Clearing Corruption

In many countries around the world, there are always rumours and controversies of vote tampering, fake ballots and manipulation. These issues come up due to the lack of transparency and peoples’ distrust in electoral systems. The introduction of digital voting was unable to solve all these problems because of hacking risks and centralised control, causing citizens to lose their faith in democracy.

By 2035 governments might be able to overcome these challenges by switching over to blockchain-based voting systems. This can be carried out by creating digital identities for every citizen, which are stored securely in individual digital wallets on a blockchain system owned by the government. Each citizen will receive a one-time use voting token/code which will be linked to their digital identity. This code can be used to make their vote using any device. Once it is submitted, the vote will immediately be recorded on the blockchain to make sure that transparency and anonymity are maintained during the elections. The publicly accessible feature will allow anyone to verify the number of votes cast without revealing the choices made. The smart contract will automatically count all the votes after the voting period ends, making sure that no central authority can make changes to the data.

An example case would be when on the day of elections the individual opens their government app on their device to cast their vote. They will have to verify their identity using fingerprint or face recognition and select their preferred candidate. After the vote is submitted, the individual will receive a message as proof that their choice has been recorded. Within the same app, users will be able to view a list of anonymous voter IDs of all who have voted. Once the voting ends, the smart contracts will count the number of votes and verify the results with all nodes which will produce a tamper-proof outcome.

However, this can be disadvantageous as storing the digital identities and votes presents privacy concerns and hacking risks which must be reduced using strong encryption and cybersecurity protocols. Additionally, it will exclude individuals lacking a stable internet connection or digital devices, as well as, any citizens in rural areas may be excluded. To solve this issue, governments can set up ‘Voting Kiosks’ where citizens can login to their accounts on the government app and vote in the privacy of the booth. The kiosks will automatically sync the data with the blockchain and all other nodes in the system.

An additional feature can be added where an AI assistant summarises the policies of each candidate running during the elections to help citizens make a more well-informed decision. The AI will be verified by the blockchain and create a summary using relevant sources and information and to prove credibility, it can provide citations as well.

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