ONLINE VOTING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION.
Election is one of the major obligations of Nigerian citizens, however many evidences of physical scenes, observation by election overseers and interviews with the election stakeholders and voters proven that there is no improvement in the voter turnout during elections. Although not all citizens can be able to cast vote during elections due to the age limitation, health issues or others genuine Personal issues, but many factors are proved to protest against the voter turnout projection. Some of these factors are lack of awareness on the importance and the impact of the elections, the heavy Logistics of the manual system of elections, and lack of the election and voter data integrity. In 2021, Kaduna state government conduct local government elections in an enhance way using electronic machines, and it was a success by the inferred statistics of the voter turnout, result integrity, time management. This means that there is need for all others Nigerian states to switch over from manual paper-based election system to electronic voting system (e-Voting System).
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY.
Societies have conducted elections for thousands of years, but technologies used to cast and tally votes have varied and evolved tremendously over that time. In 21st century, much of our Communication took place online, and many people want elections to follow that trend. An
election is a formal decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative
democracy has operated since the 17th century. Henry (2011).
In March 2013, Overseas Vote Foundation’s President and CEO began a discussion with a small group of election integrity advocates to explore what they would do if faced with the challenge of defining an Internet voting system. Despite their concerns about the security of e-Voting efforts to date, they agreed that addressing this challenge is extremely central.
E-Voting systems provide some characteristic different from the traditional voting technique, and also provide improved features of voting processes over the traditional one such as accuracy, convenience, flexibility, privacy, verifiability and authenticity.
E-Voting system is an online voting technique used to conduct free, fair and authentic election with the aid of technology. We would provide a detailed description of the functional and performance characteristics of the e-Voting system. Voters can cast their votes from anywhere without visiting any voting ground, in highly secured way. Thus, it makes voting a fearless and free of violence and increases the percentage of voting.
Election process comes with many problems mostly related with human bias in handling the process or inability to oversee the activity to the end, other problems that mar the process include the volatility of data and insecurity, hence a need arise for finding a suitable system to handle such eventualities.
In view of the above, this project entitled “e-Voting System” is aimed at automating Funakaye Local Government voting processes so as to overcome the flaws associated with the current approach.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM.
The process of conducting an election in Funakaye Local Government is manual. After critical examination of the manual system, it is observed that the following problems are associated with the System:
i. It takes too long to conduct an election.
ii. It is error prone in vote’s calculation.
iii. Conflict might be occurring as a result of one party may not accept the result.
iv. It is not easy to manage the election processes.
v. It is paper and pen-based oriented, etc.
In view of the above, a new system is proposed to overcome the problems associated with the current system.
1.3 SIGNIFICANT OF THE STUDY.
The integrated e-Voting system is designed to maximize the use of technology in our modern life in conducting an election in local communities. The system also makes a voting process Transparent to the indigenous people of the society in such a way that people can be able to see and confirm the votes they casted to the respective candidates of their choice. The use of paper will be significantly reduced to some extend by implementing the proposed voting system, if not totally eliminated. Also, there might be increased in number of voters as individual will find it easier and more convenient to vote, since it is online.
1.4 AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY.
The aim of this project work is to design and implement an electronic voting system that allow Indigenous people of Funakaye to conduct an election effortlessly with the use of modern technology and to increase awareness, reliability, efficiency, consistency and effectiveness.
The objectives of the system are as follows;
i. To efficiently store data in a very safe place to avoid loss of data.
ii. To provide an easy way to access data.
iii. To provide security and integrity of voter data.
iv. To reduce to the barest minimum, the processing time, access and retrieval of information
needed for speedy conduction of an election.
v. To reduce or eliminate disenfranchising electorates, etc.
1.5 SCOPE OF THE STUDY.
The scope of this research focuses only on how Funakaye Local conducts its election. The system is designed such that only authorized user can have access to cast his/her vote by presenting his/her local government indigene to acquire an election PIN which is going be provided during registration. The system can be accessed from everywhere provided that there is internet connection in the user current location. Each contestant must purchase pin from the election committee before he can register himself/herself as candidate. Each person must register an account on the system before having access to vote is granted, but this is required once.
1.6 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY.
The proposed e-Voting system achieved its own aim and objectives, even though there are some features that are not included in the system due to the inadequate resources. Some of these features includes:
i. Inability to send the election result to the voters via email or phone as a message
ii. This system will not provide statistics of the results for future inference.
iii. The system cannot be accessed where there is internet coverage.
iv. The issue of invasion is a big challenge of the web applications today. Like others, this
software is not free from hacking etc.
v. The software cannot be used directly by some legal users.
1.7 RESOURCES AND TECHNOLOGY USED.
To make the implementation of this project a job well done within the expected time slice, Rapid Application Development (RAD) model will be adopted for this work Hypertext preprocessor (PHP) Scripting language will be used for backend programming for the User interface design HTML5, CSS and Bootstrap 5 framework will be use and JavaScript for the User experience. Also to some hardware and software are used during developing this application including.
i. Visual studio Code.
ii. Xampp local server.
iii. Windows 10 operating system.
iv. Working station (personal Computer).
v. Internet.
vi. Mobile phone.
