Journal Publication of International Research for Engineering and Management (JOIREM)

Volume: 10 Issue: 04 | MAY-2022

ONLINE VOTING SYSTEM USING BLOCKCHAIN

Omkar Kajale 1, Roshani Pagare 2, Dhanashree Pawar 3 , Ankita Shelke 4 &

Prof. J.Y.Kapadnis 5

Department of Computer Engineering of Pune Vidyarthi Griha's College of Engineering & S. S. Dhamankar Institute of
Management, Nashik

---------------------------------------------------------------------***---------------------------------------------------------------------
Abstract - Online voting is a trend that is gaining momentum in modern society. It has great potential to
decrease organizational costs and increase voter turnout. It eliminates the need to print ballot papers or
open polling stations—voters can vote from wherever there is an Internet connection. Despite these
benefits, online voting solutions are viewed with a great deal of caution because they introduce new
threats. A single vulnerability can lead to large-scale manipulations of votes. Electronic voting systems
must be legitimate, accurate, safe, and convenient when used for elections. Nonetheless, adoption may be
limited by potential problems associated with electronic voting systems. Blockchain technology came into
the ground to overcome these issues and offers decentralized nodes for electronic voting and is used to
produce electronic voting systems mainly because of their end-to-end verification advantages. This
technology is a beautiful replacement for traditional electronic voting solutions with distributed, non-
repudiation, and security protection characteristics. The following article gives an overview of electronic
voting systems based on blockchain technology.

Key Words: electronic voting; security; blockchain-based electronic voting;

INTRODUCTION
Electoral integrity is essential not just for democratic nations but also for state voter’s trust and liability. Political
voting methods are crucial in this respect. From a government standpoint, electronic voting technologies can
boost voter participation and confidence and rekindle interest in the voting system. As an effective means of
making democratic decisions, elections have long been a social concern. As the number of votes cast in real life
increases, citizens are becoming more aware of the significance of the electoral system [1,2]. The voting system
is the method through which judges judge who will represent in political and corporate governance. Democracy
is a system of voters to elect representatives by voting [3,4]. The efficacy of such a procedure is determined
mainly by the level of faith that people have in the election process.
Engineers across the globe have created new voting techniques that offer some anti- corruption protection while
still ensuring that the voting process should be correct. Technology introduced the new electronic voting
techniques and methods [9], which are essential and have posed significant challenges to the democratic system.
Electronic voting increases election reliability when compared to manual polling. In contrast to the conventional
voting method, it has enhanced both the efficiency and the integrity of the process [10]. Because of its flexibility,
simplicity of use, and cheap cost compared to general elections, electronic voting is widely utilized in various
decisions.

BACKGROUND Today, we call a blockchain a set of technologies combining the blockchain data structure
itself, distributed consensus algorithm, public key cryptography, and smart contracts [18]. Below we

© 2021, JOIREM |www.joirem.com| Page 1

 Journal Publication of International Research for Engineering and Management (JOIREM)
Volume: 10 Issue: 04 | MAY-2022
describe these technologies in more detail. Blockchain creates a series of blocks replicated on a peer-to-peer
network. Any block in blockchain has a cryptographic hash and timestamp added to the previous block, as shown
in Figure 1. A block contains the Merkle tree block header and several transactions [19]. It is a secure networking
method that combines computer science and mathematics to hide data and information from others that is called

cryptography. It allows the data to be transmitted securely across the insecure network, in encrypted and
decrypted forms.
Blockchain solutions are developed to be used in a distributed environment. It is assumed that nodes contain
identical data and form a peer-to-peer network without a central authority. A consensus algorithm is used to
reach an agreement on blockchain data that is fault-tolerant in the presence of malicious actors. Such consensus
is called Byzantine fault tolerance, named after the Byzantine Generals’ Problem [25]. Blockchain solutions use
different Byzantine fault tolerance (BFT) consensus algorithms: Those that are intended to be used in fully
decentralized self-organizing networks, such as cryptocurrency platforms, Public key cryptography is used
mainly for two purposes: Firstly, all validators own their keypairs used to sign consensus messages, and,
secondly, all incoming transactions (re- quests to modify blockchain data) have to be signed to determine the
requester. Anonymity in a blockchain context relates to the fact that anyone wanting to use cryptocurrencies just
needs to generate a random keypair and use it to control a wallet linked to a public key [28]. The blockchain
solution guarantees that only the keypair owner can manage the funds in the wallet, and this property is
verifiable [29,30]. As for online voting, ballots need to be accepted anonymously but only from eligible voters,
so a blockchain by itself definitely cannot solve the issue of voter privacy.
Smart contracts breathed new life into blockchain solutions. They stimulated the application of blockchain
technology in efforts to improve numerous spheres. A smart contract itself is nothing more than a piece of
logic written in code. Still, it can act as an unconditionally trusted third party in conjunction with the
immutability provided by a blockchain data structure and distributed consensus [31]. Once written, it cannot be
altered, and all the network participants verify all steps. The great thing about smart contracts is that anybody
who can set up a blockchain node can verify its outcome.

