Blockchain Voting Not Upto The Task Yet in The US
On April 9, an open letter was penned to governors, Secretaries of State and State Election Directors, the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s (AAAS) Center for Scientific Evidence in Public Issues, requested these officials to not go ahead with blockchain voting in the coming elections. They stated that at this point in time, internet voting is not a secure option in the US, and they also don't see it being one in the near future.
The internet voting system works on emails, fax, and voting is done on smartphones too with apps. Referring to a 2018 study on online voting, the AAAS emphasized that utilising blockchain voting, for now, could lead to serious implications such as votes not getting counted properly, and privacy encroachment. The AAAS further added that they don't have any data as of yet to back up the claims that blockchain can tackles issues like the transfer and counting of votes. They also stated that the procedure of email voting is sluggish and could lead to tampering.
There's Uncertainty Regarding Blockchain Voting And Rightly so
The blockchain voting has not tasted much success not only in the US but even in a few other countries where it was tried. In the year 2017, voting for a referendum regarding the autonomy of Lombardy and Veneto, blockchain voting was carried out in Italy. However, the cost it bore was significant and the results were so slow in coming out that the Italians started to believe that there's some tampering.
However, this is not to say that it is all doom and gloom when it comes to blockchain voting. elections in India which happened a year ago, almost 300 million voters couldn't cast their vote due to the distance from their polling booth. This promoted the Chief Election Commissioner of India to give blockchain voting a thought.
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