This document proposes a blockchain-based secure and distributed voting system for decision making on government policies and projects in Sri Lanka. It discusses how blockchain technology can increase transparency, security, and efficiency in the voting process. Specifically, it presents a system where Grama Sewa (village) officers in Sri Lanka's 14020 regions can securely cast anonymous votes on projects using their mobile devices and blockchain. The votes would be recorded on a distributed ledger to prevent tampering and determine the final decision. The system aims to better incorporate citizen opinions and ensure accountability in government decision making.

1. 978-1-5386-4417-1/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE
Blockchain-based Secure, Reliable, and Distributed
Voting System for Decision Making in Government
Policies and Projects
Indika Sampath Sirimanna.,
Department of Computer Science
Faculty of Applied Sciences
University of Sri Jayewardenepura
Gangodawila, Nugegoda, Sri Lanka
indikasampath@gmail.com
T.M.K.K. Jinasena.,
Department of Computer Science
Faculty of Applied Sciences
University of Sri Jayewardenepura
Gangodawila, Nugegoda, Sri Lanka
kasun@dscs.sjp.ac.lk.
Abstract— A large part of society today does not trust
decision making in government policies and projects. It is time
to move into new technology such as decision making on
government policies and projects using the latest technology like
blockchain and advanced cryptography. Building of
blockchain-based secure, reliable, and distributed voting system
for decision making in government policies and projects has
been a challenge for a long time. Distributed ledger technologies
are exciting technology advancement in the information
technology world. Blockchain-based technologies offer an
infinite range of applications that benefit from sharing
economies of scale. The purpose of this research paper is to
evaluate the use of blockchain as the implementation of
distributed electronic voting systems for decision making on
government policies and projects. More generally, this article
assesses the potential of distributed ledger technologies in
improves security by implementing an election process and
blockchain-based application. This technology will be benefited
to Grama sewa officers who will give correct vote. Because
country like Sri Lanka we have 14020 Grama sewa regions.
Each member get a chance to cast his vote. One vote for each
project, it can be changed before the due date and only the last
one can be counted.
The grama sewa officer who cast his vote cannot be tracked,
but the officer can cast a unique vote. After a while, the officer
may join a fund or a fine. Voting on government policies or
projects is mandatory and officer cannot prevent it. This will
help to get the best option for government policies or projects.
I. INTRODUCTION
Every vote of the proposed system benefits from the
features of a blockchain transaction, which is irrevocable, it
cannot be denied. It cannot be registered in many different
ways. All nodes have a valid copy. More accurate and
accountable decisions can be made if all / most stakeholder
involvement is available when decision making on
government policies and projects. Especially in government
do not count the people’s opinions; but they are the ones who
really pay for it. The field of computer security has been
studying the capabilities of electronic voting systems for over
a decades to solve this problem[VI].
The present system of voting is based on pen and paper.
Most people in the world currently use some form of ballot
paper as their primary voting system. Paper voting systems
have many advantages. Paper ballots are relatively
confidential and are easy to verify by having the right
protocols, so they usually meet the requirements of
transparency and confidentiality. However, paper ballots can
cause a number of issues related to cost, integrity and
accessibility. There are significant costs that make traditional
paper voting a costly endeavor for governments and ultimately
their citizens.
When it comes to electronic voting, it includes any form
of voting that uses the latest technology to vote or compare.
Many polling places in the world have already switched to
using paper scanners to count paper ballots. The main
advantage of an electronic voting machine is its speed. Ballot
papers must be counted in combination with traditional paper
methods. This process takes time and delays the final result.
At the moment, the possibility of electoral voting seems
strong. However, there are disadvantages of electronic voting
to consider. While voting online may seem easy, switching to
electronic voting can jeopardize the integrity of the political
system. One of the biggest drawbacks of an electronic voting
machine right now is election hacking. Like any electronic
device, one can illegally change the outcome of an election.
Replacing the traditional pen and paper, electronic voting
scheme with a new blockchain-based electronic voting is help
to increase greater transparency, enhanced security, improved
traceability, increased efficiency and speed of transactions.
The first benefit that blockchain can offer is transparency. We
know that people can be discouraged about the legitimacy of
their votes without transparency, which can lead to confusion
about results and fake results. Transparency will make for a
credible democracy, and it will bring more positive votes.
Therefore, it is important to keep all records accurate and safe.
Blockchain and its decentralized ledger can be trusted at every
stage of the voting process. Security is the single most
important factor in voting. Nowadays, voting systems are
easily open. Without a significant security mechanism,
malicious actors can enter the system and change the results.