Core Components of Blockchain Architecture:

These are the main architectural components of Blockchain as shown in Figure 2.

Node: Users or computers in blockchain layout (every device has a different copy of a complete ledger from
the blockchain);
Transaction: It is the blockchain system’s smallest building block (records and details), which blockchain uses;

© 2021, JOIREM |www.joirem.com| Page 2

 Journal Publication of International Research for Engineering and Management (JOIREM)
Volume: 10 Issue: 04 | MAY-2022
Block: A block is a collection of data structures used to process transactions over the network distributed to all
nodes.
Chain: A series of blocks in a particular order;
Miners: Correspondent nodes to validate the transaction and add that block into the blockchain system;
Consensus: A collection of commands and organizations to carry out blockchain processes.

CORE COMPONENT OF BLOCK CHAIN

Critical Characteristics of Blockchain Architecture
Blockchain architecture has many benefits for all sectors that incorporate blockchain
Cryptography: Blockchain transactions are authenticated and accurate because of computations and
cryptographic evidence between the parties involved;
Decentralization: The entire distributed database may be accessible by all members of the blockchain
network. A consensus algorithm allows control of the system, as shown in the core process
Anonymity: A blockchain network participant has generated an address rather than a user identification. It
maintains anonymity, especially in a blockchain public system; Transparency: It means being unable to
manipulate the blockchain network. It does not happen as it takes immense computational resources to erase
the blockchain network.

Charactricts of block chain

© 2021, JOIREM |www.joirem.com| Page 3

 Journal Publication of International Research for Engineering and Management (JOIREM)
Volume: 10 Issue: 04 | MAY-2022
How Blockchain Can Transform the Electronic Voting System
Blockchain technology fixed shortcomings in today’s method in elections made the polling mechanism
clear and accessible, stopped illegal voting, strengthened the data protection, and checked the outcome of
the polling. The implementation of the electronic voting method in blockchain is very significant [35].

However, electronic voting carries significant risks such as if an electronic voting system is compromised,
all cast votes can probably be manipulated and misused. Electronic voting has thus not yet been adopted on a
national scale, considering all its possible advantages. Today, there is a viable solution to overcome the risks
and electronic voting, which is blockchain technology. In Figure 4, one can see the main difference between
both of the systems. In traditional voting systems, we have a central authority to cast a vote. If someone wants
to modify or change the record, they can do it quickly; no one knows how to verify that record. One does
not have the central authority; the data are stored in multiple nodes. It is not possible to hack all nodes and
change the data. Thus, in this way, one cannot destroy the votes and efficiently verify the votes by tally with
other nodes.

Traditional vs. blockchain voting system.

If the technology is used correctly, the blockchain is a digital, decentralized, en- crypted, transparent ledger
that can withstand manipulation and fraud. Because of the distributed structure of the blockchain, a Bitcoin
electronic voting system reduces the risks involved with electronic voting and allows for a tamper-proof for the
voting system. A blockchain-based electronic voting system requires a wholly distributed voting infrastruc- ture.
Electronic voting based on blockchain will only work where the online voting system is fully controlled by no
single body, not even the government [36]. To sum-up, elections can only be free and fair when there is a
broad belief in the legitimacy of the power held by those in positions of authority. The literature review for this
field of study and other related experiments may be seen as a good path for making voting more efficient in
terms of administration and participation. However, the idea of using blockchain offered a new model for
electronic voting.
Problems and Solutions of Developing Online Voting Systems
Whether talking about traditional paper-based voting, voting via digital voting ma- chines, or an online
voting system, several conditions need to be satisfied:

© 2021, JOIREM |www.joirem.com| Page 4

 Journal Publication of International Research for Engineering and Management (JOIREM)
Volume: 10 Issue: 04 | MAY-2022
Eligibility: Only legitimate voters should be able to take part in voting;
Unreusability: Each voter can vote only once
Privacy: No one except the voter can obtain information about the voter’s choice;
Fairness: No one can obtain intermediate voting results
Eligibility:

