Analysis of Centralized vs Decentralized Electronic Voting

Some developed countries, such as America, Switzerland, and Norway, have not implemented an e-voting system. However, several countries have implemented an e-voting system, Estonia by implementing a centralized e-voting application. Now, the e-voting system can be implemented in a decentralized manner by utilizing blockchain and smart contracts. This paper presents a comparative study of centralized and decentralized e-voting applications. This study gives an overview of the features offered by each application and analyzes the performance, security, usability, and user experience of each application. The analysis was obtained from simulations and questionnaires for each application carried out by two groups of respondents. The questionnaires were distributed using a simple randomization technique and then analyzed using tools provided by SUS. The results from security testing show that voting data in decentralized e-voting applications cannot be modified, while centralized ones can. Therefore, a decentralized e-voting application indicates the existence of a guarantee of the integrity of the stored data. However, there are still performance issues that are likely to be fixed in a near future.