This is where blockchain comes from. The blockchain can
introduce a seemingly unbreakable system. People need
privacy when voting, and they don't always want to know who
they voted for. Blockchain voting allows you to remain
anonymous. As in blockchain transactions, voters can use
their private keys to remain anonymous. They can vote in a
systematic way without worrying others know how they
voted. Having anonymity can encourage more people to
participate and to use the voting system.
The objective of this research paper is to provide a
decentralized architecture to implement and support an open,
fair and independently verified voting system for government
policies and projects. Here, we propose a potential new e-
voting protocol that uses the block chain as a transparent ballot
box. So there will be more transparency between the grama
sewa officer and the system.

2. II. ELECTRONIC VOTING AND BLOCKCHAIN PREREQUISITES
This section explains the capabilities of blockchain and
smart contract technology and its capabilities as an electronic
voting system.
Blockchain-based secure and reliable voting system is a
distributed, immutable, incontrovertible, public ledger. This
new technology operates through four main components,
i. The ledger is in multiple locations, and there is no
point in failing to maintain a distributed ledger.
ii. Any "new block" proposed to the ledger must specify
an earlier version of the ledger and create a chain that cannot
be changed from where the blockchain receives its name,
thereby preventing the integrity of previous entries.
iii. The ledger has a distributed control over who can add
new transactions.
iv. The majority of network nodes must agree before the
proposed new entries become a permanent part of the ledger.
These technologies are implemented through advanced
cryptography, which makes security levels equal and or higher
than any previously known database.
Below is a list of the essential requirements that must be
met by an electronic voting system for effective use in a
blockchain-based secure and reliable voting system for
government policies and projects
i. An electronic voting system should not be allowed to vote
by force.
ii. An electronic voting system should not enable traceability
of a vote of a voters.
iii. An electronic voting system should not be allowed to
change any vote by a third party.
iv. An electronic voting system must ensure that a vote count
correctly.
v. An electronic voting system should not allow a single
entity to control the counting of votes and the election
results.
vi. Eligible people should be allowed to vote one vote for one
project in an election through an electronic voting system.
vii. Eligible people can change vote for several time before the
deadline. only last one counts.
A. Blockchain as a Service
In 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto (a person or group of
people) was invented the Blockchain mechanism. It helps
Figure 1: Election roles and process

3. to serve the public transaction ledger of the cryptocurrency
bitcoin. Each transaction can be publicly verified by
signing up for reverse chain of cryptocurrencies so that no
data written to the blockchain can harm anyone.
Blockchain Structure is a collectible data structure that
can write new pieces of data but cannot be changed.
Blocking, ensuring that it cannot be changed.
B. Smart Contracts for blockchain
Smart contracts are scalable and irreversible
applications that can be executed in a decentralized
environment (Example: blockchain). After deploying a
smart contract, no one can edit the code or change its
execution behaviour. The execution of smart contracts
guarantees the parties to come together for a written
contract. This creates a new strong, trusting relationship
that does not depend on a single party.
Smart contracts provide better management for
realizing and managing digital contracts due to self-
verification and self-execution. [VII]
III. ELECTRONIC VOTING PROCESS
As can be seen in Figure 1,in this research paper involve
following roles.
A. Election administrators:
Manage the lifecycle of an electronic voting system. The
electronic voting Administrators can register the device
through unique IMEI number , create and activate key pool
(key pool is collection of random 14020 keys that is distribute
independently on key pool.
Figure 2: Activities of the election

4. Where keys can be obtain by gramasewa members and
owner of the key cannot track since its random) and specify
the type of election, create the above election, submit the
ballot papers, register the voters, determine the lifespan of the
election and issue authorized entries.
B. Voters:
Voters (Grama sewa officers )can log in to the device after
registration of IMEI of the device, then they can get random
key from key pool(Key pool change project to
project) then define the wallet for future funds, penalty or
obtain vote state, then join for poll and cast the vote (member
get a chance to cast his vote. One vote for one project, can
change it before the deadline, only last one counts). For the
elections they are eligible for verifying themselves, cast
ballots, submit the vote and confirm voting before the
electronic election is over.
C. Boot Nodes:
Each grama sewa officers, with permissioned access to
the network, host a bootnode. A bootnode helps to find Region
Node and communicate with each other. The bootnodes does
not hold any status in the blockchain and runs on a static IP,
thereby enabling regional nodes to speed up its peers.
D. Region Node:
When the electronic voting administrators create an
election, each ballot smart contracts, representing each voting
region, are deployed onto the blockchain. When voting smart
contracts are created, individual region nodes are allowed to
interact with their corresponding voting smart contracts.
