A Case for BlockChain Voting and Ballot Integrity

Via GenZConservative

blockchain voting

The Benefits and Dangers of BlockChain Voting:

In starting the research for this article, I did a simple search ‘blockchain voting’ on Bing. I won’t use Google except at gunpoint, but I am sure that somehow the “G” word has inveigled its way into my castle once again. I got five results in a row that were skewed towards ‘this is bad, badder and very much more bad, and it will give you cavities’ meaning they didn’t approve of blockchain voting. This gave me the impression, as I am sure it would for you, that Big Tech does not want us to have blockchain voting.

This resistance from the Big Tech tyrants is the first point in favor of BCV (BlockChain Voting). In case you don’t want to keep track at home I will have a tally at the end.

My second move was searching ‘blockchain solutions for voting’ Since I am not setting up a voting system or a money-laundering operation, I just looked at the most polished-looking site that offered multiple platforms. The e-mail inquiry page said we are here waiting to help. This was early Saturday morning, now it is early afternoon, and no reply. I am going to make a wild guess that if I do get a follow up it won’t be until Monday when I can try and find out what else about their website is just for show.

Further searching uncovered many articles describing different plausible methods for using a secure blockchain for casting ballots on a nationalized basis but I haven’t found any that advocate a path that keeps the process closer to the voter. And the articles that disapprove of blockchain voting all cite malfeasance in the national voting process. So instead of a nationwide system, why not keep the same system of registering and voting in your locality? In other words, why not just use federalism?

While still clunky and somewhat arcane I would like to put forth a framework that preserves a single, secure, secret ballot that requires effort on the part of the voter. If you aren’t willing to expend a little effort to participate in your democracy it makes it worth less and encourages ballot buying.

1. You have to register in your precinct at least 3 months before an election with proper ID and request a ballot

2. A verification paper ballot returned by mail.

3. Vote in person at a registered secure polling place (qualifying Gov’t facility i.e. Post Office, courthouse)

4. Exchange paper ballot for a unique blockchain-enabled token (bits on a flash drive possibly)

Again, if you are not willing to put forth the effort, you are not qualified to vote.

Here are some links that go into greater depth but I would emphasize that anything done on a purely national scale takes away from republicanism and risks being nothing more than a popular vote, a system that eliminates small-town America and less populous states from the process, putting the election entirely in the hands of big states like California and New York.

This is a snippet  from an article on Accubits  https://blog.accubits.com/blockchain-based-voting-system/

“With so many issues surrounding the traditional mode of voting, it is safe to say that we need a safer option that could promote the transparency of the process.

Can We Rely on BlockChain Voting Technology?

Simply put, Blockchain is a digital ledger. This technology is highly secure while affording an unparalleled level of transparency among authorized users.

That is because all transactions are recorded on a “chain” maintained across millions of nodes on a network. It is cryptographically secure; you cannot edit or remove a single detail without the other parties verifying it. This makes it essentially immutable. Let’s see how we can integrate these features into a blockchain voting system. If you’d like to learn more about the technology, check out this article explaining “what is blockchain technology?

The entire article goes into much detail about millions of ‘nodes’ that record the signature, date and time stamp and the vote. Any other relevant details could be added as needed, I think of it as a spreadsheet that one person has access to that is able to be locked into a block that is added to a chain of other ‘spreadsheet’ blocks and stored securely in this ‘blockchain’ , not able to be tampered with because there are multiple copies on the ‘nodes’.

That is simplistic, but reading through even their ‘simple’ explanation was difficult to Grok (hat tip to Robert A. Heinlein) so I distilled it into something not so technology-heavy.

Bottom line is that it seems doable, but I cannot stress enough that if it is allowed to be adopted as a nationwide ‘secure’ referendum we will have lost the sense of America, which is republicanism, and we may as well get used to hard core Communism because there will be nothing to stop it then.

Next is the interface. The interface has nothing to do with the technology the same way the dashboard of your car has nothing to do with the combustion engine. It is just an I/O or input/output readout to tell you what operations you can perform or the effect of the thing you just did.

I have gotten lazy here, because there are probably hundreds, if not thousands of dashboards vying for the opportunity to grab your imagination and wisk your free will from your fingertips to the tabulating hardware.

