Design_and_implementation_of_an_online_voting_system.

Thesis Overview

<p> INTRODUCTION<br>1.1 Background of the Study<br>The federal republic of Nigeria comprises of 36 states, The federal capital<br>territory (FCT), and 774 local government areas (LGAs). The country is located<br>in west Africa and shares land borders with the republic of Benin in the west,<br>Chad and Cameroon in the east and Niger in the north. The three largest ethnic<br>groups in Nigeria are the Ibo, Hausa and Yoruba ethnic groups.<br>In Nigeria, General elections are conducted every four years, where a head of<br>state the president and the national assembly representatives are elected. They<br>are elected by the people. The national assembly has about 360 members<br>representing various constituencies.<br>Most African electoral bodies with no exception to INEC, even with the<br>advancements of technology, still use primitive paper based methods during<br>voting; this system is characterized by manual form filling to chose leaders and<br>transfer of information from manual data capture forms to computerized<br>datasheets, this has led to a high number of mistakes making their way into the<br>final votes count. The main advantage of the paper based system is the ballot<br>papers are easily human auditable. The disadvantages outweigh the advantages<br>for instance printing of ballot papers is slow, expensive, inflexible,<br>environmentally hostile and also literacy limitations and last minute changes to<br>2<br>the voter register are difficult to accommodate among others. Over the last few<br>years some election observers have suggested the introduction of electronic<br>voting at state and federal level. The online voting system mainly addresses the<br>voting phase. Electronic voting process using the online voting system should<br>be cheaper than the present paper based system been used by the independent<br>national electoral commission (INEC). Online voting is an electronic way of<br>choosing leaders via a web driven application. The advantage of online voting<br>over the present manual system is that the voters have the choice of voting at<br>their own free time and reduced congestion. It also minimizes on errors of vote<br>counting. The individual votes are submitted in a database which can be queried<br>to find out who the aspirants for a given post has the highest number of votes.<br>With the online voting system , a voter can use his/her voting right online<br>without any difficulty. He/she has to register as a voter first before being<br>authorized to vote. The registration should be done prior to the voting date to<br>enable data update on the database.<br>1.2 Statement of the Problem<br>The election process begins from voters registration. The method adopted<br>during voters registration goes a long way to determine the freeness and fairness<br>of the election. In Nigeria, voting/registration process is very cumbersome. So<br>many cases, missing data in the voter registration file have been reported. There<br>3<br>are also situations where unregistered voters flock to the polling station to<br>participate in the voting process. Even after voting, malicious clerks and<br>officers- in – charge of a polling station end up playing with the result figures.<br>1.3 Objectives of the Study<br>The aim of this project is to develop a database for voter’s registration<br>which will in turn help government to conduct a free and fair election<br>using electronic machines.<br>To replace the current inefficient manual system of voting in Nigeria.<br>To ensure credibility in elections by preventing double voting,<br>Help the government reduce the huge costs incurred in conducting<br>elections.<br>1.4 Scope of the Study<br>The research work is designed to enable National Electoral Commission to use<br>electronic device to capture voter’s information. The design will cover some<br>security issues like authenticating the nationality of the voters through<br>integrating the national ID database to the voter’s registration process and also<br>capturing the picture of the electorates for validation during election.<br>4<br>1.5 Limitations<br>During the design of this project work, much finance was required and owing to<br>the financial meltdown globally, the research was limited by finance and hence<br>concentrated on the available materials within the locality.<br>1.6 Significance of the Study<br>In view of the rapid development of computer technology in virtually all fields<br>of operation and its use in relation to information management, it has become<br>important to look into the development of electronic voters registration system<br>to enable government to achieve the following:<br>(a) Conduct free and fair election<br>(b) Safeguard data and information in the system.<br>(c) Reduced workload in the process of conducting election<br>(d) Keep accurate record of votes<br>(e) Reduce time wasted in announcing election result<br>(f) Eliminate disenfranchising electorates.<br>1.7 Project Report Organisation<br>This project was covered under five stages:<br>CHAPTER 1; Deals with the introduction. The background of the project<br>is discussed. The objectives of the project, its significance, scope, and<br>constraints are pointed out.<br>5<br>CHAPTER 2; This chapter is a Review of Voters Registration in Some<br>Countries and the literature review.<br>CHAPTER 3; Discusses system Investigation and Analysis. It deals with<br>detailed investigation and analysis of the existing system and problem<br>identification.<br>CHAPTER 4; Treats the system design and implementation<br>CHAPTER 5; The summary and conclusion of the project are finally<br>treated in this chapter.<br>1.8 Definition of Terms<br>voting system: is a method by which voters make a choice between options,<br>often in an election or on a policy referendum<br>e-voting: also known as electronic voting is a term encompassing several<br>different types of voting, embracing both electronic means of casting a vote and<br>electronic means of counting votes.<br>Information System: It is a collection of procedures, people, instructions and<br>equipment to produce information in a useful form<br>6<br>Technology: It is study of techniques or process of mobilizing resources (such<br>as information) for accomplishing objectives that benefit man and his<br>environment<br>Computer Network: is a system that connects two or more computers together<br>using a communication link.<br>Databases: A systematically arranged collection of computer data, structured<br>so that it can be automatically retrieved or manipulated. It is also called<br>databank. <br></p>