Page 39 - Banking Finance July 2021

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key for the voter using the multi-chain network and stores ensure transparency by enabling voters and election
this information against the hash of the secret message and observers to verify that votes have been recorded, tallied
reference number of the voter. The same is depicted in and declared correctly, in a manner independent from the
Figure 2. There are cases where a voter might try to vote hardware and software running the election. A voter can
multiple times for the same contestant or vote for multiple verify individually to check that her/his own vote is included
contestants. In either case the system guards against such in the election outcome.Election observers can also verify
malicious voting. This safeguarding is made possible in multi- universally to check that the election outcome corresponds
chain by restricting the number of transactions between two to the votes cast, and eligibility verifiability allows voters and
parties to one. Hence, even if the voter does more than one observers to check that each vote in the election was
transaction/votes, those will be invalidated by multi-chain. exercised by a uniquely registered voter.

C. After Voting 4. Online voting: The digital differentiation of higher and
Since it is an electronic voting system, reports can be lower socioeconomic classes can be eliminated in E-voting
generated in real-time. However, the real-time report of It is presumed that electronic voting may favour a certain
who is leading and who is lagging should not be made public demographic, namely younger generation such as
as it might affect public sentiment and could bias to a Generation X and Y voters. However in the recent elections
particular party or candidate. conducted in some countries revealed that a quarter of e-
votes were cast by the older demographic, such as
After the voting completes, detailed reports about a individuals over the age of 55 years and it shows that e-
candidate's results, party-wise results, constituency results, voting is not exclusively supported by younger generation
etc. can be easily prepared using any BI tool by combining and is gaining popularity amongst Baby Boomers also.
data from multi-chain and data stored in Election
Commission records. Challenges of Blockchain Based E-Voting
A fundamental challenge with any voting machine is to show
Benefits of Block Chain based E-voting evidence that the votes were recorded as per voting and
1. Speed: Electronic voting technology intends to tabulated as recorded. In the manual process voter-marked
paper ballots can be verified with manual hand counts for
streamline the counting of ballots, reduce the cost of manual
process to count votes and can provide improved accessibility declaring the election results. In case of recounting and
for disabled voters. Also,the expenses are expected to be audits independent verification is possible in case of manual
systems. These systems can provide the ability for voters to
reduced in the long term. The announcement of results can
verify how their votes were cast or enable officials to verify
be faster.The time and cost of Voters can be saved as they
that votes were tabulated correctly.
will be able to vote independently from their location. Total
voter turnaround will be increased. Citizens living in faraway It has been observed that e-voting systems may become
places from polling stations like citizens living in foreign more complex and include software, different methods of
countries, living in rural areas will be benefitted.
election and the possibility of fraud cannot be ruled out.
Some arguments challenge the use of electronic voting from
2. Accessibility: Disabled persons can be made fully a theoretical point of view, arguing that human intervention
accessible for Electronic voting machines. In case of manual is not possible for verifying operations occurring within an
elections it is not possible for the blind and visually electronic machine and also people cannot verify these
handicapped persons to access punched card and optical operations, as such they cannot be trusted. Furthermore, it
scan machines, and lever machines can be difficult for voters is argued by some computing experts that people cannot
with limited mobility and strength.If necessary headphones, trust any programming they did not author.
sip and puff, foot pedals, joy sticks and other adaptive
technologycan be used in electronic machines to provide DRE (Direct Recording Electronic)machines should be user
the necessary accessibility. friendly to verify audit trails and the software used on DRE
machines should be open to public scrutiny to ensure the
3. Cryptographic verification: Cryptographic solutions accuracy of the voting system. As the computers can and

BANKING FINANCE | JULY | 2021 | 39