Design and Implementation of a Blockchain-based e-Voting system by using the Algorand platform

Abstract

In recent years, the increasing accessibility and usage of Internet-based technologies in our daily activities have fostered the possibility of simplifying citizenship and relationships with local and central governments, paving the way to e-governance and e-government. Many government-related services can now be accessed online, and increasing attention has been devoted to implementing e-Voting and overcoming the obstacles that have limited its usage in concrete cases. e-Voting is highly considered to reduce significantly the cost of such large-scale operations and ease the process for elder or disabled voters, but also decrease the stress level and nuisance, which is typically associated with the traditional election. Alongside the benefits, however, many drawbacks have limited its applicability, such as lack of trustability and security/privacy concerns, which lead many governments to avoid its usage during general elections or limit e-Voting to specific niche situations.In this paper, we present how e-Voting can be carried out by means of blockchain technology, highlight the existing literature on the topic, and describe the design of our blockchain e-Voting protocol based on the Algorand platform.