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Now if you've watched the video, you'll have picked up already why blockchain (see last week for more on what blockchain is) won't work. However, one of my fellow students had posted in favour of electronic voting. Here is a short extract:
Transitioning to a blockchain based e-voting system in the United Kingdom (UK) could simplify the voting process and reduce costs. 5 key principals of suffrage, namely “universal, equal, free, secret and direct suffrage” (Mircea-Constantin, 2016), have been used when assessing e-voting systems in Europe (Lindner, Aichholzer et al. p. 155) and provide a good framework for assessing the legal, social and ethical impact of a blockchain based e-voting system.
Universal suffrage (the right to vote). An Internet enabled e-voting system would enable devices such as laptops and mobile phones to be used for voting, making the electoral process more accessible to some. However not everyone has access to such devices which could affect their right to vote (Lindner, Aichholzer et al. p. 146). An Internet enabled e-voting system maybe more accessible, however it is also more vulnerable to attack and manipulation (Daramola, 2020 p.15).
Equal suffrage (votes are counted equally). A blockchain’s ledger can ensure that everyone’s vote is counted exactly once. The challenge of an e-voting system is being able to securely identify voters via devices such as a laptop or mobile phone (Daramola, 2020 p.5).
Free suffrage (voters are not subject to manipulation). Remote voting enabled by e-voting offers more opportunity for voter coercion and bribery, however a precedent has already been set with postal ballots.
Secret suffrage (votes are secret). The use of encryption within the blockchain ensures secrecy. The challenge is ensuring the voter’s identity remains secret throughout all layers of the system (Abuidris, 2019).
Direct suffrage (voting directly for a candidate). The UK’s “direct election” system ensures an e-voting system has no impact on direct suffrage.
Here is my response:
Distrust of our current voting system is often prevalent in media. An easy example is during the EU referendum where there were complaints with polling booths providing pencils over the more permanent option of pens due to fears votes would be adjusted (Subedar, 2016). However, these fears are unfounded on a large scale and are easy to explain. There are thousands of polling stations in each election and the scale of an operation required to compromise so many poll workers and change poll cards without being caught is enormous and unrealistic (Elliott, 2019). But changing from paper to electronic, as your post states, leaves the possibility for the vulnerability of attack. If there is already distrust at a simplistic level, what happens when the technology gets more complicated?
Compromising many votes is much easier through electronic voting compared to paper (Elliott, 2019). If an electronic device was provided instead of pen or paper, this could be hacked to be replaced with unofficial software or tamper with the count of votes (www.securitymagazine.com, 2020). Blockchain is an appealing technology that finds solutions to some issues with electronic voting such as anonymity and maintaining the integrity of the data once recorded (Alvi et al., 2020), but does not eliminate the possibility of compromised devices providing altered data to be added to the ledger.
This begs the question, if we replaced paper voting with electronic voting—would the public trust the system enough to use it? Does the average UK citizen understand blockchain enough to trust their vote is safe? Doubts over the integrity of machines are much easier to foster and cause distrust in the voting result (Elliott, 2019). Ethically, who would be held responsible and what would the outcome be if an issue was discovered with the voting result?
A survey conducted by the University of Exeter found that 29% of people would have confidence in the result if they voted online compared to 40% who would prefer a polling station during the Covid-19 pandemic (www.exeter.ac.uk, 2021). This is a surprisingly close result, although the survey is a sample of 5000 people and could have a different outcome on a larger sample of the population.
In conclusion, there is potential for blockchain to be used for voting and even some evidence of public trust in electronic voting in the future, but there are still clear potential security flaws and room for distrust that are currently avoided with the use of paper in individual polling booths for now.
In my mind, I had this vision of most people grumpily not trusting computers and wanting their paper and pencil because that's the best traditional way. I found though this may not be the case - which is actually quite alarming! Compromising electronic votes is far easier than compromising paper votes. Right now, we do not have the technologies to ensure we really are having our fair say. If you disagree, I'd love to know why!
Seminars and being a young woman in STEM
We had another first this week, I've never attended a seminar before. And I've definitely never attended an online seminar.
Overall I hated every second! We were supposed to bring an IT issue from our professional experience and list everyone that was affected and how it was solved. I prepared a small issue I've been working on lately that related to a data collection problem that led to needing to go through and amend all the data. However, once I got in there I got the distinct impression that I needed to go bigger, so I panicked and thought of something else on the fly. All in all, I explained it badly, my voice shook constantly and I felt huge relief when I stopped speaking. But it wasn't over yet, being that I work for the council my lecturer took to enquiring about security at the council and how it works etc which, again, I was not prepared for at all and I definitely answered like a complete idiot out of fear of getting it wrong.
