In the United States, Virginia lawmakers are looking to study the use of blockchain technology to protect voter records and election results.
The bill to be offered on January 8th, 2020.
WHEREAS, the Department of Elections is responsible for ensuring the security and integrity of the Virginia Election and Registration Information System, which contains voter registration records for over five million voters registered in the Commonwealth; and
WHEREAS, the mission of the Department of Elections is to promote and support accurate, fair, open, and secure elections for the citizens of the Commonwealth; and
WHEREAS, Merriam-Webster defines a blockchain as “a digital database containing information (such as records of financial transactions) that can be simultaneously used and shared within a large decentralized, publicly accessible network”; and
WHEREAS, blockchain technology has the potential to have a profound impact in any area that requires recorded transactions, such as government recordkeeping, voting, chain of custody, and vote counting; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED by the House of Delegates, the Senate concurring, That the Department of Elections be requested to study the use of blockchain technology to protect voter records and election results.
According to the bill, blockchain technology has the potential to have a profound impact in any area that requires recorded transactions, such as government recordkeeping, or voting.
Not the first time that blockchain-based voting was proposed
Andrew Yang has blockchain-based voting as one of his policies.
Ballot box image via Wikimedia.