The solution to the issue of eligibility is rather apparent. To take part in online voting, voters need to identify
themselves using a recognized identification system. The identifiers of all legitimate voters need to be added
to the list of participants. But there are threats: Firstly, all modifications made to the participation list need
to be checked so that no illegitimate voters can be added, and secondly, the identification system should be both
trusted and secure so that a voter’s account cannot be stolen or used by an intruder. Building such an
identification system is a complex task in itself [37]. However, because this sort of system is necessary for
a wide range of other contexts, especially related to digital government services, researchers believe it is
best to use an existing identification system, and the question of creating one is beyond the scope of work
Fairness:
Fairness in terms of no one obtaining intermediate results is achieved straight for wardly: Voters encrypt their
choices before sending, and those choices are decrypted at the end of the voting process. The critical thing to
remember here is that if someone owns a decryption key with access to encrypted decisions, they can obtain
intermediate results. This problem is solved by distributing the key among several keyholders [41]. A system
where all the key holders are required for decryption is unreliable—if one of the key hold- ers does not
participate, decryption cannot be performed. Therefore, threshold schemes are used whereby a specific number
of key holders are required to perform decryption. There are two main approaches for distributing the key: secret
sharing, where a trusted dealer divides the generated key into parts and distributes them among key holders (e.g.,
Shamir’s Secret Sharing protocol); and distributed key generation, where no trusted dealer is needed, and all
parties contribute to the calculation of the key (for example, Pedersen’s Distributed Key Generation protocol).

Soundness and Completeness:

On the face of it, the completeness and soundness properties seem relatively straight- forward, but realizing
them can be problematic depending on the protocol. If ballots are decrypted one by one, it is easy to
distinguish between valid and invalid ones, but things become more complicated when it comes to
homomorphic encryption. As a single ballot is never decrypted, the decryption result will not show if more
than one option was chosen or if the poll was formed so that it was treated as ten choices (or a million) at
once. Thus, we need to prove that the encrypted data meets the properties of a valid ballot without
compromising any information that can help determine how the vote was cast. This task is solved by zero-
knowledge proof [46]. By definition, this is a cryptographic method of proving a statement about the value
without disclosing the value itself. More specifically, range proofs demonstrate that a specific value belongs
to a particular set in such cases.
This section provides some background information on electronic voting methods. Electronic voting is
a voting technique in which votes are recorded or counted using electronic equipment. Electronic voting is
usually defined as voting that is supported by some electronic hardware and software. Such regularities
should be competent in supporting/implementing various functions, ranging from election setup through

© 2021, JOIREM |www.joirem.com| Page 5

 Journal Publication of International Research for Engineering and Management (JOIREM)
Volume: 10 Issue: 04 | MAY-2022
vote storage. Kiosks at election offices, laptops, and, more recently, mobile devices are all examples of
system types. Voter registration, authentication, voting, and tallying must be incorporated in the electronic
voting systems
One of the areas where blockchain may have a significant impact is electronic voting. The level of risk is
so great that electronic voting alone is not a viable option. If an electronic voting system is hacked, the
consequences will be far-reaching. Because a blockchain network is entire, centralized, open, and
consensus-driven, the design of a blockchain-based network guarantees that fraud is not theoretically
possible until adequately implemented [66]. As a result, the blockchain’s unique characteristics must be taken
into account. There is nothing inherent about blockchain technology that prevents it from being used to any
other kind of cryptocurrency. The idea of utilizing blockchain technology to create a tamper-resistant
electronic/online voting network is gaining momentum [67]. End users would not notice a significant
difference between a blockchain-based voting system and a traditional electronic voting system.
Related Literature Review
Several articles have been published in the recent era that highlighted the security and privacy issues of
blockchain-based electronic voting systems. Reflects the comparison of selected electronic voting schemes
based on blockchain.
The open vote network (OVN) was presented by [76], which is the first deployment of a transparent and self-tallying
internet voting protocol with total user privacy by using Ethereum. In OVN, the voting size was limited to 50–60
electors by the framework. The OVN is unable to stop fraudulent miners from corrupting the system. A fraudulent
voter may also circumvent the voting process by sending an invalid vote. The protocol does nothing to guarantee the
resistance to violence, and the electoral administrator wants to trust

Acknowledgments: This research was funded by the Malaysia Ministry of Education (FRGS/1/2019/
ICT01/UKM/01/2) and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (PP-FTSM-2021)

