Sierra Leone Records World's First Blockchain-Powered Election (techcrunch.com)

The citizens of Sierra Leone went to the polls on March 7 but this time something was different: the country recorded votes at 70% of the polling to the blockchain using a technology that is the first of its kind in actual practice. The tech, created by Leonardo Gammar of Agora, anonymously stored votes in an immutable ledger, thereby offering instant access to the election results. TechCrunch reports: "Anonymized votes/ballots are being recorded on Agora's blockchain, which will be publicly available for any interested party to review, count and validate," said Gammar. "This is the first time a government election is using blockchain technology." "Sierra Leone wishes to create an environment of trust with the voters in a contentious election, especially looking at how the election will be publicly viewed post-election. By using blockchain as a means to immutably record ballots and results, the country hopes to create legitimacy around the election and reduce fall-out from opposition parties," he said.

Why is this interesting? While this is little more than a proof of concept -- it is not a complete voting record but instead captured a seemingly acceptable plurality of votes -- it's fascinating to see the technology be implemented in Sierra Leone, a country of about 7.4 million people. The goal ultimately is to reduce voting costs by cutting out paper ballots as well as reducing corruption in the voting process.

Comments

Cheap Elections?!?

[rtb61]

Why the fuck would any government brag about cheap elections. I want a government to brag about good elections. Paper ballots, made by people and counted by people, with representatives from each person running for the election checking the vote counting process. I want voting to be on weekends to be more accessible to more people. I want lots of polling stations and short queues. I want a web site with all candidates listed, the substantiated scholastic record, the employment history and their political history on show, with promises of what they will work for on show and contractually signed with penalties for failing, don't make promises you can keep or wont even try to keep. I want all those who run for election tested, their IQ, their knowledge and their psychology including a test for psychopathy and that available online. Then elections will be guaranteed to be a whole lot more fair and you will have a much greater chance of getting what you are paying for. Voting is about people and not about machines.

Re:Cheap Elections?!?

[Anonymous Coward]

Paper ballots haven't helped here in Washington state. Who votes is public record, and I've checked mine ever since we switched to this horrific system in 2005. My vote hasn't counted a single time. I also checked a bunch of friends and coworkers. They also had their votes thrown in the trash and not counted. Paper is a horrible system. It's too easy for the CONservatives we have here in Seattle to just destroy your ballot. They started a new trick of the election last November which was to refuse to give minorities ballots. I didn't receive one despite fighting hard for one. Also, I didn't receive a paper ballot for the primary last month. Without that paper, that you say we need, I have my right to vote taken. We shouldn't have rights taken just because we don't have a piece of paper. Your Republican-kind literally makes a piece of paper more important than the people.

Re:Sounds like a great use for blockchain

[Actually, I do RTFA]

there would be no way to link votes to voters other than snatching their receipt out of their hands as they left.

Well, that's a real possibility. Also, timing based identification, PRNGs being predictable, and others that I'm not thinking of at the moment. "Drop your receipt when you pick up your timecard"!