When a single grama sewa officer votes from their
corresponding smart contract, the voting data is verified by all
the relevant region nodes, and all votes they agree to are added
to the blockchain when the block period has reached.
IV. ELECTION FOR THE PROJECT AS A SMART CONTRACT
As can be seen in Figure 2, there are several smart
contracts involved in an election as smart contracts are
involved for each regional area. For each grama sewa officer
with its corresponding voting region location, during the voter
registration phase, the smart contract with the relevant
location will be prompted to the grama sewa officer after
he/she authenticates himself when voting.
A. Election creation:
Election administrator create election ballots for project
using a dApp. This decentralized application interacts with a
smart contract for creating elections, and the administrator
lists a list of IMEI numbers and polling regions. With a list of
the IMEI numbers, for each voting regions, where each voting
region is a parameter in each ballot smart contract. When
creating an election, each corresponding region zone node can
interact with his corresponding ballot smart contract.
B. Vote transaction:
When an individual vote of grama sewa officer in a voting
region, the voter works with that voting region in a smart
contract. This smart contract interacts with the blockchain
through the corresponding region nodes, adding it to the
voting blockchain after the deadline. (Grama sewa officer can
change his vote any time before deadline.). Vote can be seen
after the deadline. Each vote is stored as a transaction on the
blockchain and each voter receives a transaction ID for their
vote for verification purposes.
When a grama sewa officer votes (after deadline), their
wallet is reduced by 1, so they are unable to vote more than
once. A single transaction on the blockchain includes the
transaction ID, the part where the transaction is block located
(Table 1). Wallet value will be increase by 1 after election
over. The wallet in which the transaction was sent (In future
penalty or funds will send to the wallet and the this field may
help to know the which project) and who received it, and the
total value sent.
C. Calculation of results
The calculation of the election is done on the ballot smart
contract. Each ballot smart contract makes their own
assessment for the corresponding location in their store. When
an election is over, the results for each smart contract are
announced.
D. Penalty or Fund procedure
If the Grama sewa officer has voted for a project and depends
on its success sometime later, the officer may be involved in a
fund or a fine. Voting for government policies or projects is
mandatory and the Grama sewa officer cannot avoid it. This
will help to get the best option for government policies or
projects.
V. SECURITY AND LEGAL FRAMEWORK
A. Security analysis:
i. Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack: The attacker
must DDoS every boot node on the network. If that
happens, the person or entity will immediately find out.
Each node operates with a Byzantine fault tolerance
algorithm, which helps to detect system failure nodes.
ii. Authentication vulnerability: Each individual is identified
and authenticated by the system by presenting an IMEI
number of the device. Therefore, attackers cannot enter to
the system without authorised IMEI number.
iii. Sybil[26]: Sybil attack is against centralized systems
where a person creates a large number of nodes in an
attempt to disrupt network functionality by hijacking or
dropping messages. Proposed electronic voting system
Transaction ID Block ID Sent Hash Received Hash Amount
0x011235 1987 0xtest001 0xsomeone01 -1
0x454582 1990 0xtest456 0xsometwo23 -1
0x012525 1945 0xtest7485 0xsomethree1 -1
Table 1: Sample Table Structure

5. runs on a private network so nobody has access to create
it.
B. Legal issues:
i. Remote voting: Remote elections are not forcibly resisted
due to the unsupervised factor of a remote election.
Therefore, remote voting cannot guarantee the privacy of
the people who vote in a polling booth.
VI. RELATED WORK
When examined on the impact of Blockchain-Based
Secure and Reliable Voting System for Government Policies
and Projects, found out some varieties of scenarios. There is a
rich literature on regarding electronic voting.
There are some studies based on electronic voting systems
and blockchain done by several researches.
Htet Ne , Aye Moe Aung in 2014 done a research based
on “A Survey of Different Electronic Voting Systems”. This
paper renders a survey on various kinds of electronic voting
systems with their strength and defects [I].
Subhash N. Ariyadasa in 2016 done a research based on
“Applicability of an Electronic Voting System in Sri Lankan
Context”. This paper renders an electronic voting system have
many advantages over traditional hand counted paper ballots,
therefore it will be a needful replacement for the future of Sri
Lankan democracy [III].
Kashif Mehboob Kha, Junaid Arshad, Muhammad
Mubashir Khan in 2017 done a research based on “Secure
Digital Voting System based on Blockchain Technology”.
