Online voting system

CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
Online voting system is a software platform that allows groups to securely conduct votes and election. High quality online voting systems balance ballot security, accessibility and the overall requirements of an organization voting events.
1.1 Background of Study
In every democratic setting with persons of differing and inconsistent opinions, decisions must be made between several options. This happens in business environment, educational environment, social organizations, and mostly in governance. One of the ways of making such a decision is through voting.
Voting is a formal process of expressing individual opinions for or against some motion. In the governance sector of many organisation this process is always used as a means of selecting or electing a leader. One of the key areas where voting is applied is in election. Election is the formal process of selecting a person for public office or of accepting or rejecting a political proposition by voting.
1.1.1 E-voting System Overview
Online voting (Electronic Voting) as a term encompasses a broad range of voting systems that apply electronic elements in one or more steps of the electoral cycle.There are many levels to e-voting in a broad sense which could be e-collation, e-verification, internet voting, remote online voting e.t.c.
Following the definition of a system as anything that takes an input and gives an output, an e-voting system is any system that can offers both electronic and online voting. It could also incorporate online registration, e-verification, e-collation, remote online voting and real-time result display. An E-voting system (EVS) generally comprises the following for it to work efficiently:
1. An interactive voting user interface on an electronic device which provides a friendly environment for voters to authenticate and cast their votes, it also serves as a means of collection the individual votes and storing them in the local and central database.
2. An administrative dashboard for voters registration, details update and elections coordination and monitoring.
3. A database management system for the storage of election, voting and voters data.
4. A result display interface.
E-voting system serves to reduce the cumulative costs of running elections and increase voters participation in election system as it offers voters an easy and convenient way to vote and most importantly, it is a panacea to the issue of long distances covered by voters to a specific destination for their votes to be counted, and also it combat the issues of ballot box snatching which is rampart in the conventional election process in Nigeria. A great technological improvement is observed in election process mostly in the areas of result collation and transmission. Though the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC has not fully implemented the use of technologies for collation due to lack of legal framework. But, most elections around the world use ICT in elections to some degree, at least to summarize and aggregate the votes. This electronic adaptation is the result of a long period of evolution during which not only the procedures but also the technological means for casting votes changed considerably.
1.2 Problem Statement
The present voting system applicable in the Nigerian electoral system has proved inefficient as the voters’ registration process is slow, the manual collation of results takes time and gives room for result manipulation, also the inaccessible nature of election venues which includes the long distances to be covered by voters’ to their registered location increases voters’ apathy towards the election processes, and finally the issues of ballot box snatching and damage and other election violence and issues associated with the traditional ballot paper voting all defiles the purpose of voting in election process as a formal process of expressing individual opinions for or against some motion.
1.3 Aim and Objectives
In the quest to design a successful system to tackle the issues stated in the problem statement, the aim and objectives of the project are outlined below.
1.3.1 Aim
The aim of this project is to design and implement a low cost automated real-time e-voting system.
1.3.2 Objectives
Project Objectives includes
1. A detailed study of the election processes as it pertains to voting.
2. Design and develop a software platforms for voter registration, election voting, real-time election results collation and monitoring and mostly for voters remote access to elections.
3. Design and develop an electronic device that incorporates smart card reader and fingerprints
technology for voters accreditation, authentication and verification.
4. Design and develop an administration dashboard for the election administrators.
5. Run simulations and compare the results of the designed e-voting system and other voting systems.
1.4 Significance of the Project
In view of the rapid development of computer technology in virtually all fields of operation and its use in relation to information management, the projects’ benefits are itemized as follows:
1.4.1 To the University
An e-voting system is beneficial to the university as:
1. It will provides a means conduct a more less stressful and fair elections at different levels (faculty, departments, school wide e.t.c) in the university.
2. It will offer an in-depth knowledge of the practical approach to ICT education.
3. It will serve as a hands-on application of theories taught in class as it relates to database,
software and hardware development.
4. As its’ database is based on a flexible database management system, student and staff details
can easily be collected for easy access and monitoring.
5. Its’ smart card system can also be applied to other fields (e.g. networking) for easy access of
each individuals’ data.
6. It will serve as a base for other works in the field of ICT in governance.
1.4.2 To the Society
The significance of an e-voting system to the society and mostly to Nigeria are itemized as follows:
1. It will provide INEC (Independent National Electoral Commission) with a means to conduct
less costly and fair elections.
2. The secure and flexible database management system safeguards data and information to
account for credible elections.
3. It will serve to reduce the workload in the process of conducting election.
4. As it incorporates remote voting individuals can vote from their convenience.
5. It will enable INEC reduce the time wasted in collating and announcing election result.
6. It will greatly reduce and eliminate disenfranchising electorates.
7. It will serve to eliminate invalid votes, curb election violence as votes are counted immediately
as they are cast.
1.5 Scope/Limitations of the Work
This project work is mainly designed to enable the Independent National Electoral Commission to use
electronic device to capture voter’s information, and to allow voters to their cast votes easily and
comfortably to promote a more credible election which is efficient and less costly. The dynamic nature
of the elections application interface and database structure allows for different organizations set up
and conduct basic elections too. It’s online interface enables real-time election monitoring and result
collation. Some of its major limitations are:
1. It requires network access: Since the collection and sending of votes to the database requires an
internet access which may not be readily available in some urban area would seem a limiting
factor, though the local database and the printed vote can be used for counting until network is
restored.
2. The cost of setting up an e-voting system is high: Due to the delicate nature of such a system
and the fact that its’ major components are presently not locally source, it would be quite costly
to setup, but its usage and maintenance cost is far better than the present ballot paper system.
3. It depends on electricity to a point: In as much as it has an in built battery that can last for the
required election duration on daily basis, a case of low battery would require it to recharge,
which may not be possible if there is no electric power at the moment.
1.6 Project Outline
This project work on e-voting system is made up of five chapters: introduction, literature review,
methodology and system design, systems implementation and result analysis, conclusion and
recommendation.
In the chapter one of this project, the introduction which briefly explains voting and elections in
general, is seen. It goes further to explain the background of an e-voting system, the aim and objectives
of the e-voting system, its significance, scope, and constraints. It summaries by giving the project
outline.
In the chapter two, a review of previous literature and technologies used for e-voting system was
treated. We also see the different approaches to e-voting systems, their implementation, criticism with
their literature reviews and noted the various gaps in the existing literatures.
In chapter three, we see the block diagram of the project work, different methodologies used in
development stages, the different phases of the project work which include its research, design,
microcomputer programming, display programming, testing and fabrication. We extensively cover therequirements of the project, the mathematical models used, computer algorithms, designs and software
incorporated in the work.
In chapter four, we talk about the steps taken and techniques used for the actual implementation of the
project. We see tests carried out to ensure that the project is efficient and also display the result gotten
and their significance. We also see the problems encountered and the techniques and solutions taken to
overcome them or not. This chapter also sees the detailed analysis of the Bill of Engineering
Measurement and Evaluation (BEME) for the project.
And finally, in chapter five, we conclude the work and give notable recommendations for optimal
operation of the product. Also we provide suggestions for improvement, enhancement and optimization
of our existing work. We also outline the major contribution to the body of knowledge in which our

    Date: 2026-07-25 00:00:00.000000