1.8 DEFINITION OF TERMS.
Bootstrap - Bootstrap is a free and open-source CSS framework directed at responsive, Mobile First front-end web development (Bootstrap Cheat Sheet 2021).
CSS- Cascading styles sheet. It is use for changing the view of the contents of the web page by applying specific or general styles to these contents (CSS Cheat Sheet 2021).
DonnorApp – an online platform for safe, healthy and free blood donation system. Election: is a process in which people vote to choose a person or group of people to hold an official position.
e-Voting: is an election system that allows a voter to record his or her secure and secret ballot electronically. Critics maintain that without a paper trail, recounts are more difficult and electronic ballot manipulation, or even poorly-written programming code, could affect election results.
GSPB – Gombe State Polytechnic Bajoga
HTML- hypertext markup language. The language for building the skeleton of a website or web
application.
JavaScript- JavaScript is high-level, often just-in-time compiled, and multi-paradigm. It has
curly-bracket syntax, dynamic typing, prototype-based object-orientation, and first-class
functions. JavaScript defines the behavior of a web page (JavaScript for Impatient Programmers
2021).
MySQL - is a database system used on the web.
Online – activity that is performed on the internet.
PHP - Stands for "Hypertext Preprocessor." (It is a recursive acronym, if you can understand what
that means.) PHP is an HTML-embedded Web scripting language (PHP Programming Cookbook
n.d.).
RAD- Rapid Application Development. Is a system development life cycle that heavily involve users in every phase and emphasizes more on development than fact finding.
Visual Studio Code: Text-editor: is a proprietary source code editor which is rich of plugins for enhancing coding productivity and speed.
XAMPP- is a free and open-source cross-platform web server solution stack package developed by Apache Friends, consisting mainly of the Apache HTTP Server, MariaDB database, and interpreters for scripts written in the PHP and Perl programming languages (XAMPP 2020).
1.9 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY.
This project is made up of five chapters and the contents of each chapter are listed.
Chapter one
This chapter includes the following
i. Introduction
ii. Background of the Study
iii. Statement of the problem
iv. Justification of the Study
v. Aim and objectives
vi. Scope of the Study
vii. Limitation of the study.
viii. Resources and Technologies Used
ix. Definition of Key Terms
x. Chaptalization
Chapter Two
This chapter includes Literature Review which contains the following.
i. Theoretical concepts and
ii. Review of Related Literatures (Existing Systems)
Chapter Three
Design and Methodology: this chapter should describe the methodology of the work done and should take into consideration the following.
i. Introduction
ii. Preliminary Investigation
iii. Feasibility Study
iv. Overview of the Existing System
v. Analysis of the Existing System
vi. Overview of the Propose System
vii. Analysis of the propose System
viii. System Design
Chapter Four
System Implementation and Testing: This chapter presents the result and interpretation of analysis of data collected; observation made on information gathered. This chapter consists of the following parts.
i. Introduction
ii. System implementation
iii. System Testing
Chapter Five
This chapter contains.
i. Summary
ii. Conclusion and
iii. Recommendation references and appendices





 
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
This chapter gives a summary of is researched by other people. Therefore, it cites the relevant studies on e-Voting system, which involves the strength and limitations of the current system and related works.
The research on electronic voting (e-Voting) is a very important topic for the progress of democracy. E-Voting is the voting process held over electronic media. Traditional paper based voting can be time consuming and inconvenient. Electronic voting not only accelerates the whole process, but also makes it less expensive (reduced costs as the materials required for printing and distributing ballots as well as the manpower required to govern poll sites are considerably reduced).
Electronic voting technology can include punched cards, optical scan voting systems, specialized voting kiosks, etc. It can also involve transmission of ballots and votes via telephones, private computer networks, or the Internet Sandler (2015).
Since independence, Nigeria has been desirous of a credible voting system. Because of the irregularities that trailed the previous elections. Lack of accountability, probity and trust on the part of government has been responsible for the poor turnout during elections. The adoption of E_Voting has been considered long overdue because of the enormity of abundant human and material resources endowed the country Olateru (2007). In the developing countries, particularly sub-Saharan Africa and Africa in general, elections have been marred by gross irregularities leading to wanton destruction of lives and properties Helen (2005).
E-vote increases voter confidence and improves the voting experience. It also reduces the
chances of errors. I.e. reduces the number of legitimate votes not counted by reducing the
number of over-votes, and eliminating vote tampering Boutin (2004). In another research, the security issues associated with remote internet voting analyzed. In particular, the research examines the feasibility of running national elections over the Internet. The focus of this research was on the limitations of the current deployed infrastructure in terms of the security of the hosts and the Internet itself. It concludes that without appropriate security measures, internet-based elections can be a major challenge Ganiyu (2011). One of the most important government services like elections exerts pressure on people involved in that process, according to many constraints that must be applied to the beneficiaries of this service and which are divided into two parts, candidates and voters. Voting is an efficient method for the public to show their opinion about a given topic or issue Ogunseye (2010). The traditional election is normally held under the supervision of the government officials to assure the right application of the rules during the election process and to ensure that only eligible voters are permitted to join the election process avoiding any kind of forgery and the attempts of multi-voting. In addition, the process of human supervision over the election process requires a lot of efforts and money in order to achieve the desired level of privacy, security and trust.
