Originally Posted by
pheoxs
The problem with blockchain is everything is a publicly viewable chain. In order for it to work with transparency there would have to be a way that you can tie each vote to a person. Whether that is a new unique voter ID or a social security or what ... it basically could let someone track every vote back to a person. Think there's a lot of sketchy voter tactics now? Wait until some data mining company figures out how to pull everyone's voting history. Then you'll really see attacks on different demographics and individuals.
You can backtrack bitcoins* from darknet markets to individual wallets and where they got their coins, you don't think that wouldn't happen with a public voting record? (* Unless you mix your coins but that wouldn't be applicable to a voting blockchain)
One of the important pillars of a democracy is safety in voting. Let's say you have a extremist family (left or right, doesn't matter) and they pressure their kids into voting a certain way. Current voting, once they are in the voting booth they can vote any way in secrecy and be safe. But with any kind of public blockchain the family would be able to force you to show who you voted for. That means people can be threatened to vote one way or else.