This is an open call for evidence to receive a wide range of inputs and perspectives on the issue of implementing blockchain-based solutions for elections in India. The inputs will form the basis for public deliberations. A report will be produced - collated from the evidence - to provide guidance on the pros and cons resulting from the use of technology in elections and associated issues of enrollment, identification and citizens’ participation in national, state and local elections.
The following activities will take place under this project:
Weekly master classes, conducted by academicians and practitioners to develop awareness about about the historicity of election systems, and why the current systems work the way they do from the point of view of access, equity and accountability.
Public deliberations around the Call for Evidence - where submissions are grouped together to review the risks and benefits of implementing blockchain (or distributed ledger) based technologies in the electoral voting systems - from sociological, technical, legal and rights’ based perspectives.
Creation of a collaborative report which lays out the pros and cons of implementing blockchain-based technologies in the electoral system.
One Vote is an initiative to examine a diverse set of inputs and perspectives regarding the introduction and evolution of technology as part of the elections. We use public discourse, deliberations and reports to raise awareness about this topic for a lay audience. One Vote is designed to enable creating a framework - a mental model by which aspects of responsible technology can be reviewed in terms of fairness, transparency, equity, inclusion and privacy among other rights.
This project started as part of Kaarana and is now a collective in its own right.
Contact details: If you have a question, post a comment. You can also post questions and join conversations in Kaarana’s Telegram group https://t.me/kaarana
One Vote is an initiative to examine a diverse set of inputs and perspectives regarding the introduction and evolution of technology as part of the elections. We use public discourse, deliberations and reports to raise awareness about this topic for a lay audience. One Vote is designed to enable cr… more
Deep dives into privacy and security, and understanding needs of the Indian tech ecosystem through guides, research, collaboration, events and conferences. Sponsors: Privacy Mode’s programmes are sponsored by: more
Call for evidence The call for evidence is open to civil society organizations, legal experts, political scientists, ethicists, interested citizens and public interest technologists on the following: History - what is the context of the electoral systems and the history of technology interventions … expand
The call for evidence is open to civil society organizations, legal experts, political scientists, ethicists, interested citizens and public interest technologists on the following:
History - what is the context of the electoral systems and the history of technology interventions leading up to blockchain?
Design - what are the technical design decisions which SHOULD and MUST be made for security, authentication, identity binding, data processing and publication, redress and accessibility?
Law/regulations - what are the existing laws/regulations which apply to the implementation of a blockchain-based system for elections?
Ethics - what are the ethical trade-offs involved in adopting such an IT architecture?
Social impact - what are the potential societal impacts of implementing technical solutions with respect to discrimination, inequity and fairness?
State of the art - what are the existing approaches which are in the same field or similar domain?
Governance and democracy - will the concepts of governance and democracy change when such a system is adopted?
We ask all contributors to share a ‘view only’ link (URL) to the content. The content at this link is expected to be available for retrieval at least until the milestone of this project is achieved i.e., creation of a report based on the evidence.
The public deliberations will be accompanied by a short report which summarizes the key points raised during the discussions. The evidence submitted will be used to inform the summaries. A report will be produced at the end of the project.
By participating in this Call for Evidence and submitting, unless otherwise stated, you are permitting us to publish the full text of your evidence alongside the reports with correct accreditation. Thus,
what you submit as evidence will be searchable and read by the audience/readership
your name and your organization’s name, will be published with your evidence, whereever referenced in the report
We do not commit to publishing everything that is submitted in response to this call for evidence. Any submissions which contain defamatory statements will not be published. If there are specific parts of the submission which should not be published, such parts should be specifically marked.
The 2021 Panchayat Elections in Bihar saw a rather unprecedented workflow - using Aadhaar based biometrics to identify and verify voters as a mandatory element. The slow crawl of technology in elections is now ubiquitous with each state election commission being generally enthusiastic about adopting FRT, biometrics etc. But sometimes such plans can have unintended consequences. What actually happ… more
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Submitted
05 Apr 2022
Submisson type: Commentary on elections - post-master class
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One Vote is an initiative to examine a diverse set of inputs and perspectives regarding the introduction and evolution of technology as part of the elections. We use public discourse, deliberations and reports to raise awareness about this topic for a lay audience. One Vote is designed to enable cr… more
Deep dives into privacy and security, and understanding needs of the Indian tech ecosystem through guides, research, collaboration, events and conferences. Sponsors: Privacy Mode’s programmes are sponsored by: more
