REAL WORLD PROBLEM DEFINITION:
The main aim of our project is to provide or implement a solution to ease the process of general body elections and also to increase the percentage of voters who casted their vote and also address other problems such as results announcement, rigging etc.
the basis for this idea is whenever elections takes place in our country whether it be state wide or national wide elections the results are announced a week later and there are a lot of allegation raised as on rigging of votes and tampering of electronic voting machines.
BACKGROUND AND MOTIVATION:
India is a democratic country and general body elections take place in our country every five years so that people can elect the candidates. But each and every there are a lot of allegations raised on elections as some of the candidates have prone to rigging or tampering of evms etc and the percentage of voters who are casting their vote is very less for every elections for the last election in 2014 only 66.38 which means almost 34% of people didn’t casted their vote due to various reasons. Which may be lack of mobility residing in other states or countries etc. our solution addresses all these issues to the maximum extent.
Constraints in the traditional voting system.
- Time for the elector to enter an empty voting booth
- Time for the elector to wait in a queue in order to cast his/her vote.
- Voters who are temporarily out of station cannot use their votes.
- Human errors can be made while counting votes.
- Election rigging can be done.
- Delay in the results of election.
In order to overcome these constraints our e-ballot system is being made so that the voting percentage of people increases which in turn results in a better election of the member.
SOLUTION FROM ANCIENT HISTORY:
In ancient history we used to have kings and under kings there used to be ministers to handle key situations. Major changes are done by the king based upon the inputs given by the ministers. Before implementation of any order the opinion of every minister is taken and if majority agrees then the king implements them. And it also depends on the king as many wise kings used to follow the same. then democracy came into existence and election was done using ballot box where people used to write for which leader to vote. Slowly the ballot boxes were replaced with EVM machines and now if this solution is adapted EVM machines will be replaced with online voting system.
OUTLINE OF SOLUTION:
OBJECTIVE:
The objective of the project to design a website using which people can cast their form their home so that they need not stand in queue for hours to cast their vote and also need not travel from their residing place to the constituency under which they come in, which are the main reasons for many people to not cast their vote in elections. And also, the results can be announced the next day itself. And also build the portal in such a way that it is immune to any kind of cyber-attacks which are very prominent these days. A strong database security is required as the output is extremely sensitive to data loss, data manipulation or data corruption. Data loss is due to physical loss of servers and redundant data servers are used to solve this problem. Amazon cloud services can be used to take the problem of data loss from the scenario. Data manipulation is due to external forces (political parties in this situation) trying to change the votes by hacking the voting systems. Data validation while registration must be done to avoid invalid data from corrupting the system.
In view of the above-mentioned reasons secure backend is the key feature for construction of online voting system.
Methodology:
To achieve the above objectives, the following methodology needs to be followed:
- design a user-friendly interface or front end using HTML, CSS so that it doesn’t need much prior knowledge for the usage of the portal.
- a strong and secure database so that it is resistant to any kind of attacks or data loss as secured backend is the construction of the online voting system
- maintenance and updating the portal as frequently as possible to meet the present-day requirements and conditions.
- frequent backup of the data which can be done using amazon cloud services.
Phases of voting system:
1. Pre-voting phase
2. Voting phase
3. Post voting phase
Pre-voting phase:
In this phase the nominees are required to provide their details, voting symbol and required legal documents.
The voters are required to use Aadhaar or similar identification card to register themselves and thereby avoid duplicates.
Voting Phase:
In this phase the voters can use their devices like desktop, laptop, mobiles etc. with an active internet connection to cast their vote in the website. To avoid hacking of passwords and phishing otp’s can be sent by pre-mentioned numbers to the voters.
Post Voting phase:
In this phase the results are generated and shown to people in graphical format. Area wise results are also provided for the public in the website itself.
The legitimate members of the VITCC must register with admin to get the further privileges of using the portal. After the registration is done by admin only, then the members would be getting the chance to either stand as a nominee or to cast their vote. The persons who want to cast their vote just need to see and then go on with their voting as per their wish.
On every vote the result can be viewed. Auto session logout, after the voting process is done. Also, the voters have the privilege to vote later and logout manually.
