deployed with

the addition of a user to the white list of a particular

survey created. The use of the developed software

will allow organizing an effective and reliable

electronic voting system in any area of public activity.

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Blockchain in the Field of Voting