Voting system and voting method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12406543-B2
Application number	US-202118282016-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 19, 2021
Priority date	Mar 19, 2021
Publication date	Sep 2, 2025
Grant date	Sep 2, 2025

Abstract

A voting system and a voting method by which electronic voting can be securely conducted are provided. A voting system includes: a secret sharing unit that generates a plurality of shares from voting information by secret sharing; a plurality of share storage units that store the plurality of shares in a distributed manner; a first blockchain processing unit that transmits, to a node managing a blockchain, transaction data of voting conducted using the voting information in order to record the transaction data in the blockchain; and a secure computation unit that performs secure computation for analyzing the voting by using the shares stored in a distributed manner.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A voting system comprising:
a plurality of storages;
at least one memory storing instructions; and
at least one processor configured to execute the instructions to:
generate a plurality of shares from voting information using secret sharing;
cause the storages to store the plurality of shares in a distributed manner;
transmit, to a node configured to manage a blockchain, transaction data of voting conducted using the voting information in order to record the transaction data in the blockchain;
perform secure computation for analyzing the voting by using the shares stored in a distributed manner; and
transmit, to the node, transaction data about execution of the secure computation in order to record the transaction data in the blockchain,
wherein the transaction data about the execution of the secure computation recorded in the blockchain includes data for identifying a user who has instructed the execution of the secure computation.

2. The voting system according to claim 1 , wherein processing for generating the plurality of shares is performed by a terminal apparatus used by a voter to generate the voting information.

3. The voting system according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to execute the instructions to:
authenticate a voter using personal information of the voter; and
generate the voting information corresponding to an input operation performed by the voter when the voter is successfully authenticated.

4. The voting system according to claim 3 , wherein the personal information is biometric information of the voter.

5. The voting system according to claim 1 , wherein the transaction data of the voting recorded in the blockchain includes data for identifying a voter.

6. The voting system according to claim 5 , wherein the transaction data of the voting recorded in the blockchain further includes data indicating content of the voting.

7. The voting system according to claim 5 , wherein the transaction data of the voting recorded in the blockchain further includes data indicating a date and time of execution of the voting.

8. The voting system according to claim 1 , wherein the transaction data of the voting recorded in the blockchain includes data related to cancellation of the voting.

9. The voting system according to claim 1 , wherein the transaction data about the execution of the secure computation recorded in the blockchain further includes data indicating content of analysis obtained by the execution of the secure computation.

10. The voting system according to claim 1 , wherein the transaction data about the execution of the secure computation recorded in the blockchain further includes data indicating a date and time of the execution of the secure computation.

11. The voting system according to claim 1 , wherein
the voting information includes information indicating attributes of a voter, and
the processor is further configured to execute the instructions to calculate statistical data related to the attributes of the voter.

12. A voting method performed by a computer and comprising:
generating a plurality of shares from voting information using secret sharing;
storing the plurality of shares in a distributed manner;
transmitting, to a node configured to manage a blockchain, transaction data of voting conducted using the voting information in order to record the transaction data in the blockchain;
performing secure computation for analyzing the voting by using the shares stored in a distributed manner; and
transmitting, to the node, transaction data about execution of the secure computation in order to record the transaction data in the blockchain,
wherein the transaction data about the execution of the secure computation recorded in the blockchain includes data for identifying a user who has instructed the execution of the secure computation.

Assignees

• Nec Corp

Inventors

• Etou Yoshiyuki
• Itonaga Wataru
• Matsuda Daisuke
• Furukawa Ryo

Classifications

• H04L2209/463

  Electronic voting · CPC title

• H04L9/085

  Secret sharing or secret splitting, e.g. threshold schemes · CPC title

• H04L9/3239

  involving non-keyed hash functions, e.g. modification detection codes [MDCs], MD5, SHA or RIPEMD · CPC title

• G06Q50/26

  Government or public services (business processes related to the transportation industry G06Q50/40) · CPC title

• G07C13/00 Primary

  Voting apparatus · CPC title