Context:

• The Election Commission recently held an online conference in collaboration with the Tamil Nadu e-Governance Agency (“TNeGA”) and IIT Madras, through which they explored the possibility of using blockchain technology for the purpose of enabling remote elections. 

About Blockchain technology

Benefits of remote voting

-Increases voter participation

• Remote voting helps to increase voter participation which had remained only around 67% in general elections by ensuring people, who had migrated from their native constituencies for various reasons to vote from wherever they were.
• It benefits internal migrants and seasonal workers, who account for roughly 51 million of the populace (Census 2011) and remotely-stationed members of the Indian armed forces  in exercising their democratic right of voting. 

Key issues, security concerns

-Need for physical presence and biometric authentication

• Electors would still have to physically reach a designated venue in order to cast their vote where systems would use “white-listed IP devices on dedicated internet lines”, and that the system would make use of the biometric attributes of electors.
• (IP whitelisting is a security feature often used for limiting and controlling access only to trusted users.)

Shortcoming in implementation of cryptographic protocols

• Blockchain solutions rely heavily on the proper implementation of cryptographic protocols. If any shortcomings exist in an implementation, it might stand to potentially unmask the identity and voting preferences of electors.
• • This is against the principle of secrecy of ballots is an important postulate of constitutional democracy.
• Section 94 of the Representation of People Act, upholds the privilege of the voter to maintain confidentiality about her choice of vote.

Vulnerable to attacks

• An attacker may be able to clone the biometric attributes required for authenticating as another individual and cast a vote on their behalf. 
• Physical implants or software backdoors placed on an individual system could allow attackers to collect and deduce voting choices of individuals.

Criticism of remote voting

-Existing alternatives

• To resolve the issue of ballot portability, technological solutions which involve setting up entirely new, untested voting infrastructure may not be the answer when there exists solutions such as postal ballots or proxy voting or ‘One Nation, One Voter ID’ system, which allows individuals to vote out of their home State.

-Techno-solutionism hinders free and fair elections

• Optimism for technological solutions poses a threat and could stand to hinder free and fair elections in the future, if unchecked.

Conclusion

• Digitisation, in itself, does not make processes more robust. 
• Any solution to electoral problems must be software independent and fault tolerable, where failure or tampering of one mechanism or several would not affect the integrity or transparency of the overall process.

References:

1. https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/in-blockchain-voting-leave-out-the-general-election/article32565188.ece 
2. https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/system-to-enable-electors-to-cast-votes-from-anywhere-in-the-works/article30836003.ece 
3. https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/secrecy-of-ballot-is-the-cornerstone-of-free-and-fair-elections-says-supreme-court/article31883015.ece