Reference:
1. Liu, Y.; Wang, Q. An E-voting Protocol Based on Blockchain. IACR Cryptol. Eprint Arch. 2017, 2017,
1043.
2. Shahzad, B.; Crowcroft, J. Trustworthy Electronic Voting Using Adjusted Blockchain Technology.
IEEE Access 2019, 7, 24477–24488. [CrossRef]
3. Racsko, P. Blockchain and Democracy. Soc. Econ. 2019, 41, 353–369. [CrossRef]
4. Yaga, D.; Mell, P.; Roby, N.; Scarfone, K. Blockchain technology overview. arXiv 2019,
arXiv:1906.11078.
5. The Economist. EIU Democracy Index. 2017. Available online:
https://infographics.economist.com/2018/DemocracyIndex/ (accessed on 18 January 2020).
6. Cullen, R.; Houghton, C. Democracy online: An assessment of New Zealand government web sites.
Gov. Inf. Q. 2000, 17, 243–267.
[CrossRef]

7. Schinckus, C. The good, the bad and the ugly: An overview of the sustainability of blockchain
technology. Energy Res. Soc. Sci.
2020, 69, 101614. [CrossRef]
8. Gao, S.; Zheng, D.; Guo, R.; Jing, C.; Hu, C. An Anti-Quantum E-Voting Protocol in Blockchain
with Audit Function. IEEE Access

© 2021, JOIREM |www.joirem.com| Page 6

 Journal Publication of International Research for Engineering and Management (JOIREM)
Volume: 10 Issue: 04 | MAY-2022
2019, 7, 115304–115316. [CrossRef]
9. Kim, T.; Ochoa, J.; Faika, T.; Mantooth, A.; Di, J.; Li, Q.; Lee, Y. An overview of cyber-physical
security of battery management systems and adoption of blockchain technology. IEEE J. Emerg.
Sel. Top. Power Electron. 2020. [CrossRef]
10. Hang, L.; Kim, D.-H. Design and implementation of an integrated iot blockchain platform for sensing
data integrity. Sensors 2019,
19, 2228. [CrossRef] [PubMed]
11. Chang, V.; Baudier, P.; Zhang, H.; Xu, Q.; Zhang, J.; Arami, M. How Blockchain can impact
financial services–The overview, challenges and recommendations from expert interviewees. Technol.
Forecast. Soc. Chang. 2020, 158, 120166. [CrossRef] [PubMed]
12. Wang, B.; Sun, J.; He, Y.; Pang, D.; Lu, N. Large-scale election based on blockchain. Procedia
Comput. Sci. 2018, 129, 234–237.
[CrossRef]

13. Ometov, A.; Bardinova, Y.; Afanasyeva, A.; Masek, P.; Zhidanov, K.; Vanurin, S.; Sayfullin, M.;
Shubina, V.; Komarov, M.; Bezzateev, S. An Overview on Blockchain for Smartphones: State-of-the-
Art, Consensus, Implementation, Challenges and Future Trends. IEEE Access 2020, 8, 103994–104015.
[CrossRef]
14. Hakak, S.; Khan, W.Z.; Gilkar, G.A.; Imran, M.; Guizani, N. Securing smart cities through
blockchain technology: Architecture, requirements, and challenges. IEEE Netw. 2020, 34, 8–14.
[CrossRef]
15. Çabuk, U.C.; Adiguzel, E.; Karaarslan, E. A survey on feasibility and suitability of blockchain
techniques for the e-voting systems.
arXiv 2020, arXiv:2002.07175. [CrossRef]
16. Szabo, N. Formalizing and securing relationships on public networks. First Monday 1997, 2, 9.
[CrossRef]
17. Wood, G. Ethereum: A secure decentralised generalised transaction ledger. Ethereum Proj. Yellow Pap.
2014, 151, 1–32.
18. Tan, W.; Zhu, H.; Tan, J.; Zhao, Y.; Da Xu, L.; Guo, K. A novel service level agreement model using
blockchain and smart contract for cloud manufacturing in industry 4.0. Enterp. Inf.Syst. 2021.
[CrossRef]

© 2021, JOIREM |www.joirem.com| Page 7

 Journal Publication of International Research for Engineering and Management (JOIREM)
Volume: 10 Issue: 04 | MAY-2022

© 2021, JOIREM |www.joirem.com| Page 8

 Journal Publication of International Research for Engineering and Management (JOIREM)
Volume: 05 Issue: 09 | Sept-2021

© 2021, JOIREM |www.joirem.com| Page 9