Design and Implementation of a Tamper-Evident Hybrid Blockchain Voting System with Batch Processing

Abstract

A fair and reliable voting system is very important in any democratic country. In the past, voting was done using paper ballots and later through Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). Although EVMs make the process faster, many people still do not fully trust them because they work like “black boxes” and do not provide enough transparency [2], [11]. To solve this problem, this paper presents a simple and secure voting system based on a hybrid blockchain approach. The system is built using Node.js and MySQL, where votes are stored in a decentralized and tamper-resistant ledger. To improve performance and reduce the load on the database, votes are collected in batches before being added to the blockchain. Each block is connected to the previous one using cryptographic hashing, so any change in data can be easily detected [1]. This design allows online voting without forcing users to completely trust the server. The results show that the system prevents tampering and increases trust by letting users view a public record of all stored blocks.

Introduction

nitially, paper ballots are described as simple and verifiable but prone to issues such as tampering, human error, and inefficiency during counting. Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and online voting systems improve speed and reduce invalid votes, but they introduce new concerns, especially due to centralized control. Centralized databases can be manipulated by administrators, lack transparency, and create a single point of failure, making them vulnerable to attacks and unauthorized modifications.

To address these issues, the study proposes a hybrid blockchain-based e-voting system built using Node.js. The system aims to ensure secure, transparent, and tamper-evident voting. It introduces features such as a secure web interface, vote batching to improve efficiency, a SHA-256–based blockchain ledger for storing votes, and automatic tamper detection where any unauthorized modification breaks the chain and is immediately detected.

The literature review highlights the evolution from paper ballots to EVMs and then to blockchain-based voting systems. While blockchain improves immutability and trust, many existing systems are complex, resource-intensive, or not suitable for small-scale elections. The proposed approach focuses on a lightweight permissioned blockchain integrated with a web application to overcome these limitations.

Methodologically, the system follows a layered MVC architecture using HTML/Bootstrap for the frontend, Node.js/Express for backend processing, and MySQL for data storage. Votes are first stored in a pending pool and then grouped through a batching mechanism before being added as blocks to the blockchain. Each block is linked using cryptographic hashes, ensuring integrity.

Security is verified through a tamper-detection module that identifies any changes to stored blocks. Testing results show that the system successfully maintains transparency through a public ledger and quickly detects unauthorized modifications, confirming its effectiveness for secure and verifiable internal elections.

Conclusion

This project presents a working web-based voting system that uses basic blockchain principles to reduce trust issues in electronic voting. The hybrid design using Node.js and MySQL shows that data immutability can be achieved without the complexity and high cost of public blockchain networks. The system replaces a traditional “black box” database with a transparent, linked-chain structure [1]. The use of vote batching also improves efficiency, making the system suitable for medium-scale elections. In addition, the Public Ledger interface lets users view the blockchain directly, which helps improve overall trust in the system [4].

References

[1] H. R. H. Al-Jawaheri, “Blockchain-based e-voting systems: A survey,” arXiv preprint arXiv:1906.11078, 2019. [2] K. M. Khan, J. Arshad, and M. M. Khan, “A Review of Electronic Voting Systems,” International Journal of Information Engineering and Electronic Business, vol. 12, no. 1, 2020. [3] E. Walia and A. Walia, “Analysis of Electronic Voting System in Various Countries,” International Journal of Computer Applications, 2015. [4] S. Al-Maaitah, “The Evolution of Voting: Analysis of Conventional and Electronic Voting Systems,” 2021. [5] P. Pawlak, “Blockchain-based e-voting system,” PeerJ Computer Science, 2022. [6] I. A. Khan, “Understanding Blockchain Technology,” SSRN Electronic Journal, 2019. [7] T. K. Das, “A secure electronic voting system using blockchain technology,” Symmetry, 2020. [8] M. H. Al-Adhaileh, “E-Voting System based on Blockchain Technology,” International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications, 2020. [9] R. Gupta, “Blockchain Based E-Voting System,” Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 2022. [10] A. B. Smith, “Blockchain voting and its potential in election security,” Procedia Computer Science, 2020. [11] The Hindu, “Burden of proof: On India and election integrity,” The Hindu, Nov. 10, 2025. Available: https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/burden-of-proof-on-india-and-election-integrity/ article70251994.ece

Copyright

Copyright © 2026 Dhruv Kanojia, Aditya Unde, Narayan Raut, Dr. Shilpa Dange. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.