Election and Mobile Voting

ABSTRACT

The proper execution of democratic rights has become linked to the availability and reliable functioning of advanced information and communication technology (ICT). Countries all over the world are implementing computerized voting system for it has some striking advantages over traditional paper voting. Designing an air-tight and reliable computerized voting system is therefore a great task, in that, the system that must be developed must protect the privacy of the voters and electoral candidates, be easily understood and used by the entire voting populace - no matter who they are or where they come from. This project MOBILE VOTING SYSTEM is designed to allow users spontaneously vote on issues with any of the most widely used PDA technologies ( e.g. GSM, laptops, iPad, iPhone etc.) with ease and as much security as possible.

Chapter One: Introduction
Introduction
Elections are understood to be the key of democracy all over the globe and voting is one of the electoral routes that ensure the continuity of democratic system in any civilization. Voting is a formalized way of allowing the general public or a group of people make their choice on administration matters in a free a fair manner.
However, voters now lose confidence in the voting process due to fact that election rigging and riots is graduating and assuming a dangerous dimension. Most people now believe that even when they are given the chance to participate in the ongoing election process, their leaders will still be chosen through selection and not the results of the election, others concluded that paper ballots simply couldn’t be counted, even though businesses, banks, lottery systems, and other entities in our society count and deal with paper all the time.
Times are changing. We now live in the Internet era, where decisions can be made quickly enough, and there is a perception that anyone who does not jump on the technology bandwagon is going to be left far behind. Businesses are moving online at astonishing speed. The growth of online interaction and presence can be witnessed by the exponential increase in the number of people with home computers and Internet access.
Despite the natural eagerness to treat our election process as the precious, delicate and fragile process that it is, the question of using the new advances in technology to improve our elections is natural.
Adding mobility to the voting system (i.e. ability to vote anywhere at any time) is another added strategy to the growth of our voting system. Statistics has proven that more than ¾ of the world’s population has at least one of the common PDAs. Ability to vote on phones will boost our voting system to a large extent.

Statement of Problem
There are various factors responsible for flaws in the traditional paper voting system. Chief among the factors include
Incompetency on the part of the electoral commission to act as an umpire in the electoral process
Do-or-Die syndrome of the contending parties to capture political power by all means
Numerous incidence of violence/riots
Hoarding of the electoral box by a contending party
Low turnout of voters as compared to the number of registered voters; this issue could be attributed to the lack of mobility in the electoral process.
Lack of trust in the electoral process by voters due to historical mishaps of insecurity.

Objectives
Any alternative to the traditional ballot box voting must not compromise the fundamental rights of citizens to express their free political will without any technological, psychological or any other restriction or bias. Mobile voting system provides the following set of objectives:
To provide a security tight voting system.
To provide a voting system that has compatibility with as many mobile PDAs as possible.
To encourage participation in the balloting process by many voters who are currently discouraged by the time and inconvenience of having to attend at a physical location.

Significance of the Problem
Mobile voting system when implemented will be of great benefit to humanity since in one way or the other, democratic election is part of human lives.
It would make obsolete the need for ballot boxes and papers, because the system would simulate these, it provides options to conduct voting in a centralized and decentralized manner, time management, reduced total cost of the election, ability to vote anywhere and anytime thereby increases the efficiency and effectiveness of the voting system.
Though, the initial cost of developing Computerized Mobile Voting Systems would be high but the long run effects would be that election costs, processes and time would drastically reduce.
In essence, the benefits from the implantation of this project can never be overemphasized.

Chapter Two: Literature Review
Introduction:
This chapter includes a critical look at the existing research and case studies that have significance with this research project. It has been done by consulting other people’s work in order to understand and investigate the problem of the research project. In conducting literature review, scholarly articles, books and other sources relevant to a particular issue, area of research or theory has been surveyed. After reviewing all materials, a description, summary, and critical evaluation of each work is granted. The automation of business and governmental processes has long been a success story in many countries. As the use of mobile phones for voice and data communication increase, users continue to demand for more services to be offered by mobile phones due to the comfort they present. Recently a number of governments have employed e-voting systems in some of their elections and referendums using mostly computer terminals and a few with mobile voting systems.

Theoretical background This project is a Web application to be developed with the major web technologies having:
Database Design, Queries and Connectivity (PHP and My SQL)
User End Design (HTML, CSS, JAVASCRIPT)
Server Testing (XAMP/WAMP SERVER)
Testing (Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox)
Hyper-Text Markup Language (HTML) is the predominant markup language for web pages. It provides a means to describe the structure of text-based information in a document by denoting certain text as links, headings, paragraphs, lists, among others and to supplement that text with interactive forms, embedded images, and other objects. HTML is written in the form of tags, surrounded by angle brackets.
The following is an example of an HTML code fragment that assign a title to this web application: Mobile Voting System is the start tag. is the corresponding end tag and “Mobile Voting System” is the content of the element. Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) defines how HTML elements are to be displayed. It is a collection of styling rules. Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP ) is an open source server side programming language extensively used for web scripts. It is a popular server-side scripting language designed specifically for integration with HTML, and is used often in conjunction with MySQL in web applications. It is available on many platforms, including Windows, Linux and Mac OS. the following is an example of a php script that MySQL: an open source Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) that uses Structured Query Language (SQL), the most popular language for accessing, querying a database. Because it is open source, anyone can download MySQL and tailor it to their needs in accordance with general public license. WampServer/Apache Server : WampServer is a free server bundle that uses Apache server. When installed on the system, it includes Apache, MySQL, and PHP. Apache is a popular web server that many Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and individuals use to host web pages. I installed Apache as a web server on the system. Created web pages are stored in the system’s special folder, www directory in the local disk, in order for pages to be viewed.

Review of Related Literature Mobile voting combines technology with the democratic process, in order to make voting more efficient and convenient for voters. Mobile voting allows voters to either vote by computer and any Personal Digital Assistance (PDAs) either from their homes or at the polling station. Brazil is a world leader in electronic elections, having conducted them since 1990. The elections in October 1998, was one of the largest electronic elections in history, with over sixty million voters casting ballots by computer for local and national candidates. 57 percent of the voting population – voted electronically in elections for local, state and 30national offices.