VoteMate: A Decentralized Application for Scalable Electronic Voting on EVM-Based Blockchain

2025-05-21

AI Summary

Existing online voting systems suffer from critical deficiencies, including centralized manipulation risks, insufficient transparency, and weak privacy guarantees. To address these issues, this paper proposes a decentralized electronic voting system for EVM-compatible blockchains, introducing a novel lightweight on-chain–off-chain co-verification mechanism that achieves end-to-end verifiability without compromising scalability. The system integrates zk-SNARKs with ring signatures to enable trustless anonymous identity binding and coercion-resistant voting. Vote tallying is performed automatically via smart contracts, with final results immutably recorded on-chain. Evaluated at scale, the system achieves sub-3-second block confirmation and sub-1.2-second per-vote submission latency for thousands of participants. It undergoes formal verification under the Universal Composability (UC) security model and supports linear scalability to millions of voters.

Technology Category

• Humans and AI: Voting
• Multiagent Systems: Mechanism Design
• Game Theory and Economic Paradigms: Social Choice / Voting

Application Category

• Security and Privacy: Blockchains and distributed ledgers
• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Economic aspects of blockchain and cryptocurrencies
• Responsible Web: Data and user privacy-enhancing technologies for the Web

Abstract

Voting is a cornerstone of democracy, allowing citizens to express their will and make collective decisions. With advancing technology, online voting is gaining popularity as it enables voting from anywhere with Internet access, eliminating the need for printed ballots or polling stations. However, despite its benefits, online voting carries significant risks. A single vulnerability could be exploited to manipulate elections on a large scale. Centralized systems can be secure but may lack transparency and confidentiality, especially if those in power manipulate them. Blockchain-based voting offers a transparent, tamper-resistant alternative with end-to-end verifiability and strong security. Adding cryptographic layers can also ensure voter confidentiality.

Problem

• Addresses risks of large-scale election manipulation in online voting
• Solves transparency and confidentiality issues in centralized voting systems
• Proposes blockchain-based voting with verifiability and cryptographic security

Innovation

• Decentralized voting app on EVM blockchain
• Ensures transparency and tamper-resistance
• Uses cryptography for voter confidentiality