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Electoral fraud is a rapidly growing problem in democracies across the world in recent years. Yet elections are often vulnerable to voter manipulation, identity theft, ballot tampering, and misinformation.
The complexity and sophistication of such activities are growing in step with the reliance on digital technologies; governments and electoral bodies are now fighting back to safeguard the fairness and transparency of elections.
Blockchain is one promising technology that is starting to catch on in the war against electoral fraud. Blockchain technology is known for its use in cryptocurrency and yet possible application in different sectors, including electoral processes.
Blockchain can provide essential security for candidate vetting and other electoral processes by creating a secure, transparent, and decentralized digital ledger that provides for fairness, accountability, and integrity in elections.
Blockchain technology: what is it?
Understanding what blockchain technology is, especially as it relates to securing candidate vetting, is crucial before one dives into the role of blockchain in the process.
In a rough sense, a blockchain is an immutable record of transactions (transactions) that is being spread across multiple computers without control over the entire chain to any single participant.
As soon as data enters a blockchain, it becomes immutable and tamper-resistant, which is to say that it can’t change or be removed without the consent of the network participants.
Blocks contain that transaction data and make up the blockchain. There is a continuous chronological chain where each block links the previous one.
The most defining feature of the blockchain is its decentralized nature; the block is not (or at least theoretically) a casus belli for any central authority or an intermediary for validating the transaction that cannot be changed in further majority (of the network).
The transparency, immutability, and decentralization provided by blockchain are what make it a good solution to address the problem of ensuring fair electoral practices, primarily in processes relevant to candidate vetting.
Electoral Fraud Problem
Whatever form electoral fraud takes, from rigged voting systems to forged birth certificates, it undermines the legitimacy of elections and erodes public trust in democratic institutions. Common forms of electoral fraud include:
- Voter impersonation: Under fraudulent registration or with stolen identification, voters are allowed to cast multiple votes under different identities.
- Voter suppression: The spread of misinformation to prevent certain groups of people from voting, the intimidation of voters, and the illegal removal of voters from the voter rolls.
- Ballot tampering: Including the fraudulent manipulation of ballots, such as stuffing the ballot box, altering votes, or discarding legitimate votes.
- Fake candidates: Some of these candidates may also be fraudulent and have been put forward to rig the electoral show.
- Corruption of candidate information: Information, whether misinformation or falsified details, about candidates can mislead voters and give one candidate an unfair advantage.
Vetting of candidates is one of the most important elements of the electoral process. It is a process to ensure that candidates are qualified for office, their backgrounds are thoroughly reviewed, and they have no criminal records, booking of any kind, conflicts of interest, or ties to illegal activities.
Electoral fraud may, in many instances, take the form of false candidate identities or of creating fake candidates to run in elections.
Today, vetting candidate data is carried out mainly by connecting to centralized databases that can be attacked by hackers and sometimes tampered with by humans. In addition, existing methods used to verify candidates’ identities and histories can be slow, opaque, and biased. That’s where blockchain can make a great difference.
The Security Candidate Vetting Utilized With Blockchain
Amongst blockchain’s unique characteristics, there are several that would provide several advantages for securing candidate vetting in electoral processes. Here’s how it can help:
1. Immutable Candidate Records
Electoral authorities can create immutable records for candidates with the use of blockchain technology. The records may also contain personal details, educational background, employment history, and criminal records.
As soon as a candidate has entered this information on the blockchain, it cannot be tampered with or removed, and it should reflect what a candidate provides.
Accountable submission allows an example in which candidates’ data are submitted via secure digital forms that are then validated by different authorities (e.g., educational institutions and law enforcement agencies) and then uploaded to the blockchain.
As decentralized as the blockchain is, it would ensure the integrity of the record by flagging if a candidate tries to submit false information, making it fraudulent.
It would minimize the risk of fake candidates and make the verification process for people who are aspiring to run for office much easier.