How might they do that? Via electrons switching things on and off, counting your vote and adding it to a secure digital spreadsheet, checked and double-checked for accuracy and security and then adding that to the spreadsheet in your voting booth, and that to the spreadsheet in your precinct and that to your city or county and so on until your State gets all the spreadsheets and at the magic moment the electors can unlock the spreadsheets, which, through the magic that is computing spit out secret, tabulated, collated, alphabetized, secure results.

And here is a company with a slick and sexy interface looking to be your portal to secure voting: https://www.voterledger.io/

As I promised, the final score is, drumroll please, secure, digital blockchain voting using all of the safeguards originally built into the Constitution through elections will work much better than paper ballots, which as we have seen, can be manipulated by changing the rules, withholding and disallowing information, using insecure ballots allowing anyone who happens along, able to follow directions and sign their name (or not) picked up by operatives that can elect those who make the laws that govern every American.

1.       Paper ballots mailed to millions, picked up by un vetted operatives, counted by untrustworthy people and machines in dark insecure rooms and results not disclosed for days: 0

2.       Digital, secure, immediately counted, inscrutable BCV (BlockChain Vote) : 100

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25 Comments
Auntie K.
Auntie K.
March 8, 2021 11:53 am

Yep; high-tech blockchain voting harder will fix this broken and fantastically fucked-up system in a jiffy. /s

MrLiberty
MrLiberty
March 8, 2021 11:59 am

The fundamental problem is with government itself and its power over our lives, our money, our economy, our freedom, our children, our property, our food, our medicine, our bodies, our education, our self-defense, our free speech, our banks (I’ll stop there). Before the early 1900s, the ONLY interaction nearly anyone had with the federal government was when they got their mail. A government with little to no power over anything (while a free and competitive marketplace of goods and services provides for our societal needs), is one that will be so insignificant, the outcome of an election will not matter to anyone. THAT (or eliminating government altogether) is how we address the situation. Making the selection of the new plantation master more “secure” still results in a new plantation master. I would rather be free.

Trapped in Portlandia
Trapped in Portlandia
March 8, 2021 12:16 pm

And why would the elites want to make the system work for the little people?

Middleaged Mad Gnome
Middleaged Mad Gnome
March 8, 2021 12:17 pm

Man, how can David Gignac miss the whole target when it’s right in front of him? The problem with our voting system has nothing to do with the kind of voting system we have. It have everything to do with the people who have control of the voting system. The problem with our political system has nothing to do with our technology, it has everything to do with who controls the technology we have. I wouldn’t want to be in a fox hole with Gignac. I’m convinced he couldn’t hit the side of a barn.

MrLiberty
MrLiberty
  Middleaged Mad Gnome
March 8, 2021 1:31 pm

So you are one of those who simply believe that we need to elect “better people.” Good luck with that.

Middleaged Mad Gnome
Middleaged Mad Gnome
  MrLiberty
March 8, 2021 3:16 pm

You missed my point. “Better people” won’t be “elected” when the controllers are doing the counting.

Archeopteryx Phoenix
Archeopteryx Phoenix
March 8, 2021 12:18 pm

Can’t wait to cast Muh Vote again, lol.

The author still hasn’t figured out what is going on, has he?

I wonder if there was a Ukrainian farmer who, like the author, believed in the system just prior to the Holdomor? Wouldn’t want to get a wake up call that late.

Zulu Foxtrot Golf
Zulu Foxtrot Golf
March 8, 2021 12:55 pm

Next it will be secure dna match voting. Get real. There is no secure means of voting. Never has been. Never will be.

Vote through the barrel of a bullet launcher.

Ken31
Ken31
  Zulu Foxtrot Golf
March 9, 2021 12:22 am

Historically, the implicit security of elections was the expense it would take to rig them. With billionaires running around loyal to no country, that is no longer and obstacle.

Iska Waran
Iska Waran
March 8, 2021 2:24 pm

Biden already explained that black and brown people don’t know how to use the internet. Anything other than letting BLM vote on their behalf would be racist.

Brian Reilly
Brian Reilly
March 8, 2021 3:18 pm

Simply put, bullshit. Decent people can cast and count honest votes with easily counted paper ballots, raised hands, or an open outcry. Dishonest people scam with everything, all the time and will with blockchain as well. These no longer united states are run exclusively by dishonest scammers, and the same group is the plurality (at least) among the broad group of residents. Not citizens, mind you, but residents. You people who think of citizens should have gotten your blockchain enabled….

