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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.
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.
Instant election results, that can be verified by everyone. If the voting machine spits out a randomized unique identifier the voter could then go in and view the blockchain and confirm their votes were cast as they actually selected.
If the voting machines were setup like those used in the US where election workers checked your voter registration and that you hadn't already voted, and then you just walked up to any random available machine, cast your vote, and then it spit out a receipt with your unique id in a QR code and ascii format, there would be no way to link votes to voters other than snatching their receipt out of their hands as they left.
If the blockchain can be manipulated, it hasn't been proven yet. And even with bitcoin not being worth what it was back in december, it is still worth enough to entice someone looking to make an easy buck to find a way to manipulate it.
I would say considering the stakes at play, if someone hasn't found a way to manipulate the bitcoin blockchain by now, it is likely pretty damn secure. That't the whole reason bitcoin "mining" takes up 10% of a particular city's power. The point of "mining" isn't generating coins. The mining is doing validations on the transactions and blockchain. The bitcoin that is "mined" is pretty much generated out of thin air as a reward for the computing power of validating transactions and the chain.
When you are up against likely petahashes of compute power world wide doing validating, its likely a slim chance in hell you are going to be able to manipulate anything.
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.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
Now, tell us how this is supposed to be better than a paper ballot.... idiots
It can be a good complement to paper ballot. I agree paper is the most reliable poll output, but that is only true on election day, because many eyes starred at it. Just wait for the next day and your trust in paper is weakened because someone could have meddled it overnight.
In an idea situation, each polling booth would validate paper and store result in a blockchain you can trust later.
Now, tell us how this is supposed to be better than a paper ballot.... idiots
I'll tell you, Chad. First, paper ballots can have questionable disputes as to whether they were filled out correctly, have "hanging chads" and other controversial issues. Are you old enough to remember the Gore-Bush Florida fiasco?
Blockchaining anonymized ballots, then making them publicly available for everyone to count, validate, etc. should stop officials destroying ballots before a recount, as in the primary involving Debbie Wasserman Schultz in 2017. BTW, Even digital ballots can be destroyed, as they were in the special election for the seat Jeff Session vacated.
Finally, restricted ballot access, paper or digital, may hide other things potentially more devastating to the electoral process. Did state so-in-so lie when they said that although the Russians did break in, they didn't compromise their election? And Whether or not the Russians (or whoever) compromised the Presidential election this last time, have there been even more egregious problems in the past? What could all this portend for the future?
We should follow Sierra Leone's lead, "Blockchain the vote", and draw open the curtain on a supposedly fair and free, but definitely a suspiciously concealed electoral process.
https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2008/01/17/the-legacy-of-hanging-chads
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_United_States_presidential_election_recount_in_Florida
https://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2017/12/15/experts-browards-elections-chief-broke-law-in-destroying-ballots-150258
https://gizmodo.com/alabama-supreme-court-okays-destruction-of-digital-voti-1821223685
It's still black-box voting. Paper is traceable by anyone.
Is it? Can I go and have someone pull out my ballot so I can make sure that it wasn't thrown out? Even if I can get it, can I make sure it was actually counted?
Fuck no.
Anonymized block chain ballots are a step in the right direction but, ideally, each ballot should be anonymous to everyone except the person who cast it. In other words, in an ideal system, I should get some sort of key after I cast my vote, which I can later use to verify that my vote is still part of the block chain, and is actually being counted towards the correct candidate. THAT would be a truly traceable system. Every single person would be able to verify that their vote has not been discarded, and do so from the comfort of their own home.
Anonymized block chain ballots are a step in the right direction but, ideally, each ballot should be anonymous to everyone except the person who cast it. In other words, in an ideal system, I should get some sort of key after I cast my vote, which I can later use to verify that my vote is still part of the block chain, and is actually being counted towards the correct candidate.
I'm not sure that such a system can exist, where you both have a secret ballot and a conveniently verifiable ballot.
If you can verify it from your computer, then your boss can stand over you while you do so. Another option is to verify at a government office in private, but becomes so inconvenient that nobody will take advantage.
Even if it is both secret and verifiable, then you can tell at least one ballot was cast for your candidate. Can we ensure that all the other thousands or millions of ballots are correct, specifically that no invalid ballots have been added?
I ask sincerely... I want a good system, I just don't know what it takes to remove these massive flaws.
All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.
If you can verify it from your computer, then your boss can stand over you while you do so.
Sure, in the same sense that your boss can stand over you while you type in the password for your bitcoins wallet. But if he's forcing you to do either of those things it would be very illegal.
Even if it is both secret and verifiable, then you can tell at least one ballot was cast for your candidate. Can we ensure that all the other thousands or millions of ballots are correct, specifically that no invalid ballots have been added?
No, you can't, but you can count the total that were cast. If normal turnout is 60% of the eligible population and you count that in this particular election 93% of the population voted, that would set off off some alarm bells. Especially if it's not supported by observers at the polling booths.
Either way, the inability for you personally to verify that every single vote is legitimate doesn't take away anything; you can't do that now, either. Adding the ability for you to check your own vote is a huge improvement. Adding the ability for the public to verify how many votes were cast and for whom would be a huge improvement.
I ask sincerely... I want a good system, I just don't know what it takes to remove these massive flaws.
You can either have privacy, or complete transparency. Pick one.
Can I go and have someone pull out my ballot so I can make sure that it wasn't thrown out? Even if I can get it, can I make sure it was actually counted?
After you throw your ballot in the container, you can stay in the polling station, and watch them take out all the ballots and verify they are counted properly.
You can't verify your personal ballot because any good ballot system is anonymous, but you can verify all of them.
Every single person would be able to verify that their vote has not been discarded, and do so from the comfort of their own home.
And the person who told you to vote a particular way can also verify you did your job from the comfort of their own home.
- Who runs the nodes of the blockchain?
- Agora's whitepaper says that you vote remotely from your phone. Is that the only mechanism for voting? Can the voting be done at a poll booth? If so, is there a voting machine which transfers the vote to the blockchain? What prevents the fraud from happening before the vote is transferred to the blockchain?
- Voting remotely means that secret ballot is not guaranteed. If someone threatens or bribes you to vote for a particular party/candidate & the voting is done at a booth, then they will never know who you actually voted for. However if voting is possible remotely, then this secret ballot is not guaranteed - this is the same for vote by phone or vote by mail or any such thing. The person threatening or bribing you can be by your side when you vote.