US 12,118,828 B2Granted

Blockchain-based voting system

AssigneeBoard of Trustees of Michigan State University

InventorsJian Ren, Ehab Zaghloul, Tongtong Li

Life of this patent

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Abstract

A control system for conducting an election may include a voter client configured to be used by a voter to cast a vote for a candidate, a registrar server, and a moderator server. The moderator server may be configured to obscure the identity of the voter. The registrar server may be configured to randomly assign a ballot to the obscured voter. The registrar server may be configured to encrypt the ballot. The moderator server may be configured to transmit the encrypted ballot to the voter client. The voter client may be configured to decrypt the encrypted ballot to recover the ballot. The voter client, in response to the voter selecting a desired candidate, may be configured to generate a ballot associated with a vote. The voter client may be configured to encrypt the ballot using a public key of the registrar server and a public key of the moderator server.

Claims23

Dependent claims

A control system for conducting an election, the control system comprising:

(a) a voter client configured to be used by a voter to cast a vote for a candidate;
(b) a registrar server;
and
(c) a moderator server;
wherein:
(i) the voter client is configured transmit a voter public key (yi) to the moderator server;
(ii) the moderator server is configured to verify the eligibility of the voter by comparing the voter public key (yi) with an electoral roll, and in response to determining the voter is eligible to vote, the moderator server is configured to obscure the identity of the voter by computing an obscured voter public key (y′i) using a blind factor (bi);
(iii) the moderator server is configured to generate a permuted set σ of n unique numbers;
(iv) the moderator server is configured to transmit the obscured voter public key (y′i) and a number σ(i) from the permuted set σ of n unique numbers to the registrar server;
(v) the registrar server is configured to randomly assign a ballot (bali) from a set of digitally-signed ballots () to the obscured voter;
(vi) the registrar server is configured to encrypt the ballot using a ballot encryption key (ki) to generate an encrypted ballot (ebali);
(vii) the registrar server is configured to generate an ephemeral key (Qi);
(viii) the registrar server is configured to transmit the encrypted ballot (ebali) and the ephemeral key (Qi) to the moderator server;
(ix) the moderator server is configured to encrypt the blind factor (bi) to generate an encrypted blind factor (ebi);
(x) the moderator server is configured to transmit the encrypted ballot (ebali), the ephemeral key (Qi), and the encrypted blind factor (ebi) to the voter client;
(xi) the voter client is configured to decrypt the encrypted blind factor (ebi) to recover the blind factor (bi);
(xii) the voter client is configured to regenerate the ballot encryption key (ki);
(xiii) the voter client is configured to decrypt the encrypted ballot (ebali) to recover the ballot (bali);
(xiv) the voter client, in response to the voter selecting a desired candidate, is configured to generate a ballot associated with a vote (Bi);
(xv) the voter client is configured to double-encrypt the ballot (Bi) using a public key of the registrar server (yr) and a public key of the moderator server (ym) as:
Bi=(gv, T·(yr·ym)v)=(c3, c4),
where g is a generator of G and G is a publicly chosen multiplicative cyclic group of prime order p;
where v∈*p is selected randomly, T=(bali∥Vote);
where Vote=(cand1, cand2, . . . , candm) is a sequence of bits representing each candidate such that:
cand
k
=
{
1
,
if
⁢
voting
⁢
for
⁢
cand
k
,
0
,
if
⁢
voting
⁢
against
⁢
cand
k
;
(xvi) the voter client is configured to connect with a blockchain network and call a smart contract from the blockchain network;
and
(xvii) the voter client is configured to integrate the double-encrypted ballot (Bi) as an input to the smart contract.

50 more elements

A system for conducting an election, the system comprising:

(a) a voter client configured to be used by a voter to cast a vote for a candidate;
(b) a registrar server;
and
(c) a moderator server;
wherein:
(i) the voter client is configured to compute a voter public key using a randomly selected voter secret key;
(ii) the voter client is configured to transmit the voter public key to the registrar server;
(iii) the registrar server is configured to sign the voter public key using a registrar public key to create a signature;
(iv) the registrar server is configured to transmit the signature to the voter client;
(v) the registrar server is configured to generate a set of digital ballots;
(vi) the voter client is configured to transmit the voter public key and its signature to the moderator server;
(vii) the moderator server is configured to verify eligibility of the voter using the voter public key and its signature;
(viii) in response to the moderator server verifying the eligibility of the voter, the moderator server is configured to anonymize the voter by computing an obscured voter public key using a blind factor;
(ix) the moderator server is configured to transmit the obscured voter public key to the registrar server;
(x) the registrar server is configured to randomly assign a ballot from the set of digital ballots to the obscured voter;
(xi) the registrar server is configured to encrypt the ballot to generate an encrypted ballot using a ballot encryption key;
(xii) the registrar server is configured to transmit the encrypted ballot and an ephemeral key to the moderator server;
(xiii) the moderator server is configured to encrypt the blind factor to generate an encrypted blind factor;
and
(xiv) the moderator server is configured to transmit the encrypted ballot, the ephemeral key, and the encrypted blind factor to the voter client.

17 more elements

A voting computer program, stored in a non-transitory computer-readable medium, including programmed instructions comprising:

(a) transmitting, by a first set of instructions stored on a voter client, a voter public key (yi) to a moderator server, the voter client configured to be used by a voter to cast a vote for a candidate;
(b) verifying, by a second set of instructions stored on the moderator server, the eligibility of the voter, and in response to determining the voter is eligible to vote, obscuring, by the second set of instructions, the identity of the voter by computing an obscured voter public key (y′i);
(c) transmitting, by the second set of instructions, the obscured voter public key (y′i) to a registrar server;
(d) randomly assigning, by a third set of instructions stored on the registrar server, a ballot (bali) from a set of digitally-signed ballots () to the obscured voter;
(e) encrypting, by the third set of instructions, the ballot (bali) to generate an encrypted ballot (ebali);
(f) transmitting, by the third set of instructions, the encrypted ballot (ebali) to the moderator server;
(g) transmitting, by the second set of instructions, the encrypted ballot (ebali), to the voter client;
(h) decrypting, by the first set of instructions, the encrypted ballot (ebali) to recover the ballot (bali);
(i) in response to the voter selecting a desired candidate, generating, by the first set of instructions, a ballot associated with a vote (Bi);
and
(j) encrypting, by the first set of instructions, the ballot (Bi) using a public key of the registrar server (yr) and a public key of the moderator server (ym).

8 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 18/016,981Filed 29 Jun 2021 · us provisional application
Priority: 22 Jul 2020
Published: US 2023/0282052 A17 Sep 2023
Granted: 15 Oct 2024
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification11 codes

G07C 13/00
Voting apparatus
H04L 9/3252
Involving digital signatures: using DSA or related signature schemes, e.g. elliptic based signatures, ElGamal or Schnorr schemes
H04L 9/0631
Block ciphers, i.e. encrypting groups of characters of a plain text message using fixed encryption transformation: substitution permutation…
H04L 9/0819
Key establishment, i.e. cryptographic processes or cryptographic protocols whereby a shared secret becomes available to two or more parties, for…:…

Family

Application63/055,069Us provisional application · filed 22 Jul 2020
US 2023/0282052 A1Pre-grant publication · published 7 Sep 2023
US 12,118,828 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.

Timeline

Citations

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