I have a lot of anxiety problems, that I often need to set aside and push through, but when I've been through a highly stressful situation like this seminar, I often take the time to reflect afterwards to understand how I felt and how I can handle it better the next time. I've already detailed some of the problem, being underprepared and not sticking to my guns. But unfortunately, it does go much deeper than this.
Bringing up sexism can often initiate a bit of an eye roll, and I can understand why. However, I refuse to shy away from the topic, because unfortunately it shapes a huge part of my professional experience (as well as for countless others). Throughout my life, I have experienced being the minority in the room and the extra baggage associated with being female in a male dominated space. I remember early in my undergraduate days being referred in a 'loud whisper' as a "stuck up bitch" and someone who "thinks she's better than everyone else" because there was a misunderstanding between the lecturer and a student and I pointed out the issue. Note, that speaking up in discussion in lectures is encouraged, but this deeply affected me and I more or less never spoke in lectures again.
An example of ageism, in my first job, despite being the highest performer on the team and having two job roles whereas others had only one, I discovered I earned the least. When I asked for a pay rise, my boss told me that when he was my age he earned less than me and put up with the grind. When I look back on that moment, I wish I had said "Well I have a maths degree, and you don't". Instead though, I left the job which all things considered was the best thing to do.
I've found that how you dress, behave, speak and more can have much stronger impacts on the impressions people have on you when you are female. I have sat in meetings before with someone talking over me whilst staring at my chest the entire time. People often laugh when I say I let my natural hair grow out because people take brunettes more seriously - unfortunately it's true! Similarly, I ensure I have my glasses on at work and strip all personality from my clothes.
And so all of this experience leads up to me joining this video meeting and realising not only am I the youngest, but also the only woman present. I tensed up, knowing that I had pink artwork behind me but happy I had remembered to wear my more serious glasses frames. Upon reflection, the fact that my experience had led me to think I even need to think about things like that frustrates me no end. Although I have experienced this moment many times, it is still a struggle to truly prepare for it as well as present knowledge and information to people who are smart and know what they're talking about and not feel like an absolute imposter.
However, I will take this moment as another learning experience be prepared for the next one. My advice to other women is to never give up, be secure in your knowledge of what you deserve and always push for it. My advice to anyone not in the minority is to consider in situations if you are treating someone differently because of who they are. It doesn't have to be direct, it can be subtle, without even realising it. Built in habits coded into our personalities. It is only with reflection and catching yourself and reprogramming that we can truly make everyone feel comfortable pursing their passions.
References
Alvi, S. T., Uddin, M. N., Islam, L. and Ahamed, S. (2020) ‘Classification of Blockchain based Voting: Challenges and Solutions’ IEEE Asia-Pacific Conference on Computer Science and Data Engineering (CSDE), pp. 1-6, doi: 10.1109/CSDE50874.2020.9411598.
Elliott, S. (2019). Why Electronic Voting Is Still A Bad Idea. www.youtube.com. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkH2r-sNjQs&t (Accessed: 6 Sep. 2021).
Lindner, R., et al. Electronic Democracy in Europe. Prospects and Challenges of E-Publics, E-Participation and E-Voting, Springer International Publishing
Mircea-Constantin, S. and O. Mihai-Daniel (2016). "CODE SETTING TRENDS IN ELECTORAL MATTERS - CODE OF GOOD PRACTICE IN ELECTORAL MATTERS - VENICE 2002." Challenges of the Knowledge Society 6(-): 128-132
Subedar, A. (2016). EU referendum: '“Use pens” plea of voting fraud “conspiracy theorists.”' BBC News. 22 Jun. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-36597367. (Accessed: 6 Sep. 2021).
www.exeter.ac.uk. (2021). 'People would prefer to vote online than by post in UK 2021 elections during pandemic, research shows.' University of Exeter. Available at: https://www.exeter.ac.uk/news/research/title_841648_en.html (Accessed: 6 Sep. 2021).
www.securitymagazine.com. (2020). Can the voting process be hacked? Available at: https://www.securitymagazine.com/articles/93385-can-the-voting-process-be-hacked. (Accessed: 6 Sep. 2021).
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