Is Blockchain for voting a dumb idea?

The United States Postal Service (USPS) had become an unlikely flashpoint of the recently concluded U.S. elections because of President Donald Trump’s refusal to fund the cash-strapped agency and allegations of mail-in balloting fraud. Mail-in balloting has conjointly surfaced as some extent of contention among members of the U.S. political parties.

Thanks to the corona virus, the USPS was overwhelmed with the unprecedented mail-in and absentee ballots for the 2020 Presidential election process.

The rising pandemic cases made voters seek mail-in ballot, providing safe and easy access when recording their political preference during a multi-faceted battle.

Early this year, the USPS filed for a patent called “The Secure Voting System”. This wasn’t unpredictable since the USPS had been working on ways to make elections more secure and transparent while the American voters increasingly adopted mail-in ballots.

“The Secure Voting System” would utilize blockchain technology to assist voters cast ballots securely using mobile phones with electronic signatures, maintaining anonymity and other intricate data points. USPS is not new to emerging technologies as the agency submitted a concept in 2018, which harnessed the blockchain for identity authentication.

By employing a blockchain system to record votes cast online, the USPS could make the ballot process secure, seamless, transparent, and faster not only to cast ballots but also count votes. Blockchain protocol makes it impossible for a hacker to change the entire voting record just by accessing one computer.

Amid all the outraged complaints from U.S. political parties regarding the mail-in balloting, the USPS seems to be moving in the right direction, leveraging blockchain technology to make the voting secure, tamper-proof, and transparent.