Vote if you want the entertainment and people watching at the polls. Don’t kid yourself for a moment that it matters.

starfcker
starfcker
  Brian Reilly
March 8, 2021 4:42 pm

“Dishonest people scam with everything, all the time and will with blockchain as well.” Brian for the win. The guy who wrote this was paid to write this. Yeah, that’s all we need something even more opaque and hard to understand. That’ll fix everything.

starfcker
starfcker
  starfcker
March 8, 2021 4:51 pm

Let’s take a moment and see what passes for “journalism” nowadays. This article was on RealClearPolitics over the weekend. Guy did not make a very good case. Claims the only way to restore election integrity is to ignore all the voter fraud in the last election. Never heard of the author, Chris Crawford, and I know pretty much everyone who writes stuff on the web these days. A quick Google search turned up nothing. No prior articles, no history comment nothing. There was a little thing at the bottom of the article that says he works at a place called democracy fund voice. So off to Google. https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2021/03/06/conservative_election_integrity_effort_must_first_reject_big_lie_145360.html

starfcker
starfcker
  starfcker
March 8, 2021 4:58 pm

So next we go to the Democracy Fund Voice website. It’s all just boilerplate, claims to be bipartisan, just wants to ensure fair elections, typical NGO or 501-3c type website. Says they’re going to spend a hundred and fifty million dollars to ensure “election integrity”(wait, isn’t that what the Federal Election Commission is supposed to be doing?) I didn’t learn much, but at the bottom in fuzzy gray letters, it says, part of “the omidyar group”. Okay, so back to Google.

Welcome

starfcker
starfcker
  starfcker
March 8, 2021 5:02 pm

So the Omidyar Group is another cookie cutter, do-gooder, yada yada website. Nothing interesting, nothing to be learned. But they do name the founder, Pierre Omidyar. Once again it’s Google time.

Homepage

starfcker
starfcker
  starfcker
March 8, 2021 5:09 pm

It might be hard to believe, but the guy who wants to spend a hundred fifty million dollars corrupting our elections, and ordering bullshit articles written and placed on RealClearPolitics, is a tech oligarch, the founder of eBay, and worth 20 billion dollars. Who’da thunk that? Certainly not your average citizen trying to stay informed and considering RealClearPolitics to be a reliable source of unbiased information. https://www.forbes.com/profile/pierre-omidyar/?sh=31edd8d066da

starfcker
starfcker
  starfcker
March 8, 2021 5:31 pm

Like I’ve been saying since I’ve been here, concentrated power is the enemy. It doesn’t matter whether it’s government or private. And the only thing that can smash the oligarchy is a lethal and just federal government. Like it or not. We got to take back the wealth of the country from those who have stolen it. It doesn’t matter how. I’ve often been called a government bootlicker for that position. Now Kurt Schlichter is heading in that direction. Is he a government bootlicker too?https://mobile.twitter.com/KurtSchlichter/status/1368340276842962945

starfcker
starfcker
  starfcker
March 8, 2021 5:53 pm
starfcker
starfcker
  starfcker
March 8, 2021 6:00 pm

I’m not saying you got played, but……… https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/article/ebays-sales/

BL
BL
  starfcker
March 8, 2021 6:54 pm

Hey Star….. If you had done that much research on El Trump back in 2016, you would not have been suckered and punked into believing the BS. Not being a critic, I just wish EVERYONE would do their research before jumping on the band wagon. Well done above my friend.

starfcker
starfcker
  BL
March 8, 2021 10:31 pm

😉👍

Glock-N-Load
Glock-N-Load
  starfcker
March 8, 2021 7:34 pm

We have agreed on this for a long time Star.

“Like it or not, good or bad, right or wrong, wealth/income inequality, if it gets bad enough, bring bad things/times.”

And whenever I say…”Eat the rich”…crickets.

starfcker
starfcker
  Glock-N-Load
March 8, 2021 10:32 pm

Thanks WIP.

Ed
Ed
  Brian Reilly
March 10, 2021 5:12 pm

Fuckin’ A, Brian. You said it just the way I think about it.

Dan
Dan
March 9, 2021 1:09 am

“Blockchain” systems are only as honest as the people administering them.
And the left are MASTERS at corrupting and suborning such people. The
system used for voting is irrelevant if the people overseeing voting are corrupt.
THAT is the issue.