2. Decentralized Candidate Verification
Blockchain technology discards the need for a central authority to check and store candidate information. Instead, blockchain data can be validated by multiple entities or nodes of the blockchain network. This way, the vetting process is made without any one party gaining total control so that we ensure no corruption, manipulation, or bias.
A candidate’s educational background, for example, can be verified by the relevant institutions, criminal record by law enforcement agents, financial record by regulatory agents, etc.
The verifications of all of these would be recorded on the blockchain on a separate basis and viewable by the relevant parties. By designing this out in a decentralized way, we can have transparency and accountability so that no one ever tampers with or falsifies candidate records.
3. Candidate information is transparent
Transparency is among the core concepts of blockchain technology. As all transactions or records on a blockchain are viewable to everyone and each is logged neutrally, there is no need to trust the voter or anyone else in the election process. It helps keep the spread of false information from happening and fake candidates from developing.
With blockchain platforms, voters have a way to check out verified candidate data, like qualifications, past employment, or their associations with influential people. A significant advantage of blockchain during elections, however, is that it provides voters with easy access to and verification of this important information.
4. Compliance and Eligibility using Smart Contracts
Smart contracts are another feature of blockchain that has direct terms of the agreement coded. The verification process for candidate eligibility can be automated using smart contracts.
A great example is a smart contract that runs in a loop checking if a candidate has completed all the residency requirements, doesn’t have any criminal charges, etc. The smart contract will stop the candidate from being added to the election roster if any criteria are not met.
If these smart contracts were used, then vetting would be streamlined, enabling delays, and all the candidates would be held to the same standards. Additionally, they decrease the chances that a human error or false manipulation will occur during the selection of candidates.
5. Improved Voter Confidence
Blockchain technology can add transparency and security to the electoral process, increasing voter confidence in the way elections are being run.
Voters can rest assured that when they cast their votes, they are voting for accurately and verifiably qualified candidates because candidates can be properly vetted, and their qualifications can be easily seen or read on a public ledger.
The result can get more people to trust that people are voting and less likely to create a scenario of voter manipulation or disillusionment.
If voters believe the process is decentralized and open and that participants’ votes will be fairly counted, they’ll be more likely to participate in the election voting with full confidence that the candidates’ voices were heard and only qualified voices counted as valid.
6. Enhanced Cybersecurity
Modern elections’ biggest challenge is cybersecurity. Candidate data might be hacked, sensitive information stolen, or the entire election process may be disrupted.
Such architecture makes blockchain incredibly hard to hack. To tamper with blockchain data, a hacker would have to also gain control of more than half of the nodes of the network—something which in a properly distributed blockchain is impossible.
In addition, blockchain encryption protects sensitive candidate data from being stolen. This robust security makes blockchain the perfect platform on which to run candidate vetting and other electoral processes.
Blockchain in Elections: The Future
Blockchain technology integration into electoral processes has a lot of potential to disrupt electoral processes. Several countries are already experimenting with what blockchain voting and commitment systems could look like.
In Estonia, for instance, blockchain is used to ensure the integrity of digital identities and safeguard online voting systems. Similar to other countries, including India and the United States, the use of blockchain for purposes of election has also been explored by other countries.
However, the possibilities of blockchain as an electoral process infrastructure are technically more devalued whenever an environment falters due to its imperfect nature. In particular, blockchain may help beyond vetting candidates to handle the other parts of the election process, namely, voter registration, voting, and counting the results.
With the power of blockchain, elections can be made more secure and transparent and better able to resist fraud, so that elections truly represent the will of the people.
Conclusion
Democratic processes around the world are at constant risk of electoral fraud. Since the digital age is advancing, fraud manipulation and misinformation risks are coming up.
Blockchain tech provides a radical option to secure candidate vetting and other aspects of the election process. The features of immutability, transparency, decentralization, and security features offer blockchain a way to combat fraudulent activities, improve voter confidence, and create a perfect system for fair elections.
It is hard to fully implement blockchain in electoral systems, yet its potential is not in question. Using blockchain, electoral authorities can establish a transparent, trustable, and super-efficient electoral process that would ultimately further strengthen democracy and secure the voice of the people.