This paper renders in-depth evaluation of the scheme which
successfully demonstrates its effectiveness to achieve an end-
to-end verifiable e-voting scheme. [VIII]
Dr. Ekta Walia, Mr. Sanjay Kuma in 2017 done a research
based on “Analysis of electronic voting system in various
countries”. This paper renders an overview of the experiences
of other countries using electronic voting machine. The
comparative focus is on the adoption of electronic voting
systems adopted at the international level [II].
Nir Kshetri , Jeffrey Voas in 2018 published a research on
IEEE based on “Blockchain-Enabled E-Voting”. His article
highlights some Blockchain enabled e-voting
implementations and the approach's potential benefits and
challenges [XIX].
Chinmay Saraf , Siddharth Sabadra in 2018 published a
research on IEEE based on “Blockchain platforms: A
compendium”. This paper renders provide a comparative
analysis of all the hyperledger platforms, ethereum, corda to
make a choice of the platform easily according to the
requirement [XIV].
Researcher Michele Marchesi published a research on
IEEE based on “Why blockchain is important for software
developers, and why software engineering is important for
blockchain software (Keynote)” in 2018. This paper renders
blockchain development offers, such as the certification of
empirical data used for experiment; the ability to design
processes where developers are paid upon completion of their
tasks through Blockchain tokens, after acceptance tests
performed using Smart Contracts; and more sound techniques
enabling pay-per-use software, again using tokens [XV].
Tara Salman , Raj Jain , Lav Gupta in 2018 Published a
research on IEEE based on “Probabilistic Blockchains: A
Blockchain Paradigm for Collaborative Decision-Making”.
This paper renders analyses the application of probabilistic
blockchains for intrusion detection systems for computer
networks. [XVII]
Mrs. Harsha V. Patil, Mrs. Kanchan G. Rathi, Mrs. Malati
V.Tribhuwan in 2018 done a research based on “A Study on
Decentralized E-Voting System Using Blockchain
Technology”. This paper renders some of the popular
blockchain frameworks that offer blockchain as a service and
associated electronic E-voting system which is based on
blockchain that addresses all limitations respectively, it also
preserve participant’s anonymity while still being open to
public inspection.[X]
In 2018, Clement Chan Zheng Wei, Chuah Chai Wen
done a research based on “Blockchain-Based Electronic
Voting Protocol”. This paper renders how to leverage the
advantages from blockchain into electronic voting protocol.
This blockchain-based electronic voting protocol promise to
provide a secure electronic election process given the
proposed system works. Implement a protocol using
blockchain to turn election protocol into an automated control
system without relying any single point of entity. Lastly,
discuss the characteristics of our proposed blockchain-based
electronic voting protocol in this paper. However, there are
also emerging challenges and limitations awaiting to
overcome. This paper gives a comprehensive overview of
proposed Blockchain-Based protocol. [XI]
In 2019, Ping Zhong, Yang Xiang published a research on
IEEE based on “Privacy-Protected Blockchain System”. This
paper renders that future blockchain smart contract system
needs not only to keep immutability but also to protect user
privacy [XVIII].
S. F. Sayyad, Mangesh Pawar, Ashutosh Patil, Vandana
Pathare, Prayag Poduval in 2019 done a research based on
“Features of Blockchain Voting: A Survey”. This paper
renders blockchain has been misunderstood as the public
ledger which can be used for maintaining the online currency
transaction record. People were less aware of the other
features and so the applications of Blockchain [XII].
In 2019, Artur Rot , Bartosz Blaicke published a research
on IEEE based on “Blockchain’s Future Role in
Cybersecurity. Analysis of Defensive and Offensive Potential
Leveraging Blockchain-Based Platforms”. This paper renders
further adoption of blockchain-based solutions should be
encouraged or not from a security standpoint and if the overall
potential for change could be net positive [XVI].
Amrita Dhillon, Grammateia Kotsialou, Peter McBurney,
Luke Riley, in 2019 done a research based on “Introduction to
Voting and the Blockchain: some open questions for
economists”. This paper renders potential of a blockchain
based infrastructure for a decentralised online voting platform.
When compared to paper-based voting, online voting can
vastly increase the speed that votes can be counted, expand the
overall accessibility of the election system and decrease the
cost of turnout. Yet despite these advantages, online voting for
political office is subject to fraud at various levels due to its
centralised nature. [XIII]

6. In 2019, the researcher Saghar Estehghari done a research
based on ” Exploiting the Client Vulnerabilities in Internet E-
voting Systems”. This paper renders defences against this
attack, generalizations and the impact of the latest upgrade of
Helios on security [IV].