A review was done of some of the problems and challenges of organizing and conducting an
election using the traditional Open Ballot System (OBS) with case study INEC, Kaduna. And
after the review of the manual system and electronic voting technologies, the project focused
on the question ―Is the internet voting sufficient for our voting processes and the work concluded that it is relatively impossible to develop an e-Voting system that will satisfy all
INEC specification of an e-Voting system. Then, developed an e-Voting system that is web
based and also advised that before the implementation of the system, the entire system should
be reviewed by INEC to ensure that it meets with The Design and Development of Real-Time
E-Voting System in Nigeria with emphasis on security and result veracity.
2.1.1 OVERVIEW OF E-VOTING
The term electronic voting has been used for a large variety of systems, ranging from handheld infrared devices, kiosk systems with touch screens machines used in polling stations to remote voting via the internet. E-Voting is the preferred platform for future elections in the developed and developing countries. The three types of e-Voting are:
i. Polling station e-Voting: where voters cast their votes on an electronic device within the
polling station.
ii. Kiosk e-Voting: where voters cast their votes at pre-selected stations through ATM-like
terminals.
iii. Remote e-Voting: voters cast their votes anytime and anywhere, so long there is internet
coverage, as well as voting through mobile devices.
2.1.2 ATTRIBUTES OF GOOD E-VOTING SYSTEM
i. Democracy: A system is democratic if it permits only eligible voters to vote and, it ensures that each eligible voter can vote only once.
ii. Accuracy: A system is accurate if it is not possible for a vote to be altered, it is not possible for a validated vote to be eliminated from the final tally, and it is not possible for an invalid vote to be counted in the final tally.
iii. Privacy: A system is private if neither election authorities nor anyone else can link any ballot to the voter who cast it, and no voter can prove that he or she voted in a particular
way.
iv. Verifiability: A system is verifiable if anyone can independently verify that all votes have been counted correctly.
v. Convenience: A system is convenient if it allows voters to cast their votes quickly, in one session, and with minimal equipment or special skills.
vi. Authentication: is distinct from authorization, which is the process of giving voters
access to system based on their identity. Authentication merely ensures that the voter is
who he or she claims to be, but says nothing about the access rights of the voter.
vii. Integrity: A system has integrity if votes can only be accessed or modified by those
authorized.
viii. Non-Repetition: guarantees that no repetition of any vote will be present in the final
tally (No voter is allowed to cast his or her vote more than once).
ix. Anonymity. Guarantees that the ballot does not indicate who do this voting. Secret
ballots are fundamental to democracy, and voting systems must be designed to facilitate
voter anonymity.
x. Speed: Voting systems should produce results quickly.
The success rate of an electronic voting system in electronic decision making is dependent on
security, authenticity and integrity of pre-electoral, electoral and post electoral phases of the
election process.
2.2 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
The voting system has experienced huge changes over years, traditional voting system which is also knows as electronic voting system using ‘EVM (Electronic Voting Machine)’ requires huge investment of time because of which people neglect voting. IEEE (2013) has proposed an architecture in which voting is done by making use of cards, these cards are designed similar to smart cards which have entire details related to the voter embedded in them. Hence, the proposed architecture in IEEE (2013) ensures security, verifiability and transparency in the voting system. The problem of this work was that, the process of making the election card to each individual voter was time consuming and costly. The system is very much beneficial for small scale setup such as for College and University elections or confidential recruitment. As explained by Ankit (2012), in order to overcome the drawback of electronic voting system, websites can be introduced which will help voters to remotely cast their votes. This study showed that voters cannot remotely cast their votes, but instead they must visit the election ground.
2.2.1 INTERNET VOTING
It is difficult to say whether online voting successfully increases voter turnout, Sal (2015) due
to the digital divide. A study conducted on “remote electronic voting and turnout in the Estonian 2007 parliamentary elections” Buhler (2010) showed that rather than eliminating inequalities, e-Voting might have enhanced the digital divide between higher and lower socioeconomic classes. People who lived greater distances from polling areas voted at higher levels with this service now available. The 2007 Estonian elections yielded a higher voter turnout from those who lived in higher income regions and who received formal education. Buhler (2010). Political parties that have more support from the less fortunate, who are unfamiliar with the Internet may suffer in the elections due to e-Voting, which tends to increase voting in the upper/middle class. It is unsure as to whether narrowing the digital divide would promote equal voting opportunities for people across various social, economic and ethnic backgrounds. In- the long run, this is contingent not only on internet accessibility, which is already widely available in Estonia, but also depends on people’s level of familiarity with the Internet Bochsler (2010).

    Date: 2026-08-14 00:00:00.000000