Australia Post submits blockchain voting system application to Electoral Commission

Blockchain is a central plank of the government-owned Australia Post’s plans to enter the electoral business.

Australia Post has submitted an application to the Victorian Electoral Commission (VEMC), stating that the community expects elections to go digital and that blockchain will play an important role in this. Tim Adamson, head of Australia Post, wrote in the application:

The development of cryptocurrency technology, namely blockchain, can record various digital transactions in an irreversible, distributed and secure manner.

Aside from cryptocurrency trading, elections are the most ideal use case for blockchain technology.

As the call for digitalization grows louder and blockchain technology opens up new paths for it, we believe now is the right time to tackle the challenges of digital elections.

Adamson said that regional differences will no longer exist in blockchain elections, and its "tamper-proof" system is traceable and cannot be manipulated by any person or organization. It can also ensure a certain degree of anonymity and effectively prevent DoS (denial of service) attacks.

Australia Post also detailed how a blockchain-based electoral system ^[1] could be used in parliamentary elections.

We view voting as an electronic transaction, where the reputation of a candidate can be 'spent' by the voter and used as a selection criterion. The digital key represents the vote in the hands of the voter and is securely distributed to each voter. The ballot is displayed on the blockchain in a cryptographic form. Although voters are linked to their ballots on the blockchain, there is a certain degree of anonymity to protect voter privacy.

Adamson said that the counting process will become very simple, and the results can be compiled directly on the blockchain. The privacy of voters will be achieved through a combination of "keys and digital signatures."

Any technical solution should be scalable, flexible, and secure. Voter information must be identifiable; once a ballot is submitted, it must be fixed and cannot be changed; ballots must be verified and counted without compromising the privacy of the election (the solution must ensure that an individual can only vote once without exposing the content of the ballot); and the solution must be flexible and convenient enough to adapt to a variety of different election models.

Australia Post also detailed its plans to start with corporate or community elections and then use the technology to handle parliamentary elections once it is mature.

We will demonstrate the practicality and reliability of digital voting as a digital government service that regulators and management agencies can embrace.

There are also people who are against this online voting system. Australia Post said that the current situation of this system is very similar to that of online banking decades ago. Adamson said:

Initially, media coverage was filled with concerns about security and practicality. Twenty years later, online banking has become a common method of doing business.

The popularity of digital payment solutions and people’s trust in them have successfully made them mainstream. Cardless withdrawals, mobile payment services, and even cryptocurrencies have become part of people’s daily lives. I believe digital elections will go through the same process.

However, speaking to a New South Wales parliamentary committee earlier this month, ABC election analyst Antony Green said online banking had been successful because banks had taken on a certain amount of responsibility.

Internet banking and online transactions are simply not comparable.

Election reform should first reduce the chance of "black box operation" to zero. Internet banking is one of the business scopes of banks. From the perspective of cost-effectiveness, there are some "deceptive" phenomena in it.

Earlier this month, Rick Wingfield, a partner at the Australia Post Accelerator ^[2] , said blockchain could be used to process personal identity verification.

When we talk about blockchain, we don't want to put people's private information on a public ledger because that would allow scammers and hackers to take advantage of it, even if the data is encrypted.

Of course, we believe that blockchain technology can be used to manage the people; it allows the people to manage their own personal data, encrypt it with two keys at the same time, and connect it to a specific government, management department or enterprise.

The Victorian Electoral Commission is said to be holding a public hearing on the application this week.

Notes (↵ returns to text)

1. The multiple-choice electoral system changes voting from single-choice to multiple-choice, meaning that voters can indicate their preferred order of choice for several candidates in their ballots, rather than just choosing one candidate each as before.

2. The Australia Post accelerator program aims to explore the use of blockchain technology in identity authentication, registration systems and electronic voting.