During registration identification cards such as Aadhar can be used so that no duplicate accounts are created and voting is efficient.
The nominees are required to register their details such as name of the party and voting symbol at the admin.
For future improvisations mobile apps can be used so that the reach is more.
TYPE OF TECHNOLOGY ADOPTED:
1. HTML
2. CSS
3. JAVA SCIPT
4. PHP
5. BOOTSTRAP
6. SQL
On the process of implementing specific technologies for elections administration, there are few considerations to take in account, some common to any implementation of technologies others more specific to the electoral process.
- Voter identification technology
- Voter authentication technology
- Voting and recording of votes cast
- Vote counting
- Publication and election result
FUNCTIONAL AND NON-FUNCTIONAL REQUIRMENTS: –
FUNCTIONAL
• Adding a new voter
• Adding a new nominee
• Session timer
• Result statistics
• About developer
NON-FUNCTIONAL
• Security
• Availability
• Maintainability
EXTENT COMMON MAN WILL USE THIS WORK
Having considered this application is the one that can be used only by educated and people considered to be literate. So, this application we are working on is subjected to the MLC voting sector. We, in India are facing the problem of losing the educated ones to the foreign companies. And surely these educated non-resident Indians have their homes built in the other country. No educated man or woman would possibly fly back to India to just cast his vote of choice. Of course, being an Indian, it is ones right and responsibility to cast the vote and choose one’s choice of leader, but being practical, the non-resident Indians won’t exercise their right to vote, staying away from India. To avoid these problems, this application can be used. This application isn’t only for the ones who fly down to India rarely, but this can be used for the resident Indians too. Some people stay in other cities or states away from their constituency who refuse to travel back to their constituency to cast their vote. And also, many people feel lazy to stand in queues and cast their vote. This application is now basically applied to the sector of the educated ones, hence the developing India with its literate Indians are only considered. This application enables the eligible candidates who can cast the vote from anywhere and at any time, within the voting time allotted.
Also few of the voters will be living outside India will always have to travel to India every year because they have to vote this is will take them a lot of money to spend and a lot of time will be wasted for them in travelling .So, with our system the people living outside India will also be benefitted by just logging into the id they will be given.
USE CASE DIAGRAM: –
STATE DIAGRAM: –
CLASS DIAGRAM: –
Activity diagram:
Sequence diagram:
TECHNICAL ASPECTS:
SOFTWARE MODULES: –
We must have an idea about different modules for implementing this method
- Voter login
- admin login
- adding, deleting candidates
- vote results
- result generation
- history log
In our project, we implement every model step by step, after completion of one module we proceed to another model. Once we have started our implementation our requirements to the project are frozen. After each and every level we can have an idea of how much we have completed.
So, our project is based upon INCREMENT MODEL which is a method of software development where the product is designed, implemented and tested incrementally (a little more is added each time) until the product is finished. It involves both development and maintenance. Our product is decomposed into a number of components, each of which is designed and built separately. This allows partial utilization of the product and avoids a long development time. It also avoids a large initial capital outlay and subsequent long waiting period. This model of development also helps ease the traumatic effect of introducing a completely new system all at once.
Mostly all web applications are based upon increment model because it is risk free and we can deliver the required output in time.
SCREENSHOTS OF OUR PROJECT
Admin module: –
We have to log into the admin module only few people will have the access into this.
After logging in with correct details this window appears
we have to add the candidates to the list in this way
The list will be generated immediately after adding the candidate
We have to add the voters one by one. The important point here is while adding the voters itself we have to give them the username and password for them to log in.
The report of the number of votes can be viewed in the canvassing report option
VOTER MODULE: –
The second module in this project is the voter module
The registered voters must log into the voter login page with their respective username and password given by the admin
After logging in into the voter module we have to select the candidate to whom we want to vote and click on submit button
Once you click on submit button the people to whom you have voted their names will be displayed for you to make any changes further
After submission of your votes the webpage will automatically log out.
SWOT ANALYSIS OF E-BALLOT SYSTEM
Strengths:
The use of e-ballot system allows us to bring more people to vote and improve the political system in the country.
Weakness:
Hackers can always find unique solutions to overcome the security features of a system. But this system is not prone such methods as it is only being made available during the elections.
