A new research paper from the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) has explored the potential of blockchain technology to transform election and voting system.

Authored by Philip Boucher, the paper titled “What if blockchain technology revolutionised voting?” particularly focuses on whether blockchain will represent a transformative or merely incremental development, and what its implications could be for the future of democracy.

“Usually, votes are recorded, managed, counted and checked by a central authority. Blockchain-enabled e-voting (BEV) would empower voters to do these tasks themselves, by allowing them to hold a copy of the voting record”, Boucher said. “BEV would shift power and trust away from central actors, such as electoral authorities, and foster the development of a tech-enabled community consensus.”

Speaking of the potential impact of BEV, Boucher discusses the system with particular focus on coercion, anonymity, accessibility, and security and legitimacy.

With regard to coercion, he emphasized that for both BEV and paper elections, the use of private polling booths are the only guarantee against fraud. However, in reference to accessibility, Boucher that BEV could complicate matters by presenting citizens with too many options – the choice of whether to vote at a terminal in a traditional booth or use a personal device etc.

Boucher stressed that anonymity is a crucial element of democratic participation, however, as BEV is pseudonymous, it may sometimes be possible to discover how an individual voted. To that end, he said that work is in progress, in developing BEV, on a technical response to this issue that can offer full anonymity.

The paper also emphasized that in addition to providing security and accuracy, BEV must also inspire broad public confidence and trust. However, it noted that as the blockchain protocol is quite complicated, it may be a barrier to mainstream public acceptability of BEV.

In conclusion, Boucher said:

“While European law does not specify protocols for elections in Member States, some convergence has occurred and efforts have been made to encourage use of e-voting while respecting the constitutional principles of electoral law (universal, equal, free, secret and direct suffrage). However, proposals to use blockchain in national elections would have to comply with several other areas of European law, including privacy and data protection for voters, and accessibility for all citizens.”