Quantum-Enhanced Secure Approval Voting Protocol

TL;DR

The paper addresses the vulnerability of classical cryptographic voting to quantum attacks by proposing a quantum-enabled approval voting protocol that uses entanglement, amplitude encoding, blockchain, and digital signatures, powered by $n = \lceil \log_2 N \rceil$ qubits for $N$ candidates. It defines a full workflow with initialization, voting, and tally phases, implements the scheme in Qiskit for a four-candidate scenario, and analyzes security properties including anonymity, binding, non-reusability, verifiability, eligibility, and fairness. A security-centric analysis coupled with practical experiments on IBM quantum hardware demonstrates low error rates in the single-digit percent range (reported as $\approx$1.17% in the abstract, with $1.66\%$ and $1.36\%$ observed on two devices), indicating feasibility of near-term quantum-assisted secure elections. The work contributes a concrete, testable quantum voting architecture that integrates quantum information primitives with blockchain-based tamper resistance and signature-based authentication, offering a path toward quantum-resilient, verifiable, and fair approval voting in real-world settings.

Abstract

In a world where elections touch every aspect of society, the need for secure voting is paramount. Traditional safeguards, based on classical cryptography, rely on complex math problems like factoring large numbers. However, quantum computing is changing the game. Recent advances in quantum technology suggest that classical cryptographic methods may not be as secure as we thought. This paper introduces a quantum voting protocol, a blend of quantum principles (entanglement and superposition), blockchain technology, and digital signatures, all powered by $\log_2{n}$ qubits, and designed for approval voting with n candidates. The result is a symphony of security features - binding, anonymity, non-reusability, verifiability, eligibility, and fairness - that chart a new course for voting security. The real world beckons, as we tested this protocol on IBM quantum hardware, achieving impressively low error rates of just 1.17% in a four-candidate election.

Figures (3)

• Figure 1: Flowchart depicting the Secure Quantum Voting Protocol for a Scenario Involving Four Candidates.
• Figure 2: Variation in Counts (in %) of $|10\rangle$ basis at variable Gate Error and variable Measurement Error respectively
• Figure 3: Results from ibm_nairobi and ibm_lagos for four candidates where candidates 1,2, and 4 are approved by the voter and candidate 3 is disapproved.