Examine the role of technology in elections

Call for evidence about risks and benefits of introducing blockchain in India's electoral systems

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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. Creation of a collaborative report which lays out the pros and cons of implementing blockchain-based technologies in the electoral system.

Participation

You can participate in this project by:

  1. Attending the weekly master classes. RSVP to join.
  2. Suggest/connect with speakers who can teach master classes.
  3. Spread a good word about the Call for Evidence.
  4. Volunteer by contributing with skills - copy-editing, translations, organizing sessions.

Learn More

The One Vote Project has produced content around the topic of introduction of technology in elections. The list below provides links to our work.

  1. Introduction to the project
  2. Master class and webinar videos available here
  3. Playlist of webinars
  4. Technology, Trust and Elections - An Interim Report from the One Vote Project

About One Vote

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.

Find more about Kaarana at medium.com/karana and Twitter https://twitter.com/kaarana_

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

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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

Supported by

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
Srikanth Lakshmanan

Srikanth Lakshmanan

@logic

Aadhaar biometric based ID verification - planned and unplanned outcomes

Submitted Apr 5, 2022

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 happened during the elections in Bihar which resulted in voters finding their bank accounts being drained off funds? What are the facts? How did this system work? And where is the law backing all of this?

We examine all these issues in context of the actual software - an analysis of the software used during the elections and the workflow of authentication which enables such KYC routines to be put together.

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Hosted by

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

Supported by

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