Innovation and new technologies in voting systems

In Brazil, the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) organized, in 2020, the project “Eleições do Futuro”

Blockchain technology is one of the expectations for electoral processes to become faster and more efficient. Projects in this area, in general, involve verification systems, encryption mechanisms to protect voters’ privacy, the possibility of auditing with respect to codes and voting processes. In addition, there are challenges, such as, for example, the ability of technology to authenticate people’s identities, cybersecurity, accessibility of the population to means that make it possible to implement innovation and society’s trust in modification of this type.

In Brazil, the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) organized, in 2020, the “Eleições do Futuro” project, whose objective is to initiate studies and evaluations for the eventual implementation of new technologies in the electronic voting system, in order to reduce the costs involved, without, however, affecting the security of the electoral process. In this context, a call for bids was launched for technology companies to present proposals for innovations that meet the requirements of voting security, protection of vote confidentiality and efficiency.

The free demonstrations took place in the first round of the 2020 municipal elections in the cities of Curitiba / PR, Valparaíso de Goiás / GO and São Paulo / SP through mock voting with fictitious candidates (eg bogeyman, werewolf, pink dolphin) ). The applications, created by the participating companies with a view to making an election via the internet via mobile devices possible in the future, were also supported by the requirements of voting secrecy, voter identification, unique vote counting, and availability of votes. transparency and audit mechanisms.

Among the companies that participated in the project stands out a Brazilian startup, based in Estonia, a country that has already used online voting since 2007, which demonstrated an electronic voting platform that allows elections completely online, in an encrypted and secret way, using computer or smartphone. The solution’s premises concern absolute transparency, auditability of the entire process and anonymity of votes.

The innovation can also be applied in business assemblies and condominiums, internal party elections and municipal councils. The election is created according to the needs of the interested party, being possible to determine specific agenda, show or hide the identification of voters, as well as to define the scope of the exercise of the voting option. The application is integrated by an identity solution composed of a validated digital certificate and stored on the voter’s smartphone. Document validation takes place, followed by express consent to the provision of personal data, and voting takes place via Blockchain ID. The result is decrypted only at the end of the election, when all voters receive the result, the number of voters and the votes counted.

Wilson Sales Belchior