Opportunities:
The wide spread use of internet in our country will help this system reach many people and improve the voting statistics of the country.
Threats:
People from rural areas might be left out due to un availability of internet in which case we need to use traditional methods. But due to rapid expansion of internet services in the country this might not be the case in the near future.
IMPLEMENTATION ISSUES
This application’s working is easy to spell it out loud, but it has its own problems and difficulties. Today’s world reek of cybercrime and data theft. This application is something, which is highly sensitive to such cyber practices. Data theft here is not a compromising option. Data we have here or we post here while the voting is highly sensitive and cloning it, puts us at high risk. We see a lot of public sites and organizations’ websites being hacked and data found is been used for wrong purposes. The cyber security we choose should be top notch, no hacker must be able to penetrate into the application. This, here is the major problem, there are many possible ways known to us and might be many possible ways we haven’t discovered yet. This wall we build should be non-destructible. No hacker can or even try to tap inside the systems. Security being put aside; we may have a problem of holding the government data in our hands. Sometimes the intelligence can be tough with us, saying there are lot of ways to tap inside. Hiring good professionals can help in solving the problems. We don’t have a definite solution for all the cyber threats, but to make sure we are safe at every considerable threat tunnel.
Security threats in e-voting system:
Dos-attacks:
Dos attacks can be used by parties to stop people from voting and hence influence the results. This issue is very sensitive as even one or two areas might be a deciding factor of the entire election result. Packet flooding is the most common form of dos attack.
Worms:
Worms replicate themselves many number of times and hence over write the files containing votes generated in an area. This compromises the result of elections.
Virus:
Virus can make systems to stop and unusable for voting by consuming excessive resources from the system.
Trojan horse:
These programs can download themselves to the system and steal user passwords which can be done in a massive scale to manipulate votes.
Phishing:
Fake websites can be used to stop the users from voting in the original website and also to collect passwords and hence manipulate election results.
Though the above threats can majorly influence common systems used in rural areas, parties can influence many systems by using their monetary power and hence cause a lot of trouble to public.
CONCLUSION: –
Voting, especially in India faces a threat as malpractice. Well, it depends on the people though. Vote is one’s right. And it has to exercised properly and honestly. Rigging is one issue; the government has been facing this problem since the EVM or the Ballot boxes had been in work. Our project quite focuses on these issues in order to supress them and avoid future issues. Yet it takes time and loads of effort, to make this possible. To have this under the light, for now we have introduced at the college level. Of course, practical tests are must to upgrade and subject this model at higher levels. Subjecting this at higher levels, demands high level implementation of few aspects of this model. For, now the model is subjected to the college level, assuming the voting personals are literate. But, when upgraded, it evidently demands the model in respective regional languages. Assuming that we have subjected this model at a higher level, the problems we face are large. We need to have access to government data bases, like Aadhar. Voters need to have clearance as a voter, legitimate with the documents he produces while he votes. At least the bio metrics must be validated at the voting authorities at voting booths. The main aspect behind the model is that it enables us to bring out the new ideas that were sustained within us for many for many days. This project offers the voters to cast easily through internet. Vote counting is also made easy by the model since it’s just a matter of querying the database. model is used by a number of countries today. Developing a good system is critical to the success of the system to prevent system failures and to gain wide acceptance as the best method available.
REFERENCE RESEARCH PAPERS: –
- Gibson, J. P. E-voting and the need for rigorous software engineering — the past, present and future. In J. Julliand and O. Kouchnarenko, editors, B, volume 4355 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, page 1. Springer, 2007.
- International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT) “A Real Time E-Voting System: An Initiative towards Digital India”– Volume 35 Number 3- May 2016
- L. Christian Schaupp, Lemuria Carter, (2005) “E‐voting: from apathy to adoption”, Journal of Enterprise Information Management, Vol. 18 Issue: 5, pp.586-601,
- D. Gritzalis, editor. Secure Electronic Voting, volume 7 of Advances in Information Security. Kluwer Academic, 2003.
- An efficient online voting system –International journal of modern engineering research(IJMER) volume 2, issue 4, August 2012.
- Technical feasibility and security of E – Voting. International Arab journal of informational technology. Volume 10, issue 4, July 2013.