A Decentralized Voting System

Abstract

The target of the project "A Decentralized Voting System" is to investigate whether recent developments in distributed systems can make a decentralized voting system capable of replacing the current systems in place. The current voting systems that are taken into account are primarily democratic electoral voting systems, such as the Swedish national electoral voting system. To remove the single central authority conducting the vote, distributing the responsibility is the primary goal of the project. The voting system developed relies on several trusted entities where the system tolerates conflict of interest to a specified degree. It is built using a software framework for building blockchain applications. The system is capable of managing all aspects of voting except the distribution of a digital voter card. A frontend presents the voting stages of the application but does not offer an interface for election administrators. The system is verified by several criteria that apply to any voting system, but it is not capable of replacing a large scale election in its current state. Ethical aspects of digitizing and decentralizing are discussed, with particular consideration to societal and environmental impact. Voter turnout change with respect to age, privacy concerns and logistical solutions for the transition to a digitized voting system are also discussed. Finally, a theoretical replacement of the current Swedish electoral system with a decentralized voting system could initially exclude a social group but would reduce cost and environmental impact.