In March 2018, during the referendum in Groningen, the Netherlands, a pilot on the counting of votes was conducted. The pilot was focused on counting votes through an application based on blockchain technology. Groningen realised this pilot in collaboration with Berenschot (consultancy firm) and LAB15 (technological partner).
The project was initiated in order to strengthen the reliability on election outcomes. The main motive was the combination of the risks that turned out to be present within the current election process and a number of incidents that were announced regarding the national elections in 2017. One of these incidents was the fact that 9.000 votes that turned out not to be counted in Den Bosch during the national elections. Furthermore, the software that is currently used contains security leaks that make the elections vulnerable to hackers.
The choice for an application based on blockchain technology was mainly made due to its characteristics: transparency, controllability and reliability. All three are very valuable throughout an election process.
The pilot was conducted fully parallel to the normal election process in five of the stations were citizens could vote. By scanning the QR-codes on the voting passes, the requirement of everyone only voting once could be assured as well as the number of people that had voted could be followed real-time throughout the day. Privacy of the voters was guaranteed due to the fact that the voting itself was done in an analogous was. From the moment the counters started the process of counting votes, everyone could follow the results real-time here.
By the use of control numbers, everyone has the chance to notice a miscounting, when and where the mistake was made, and whether it was corrected already.
I am curious to hear your opinion on last year’s pilot and the potential of the usage of blockchain technology within the election process in general. Do you think the reliability of results within elections may be enhanced by the use of blockchain technology? Would you consider any restrictions to the technology when it comes to further development of the application within the election process?
Sources (mainly in Dutch unfortunately):
