Digital voting and blockchain, good or bad idea?

There have been some attempts to introduce digital in voting and more generally in the democratic process. Could blockchain enhance digital-based voting and help overcome some related challenges such as security?

Introducing digital in democratic processes

Introducing digital to facilitate the democratic process is increasingly common: the Iowa caucus app is a recent and much discussed example. But digital tools have the power to do much more than reporting results with examples of apps that enhance public debate, direct democracy, idea generation and more. A trickier application of technology in governance and democracy is digital voting or e-voting with issues related to access, security, transparency and trust. The presentation below introduces some key aspects of digital voting, in particular powered by blockchain.

E-voting powered by blockchain

I created it as part of an application for a VC and incubator specialised in blockchain. I found that information about the topic was scattered across the web so I thought an exhaustive overview of the question might be worth sharing. It dates back to March 2019 but hopefully most of it is still up to date!

Some examples

Below are some examples of blockchain being used for digital voting - with more or less success so far:

• The presidential elections in Sierra Leone thanks to the Swiss blockchain-based voting ecosystem Agora

• Municipal elections in Moscow, which was deemed very insecured

• The state of West Virginia tested the system for those living abroad