Researcher Haibo Yi done a research based on “Securing
e-voting based on blockchain in P2P network” in 2019. This
paper renders electronic voting (e-voting) is an electronic
means for casting and counting votes. It is an efficient and
cost-effective way for conducting a voting procedure, which
has characteristic of being magnanimous data and real time
and requesting high safety. However, concerns on security of
networking and privacy of communication for e-voting have
been grown [IX].
Researcher Gunnlaugur done a research based on
“Blockchain-Based E-Voting System”. This paper evaluates
the potential of distributed ledger technologies through the
description of a case study, namely the process of an
election and implementing a blockchain-based application
which improves the security and decreases the cost of
hosting a nationwide election[V]. When compared to the
proposed system, the way the wallet is handled can be seen as
major similarity. As a major dissimilarity between proposed
system and the Gunnlaugur system is activation of key pool
through unique IMEI number with public keys. Here, we
propose a new e-voting protocol that can use the block chain
as a transparent ballot box. Therefore, there is greater
transparency between the Grama Seva officer and the system.
VII. CONCLUSION
The idea of adapting of blockchain-based secure and
reliable voting system to make voting process cheaper, faster,
trustworthiness and easier is powerful in modern society. This
system will be benefited to government as well as grama sewa
officer. Government can decide best solutions for their
policies and projects and also good decision will be benefited
to obtain fund to officers who voted.
VIII.REFERENCES
I. Htet Ne , Aye Moe Aung, (2014). A Survey of
Different Electronic Voting Systems.
II. Dr. Ekta Walia, Mr. Sanjay Kuma (2017) Analysis of
electronic voting system in various countries
III. Subhash N. Ariyadasa, (2016) Applicability of an
Electronic Voting System in Sri Lankan Context.
IV. Saghar Estehghari, (2019) Exploiting the Client
Vulnerabilities in Internet E-voting Systems:
HackingHelios2.0asanExample
V. Gunnlaugur (2018), Blockchain-Based E-Voting
System
VI. Sos.ca.gov. (2007). Top-to-Bottom Review |
California Secretary of State. Available
VII. Steve Ellis, Ari Juels and Sergey Nazarov. (2017).
ChainLink: A Decentralized Oracle Network
VIII. Kashif Mehboob Kha, Junaid Arshad, Muhammad
Mubashir Khan (2017), Secure Digital Voting
System based on Blockchain Technology.
IX. Haibo Yi (2019), Securing e-voting based on
blockchain in P2P network.
X. Mrs. Harsha V. Patil, Mrs. Kanchan G. Rathi, Mrs.
Malati V.Tribhuwan (2018), A Study on
Decentralized E-Voting System Using Blockchain
Technology.
XI. Clement Chan Zheng Wei, Chuah Chai Wen (2018),
Blockchain-Based Electronic Voting Protocol.
XII. S. F. Sayyad, Mangesh Pawar, Ashutosh Patil,
Vandana Pathare, Prayag Poduval (2019), Features
of Blockchain Voting: A Survey.
XIII. Amrita Dhillon, Grammateia Kotsialou, Peter
McBurney, Luke Riley (2019), Introduction to Voting
and the Blockchain: some open questions for
economists
XIV. Chinmay Saraf , Siddharth Sabadra (2018),
Blockchain platforms: A compendium, Published in:
2018 IEEE International Conference on Innovative
Research and Development (ICIRD)
XV. Michele Marchesi (2018), Why blockchain is
important for software developers, and why software
engineering is important for blockchain software
(Keynote), Published in: 2018 International
Workshop on Blockchain Oriented Software
Engineering (IWBOSE).
XVI. Artur Rot , Bartosz Blaicke (2019), Blockchain’s
Future Role in Cybersecurity. Analysis of Defensive
and Offensive Potential Leveraging Blockchain-
Based Platforms, Published in: 2019 9th
International Conference on Advanced Computer
Information Technologies (ACIT).
XVII. Tara Salman , Raj Jain , Lav Gupta (2018)
Probabilistic Blockchains: A Blockchain Paradigm
for Collaborative Decision-Making, Published in:
2018 9th IEEE Annual Ubiquitous Computing,
Electronics & Mobile Communication Conference
(UEMCON)
XVIII. Ping Zhong, Yang Xiang (2019), Privacy-Protected
Blockchain System. Published in: 2019 20th IEEE
International Conference on Mobile Data
Management (MDM).
XIX. Nir Kshetri , Jeffrey Voas (2018), Blockchain-
Enabled E-Voting. Published in: IEEE Software (
Volume: 35 , Issue: 4 , July/August 2018 )