Online Voting System

Abstract

The ‘Online Voting System’ is a web based voting platform for conducting elections online. This system seeks to use face recognition algorithm for voter identity authentication to enhance the security of the electioneering process and ultimately providing an online platform which enables all eligible voters to exercise this activity from any location. The user must sign in/login using their respective credentials and they will be logged in into the system only after the face recognition authentication is successful. Thereafter, the voter can cast their vote securely and logout of the system. Hence, this project based on Online Voting System could be used for conducting secure and fair elections online.

Introduction

I. INTRODUCTION

The voting systems currently in use in the country are Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) and Secret Ballet Voting, both of which require a large amount of manpower and are extremely time-consuming processes. The election officers must then check their Voter's Id in the voters' list of booths, and if the information is present, the voter can vote in that booth. The EVMs must be checked and transported to various parts of the country where the election is being held. It also necessitates manual labour and security. The counting of votes cast in EVMs requires manpower as well and takes an entire day, while ballet voting is entirely manual. Because all of this work is done by hand, there is a high risk of malpractice, making the conduct of a free and fair election extremely difficult

II. LITERATURE SURVEY

An election is a formal decision-making process by which a population or society chooses an individual to hold a political office. Elections have long been the standard process for modern representative democracy, dating back to the 17th century. Elections are held by both public and private bodies, such as the government, as well as private and business groups, for example, to select members for a company's Board of Directors, professional club leadership, and even voluntary associations.

A. Background

Types of Voting Systems -

1. Paper Ballot Voting

The paper-based voting system is the traditional method of voting that has been used throughout history. It is also the standard method of holding elections in Nigeria and other countries around the world.

It works by distributing paper ballots to eligible voters who show up at the polling unit on Election Day. The voter's identity is verified by searching for and ticking his or her name on the voters register for that polling unit. Indelible ink is used to identify an authenticated voter by smearing it on the voter's left thumb fingernail. The voter is then expected to proceed to a secret booth to vote for a candidate by pressing his right thumb into an ink stamp and placing the inked fingerprint in front of the chosen candidate on the ballot paper provided before dropping the ballot paper into a ballot box placed in an open area within the polling unit.

Following the close of polls or voting for the election, the polling officer opens the election ballot box for the polling unit, the ballots are counted by various election judges such as election agents and election officials, and the total vote results are reported and entered onto the election results sheet, which is also required to be signed by all election judges as well as observers present, providing authenticity to the declared results.

2. Electronic Voting

It is a fundamental requirement for countries to improve their electoral systems. Because of the rapid advancement of technology in the computer and telecommunications worlds, e-Voting-based systems are about to be introduced, which will alleviate all of the problems associated with traditional manual election systems. With the introduction of e-Voting systems, our election processes and social lives will become simpler, more efficient, and less expensive.

Voters can now vote in this system from anywhere in the world. Security requirements such as confidentiality, integrity, fairness, forgery attack, verifiability, and so on must be met by an e-voting system. This is since E-voting systems are more vulnerable than traditional voting systems due to the nature of digital processing of election data, which can be easily manipulated, potentially resulting in widespread fraud and corruption.

B. Aim and Objectives

The primary aim of our project is to develop an Online Voting System that seeks to use various stages of security authentication to enhance the electioneering process and enables all eligible voters to vote from any location.

The scope and objectives of the proposed system would be as follows –

1. To create a secured online voting platform where authenticity of      votes and voters are ensured using face recognition
2. To improve the voter’s identification process through biometric (facial) recognition since biometric and facial features cannot be share
3. To ease the problem of queuing and crowding during voting period on elections

III. TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION

The main objective of this project is to provide a secure online system for conducting fair elections online irrespective of the location without facing any difficulties.

Hence, to make the system as efficient as possible, we are using Python Django Framework because it has the following benefits:

1. Accelerates custom web application development
2. Designed as a batteries-included web framework
3. Compatible with major operating systems and databases
4. Provides robust security features
5. Easy to extend and scale
6. Supported by a large and active community

Along with that, we have also implemented face recognition authentication using TensorFlow.js and DeepFace because:  

a. Improved security

b. Easy to integrate

c. Automated identification

A. Block Diagram

C. Implementation

1. First, the user will be able to view the home page where they can see the options to either create a new account or log in.

2. All the new user users must create an account and register by providing some details.

3. Once the users have successfully registered, they are re-directed to the login page where the can log into the system by just providing the username and password.

4. Then, when the user logs in, the face will be compared and verified with the initial one. If the face is not verified correctly, the system will generate an error and user will not be able to vote.

5. Once the face verification is completed successfully, the user will be redirected to the voting page where they can cast their vote only once.

IV. FUTURE SCOPE

Although this project tries to cover all limitations related to authentication and security, these are some of the few points where the scope of the project can be expanded - 

1. In the future, we can make entire election system with a ‘Live Result Update’ feature.
2. This system that can also guarantee high level secrecy, security, and verifiability of a marked ballot transmitted over the Internet.
3. For advanced security, Block chain can also be integrated with the system for decentralization of database where the data is stored in multiple blocks so that even if one block is tampered, the data wouldn’t be manipulated
4. This Online Voting System can be advanced to be used by any organization in the world for conducting smooth and fair elections.

Conclusion

The voting system proposed by us is far more secure and efficient than the traditional voting system. Delays in results and vote manipulation are easily avoided in this system. The most notable aspect of our project is the use of two-factor authentication, which allows for easier and more precise voter verification. For the same reason, whenever a user registers, he or she must provide his or her voter id, which allows for easier verification of both voters and candidates. The proposed online system is expected to increase the transparency and reliability of the current electoral system.

References

[1] Ankit Anand, Pallavi Divya, An Efficient Online Voting System, Vol.2, Issue.4, July-Aug. 2019, pp- 2631-2634. [2] Dinesh Kumar P et al, International Journal of Computer Science and Mobile Computing, Vol.9 Issue.1, January- 2020, pg. 156-160 [3] Himanshu Agarwal, G.N.Pandey, Online Voting System for India Based on Aadhaar Id, 2013 Eleventh International Conference on ICT and Knowledge Engineering [4] B.Arun, V.K.Gouthaman, A.Nafees Raja, “Online Voting System Using Face Recognition”, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, SRM University, April 2007

Copyright

Copyright © 2022 Miti Mehta, Mihir Lalwani, Ashwini Harle. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.