Kaspersky Lab, a global cybersecurity company based in Massachusetts and the U.K., hosted a competition for college students interested in Internet voting. The motivation was in part due to recent concerns of rigged or hacked voting. Approximately 20 colleges across the U.S. and U.K. took part. A team from New York University took first place with a solution blending old and new ways of doing things. I liked the second place University of Maryland approach better.

Willem Wyndham, a freshman and project manager for the university, designed an approach to encrypt electronic ballots and store them in a blockchain. Voter receipts would use randomly-generated numbers. After the election, a voter could go online with the number and confirm their vote was received and counted. Wyndham said, “This kind of thing has the potential to make voting and democracy more transparent and fair.” Wyndham likened the trust you would be putting in the e-voting system would be similar to the trust we have in online banking. It is so refreshing to read about voting innovation from young people rather than hearing “experts” say it can’t be done.

See the full story at University of Maryland students win cash prize for e-voting security idea – Washington Business Journal. Read much more about Internet voting in Election Attitude.