CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction
The advancement in technology in recent years, where online systems boost work

speed, reduces mistakes and promote the generation of accurate results, having a

manual voting system becomes a misfortune (Aziz, 2011). With the onset of

technology and computers, computerized processes have been invented world over to

improve efficiency and credibility of voting processes. Two distinct approaches in

computerized voting processes are electronic voting and online voting. While online

voting aims to provide a web-based interface via which voters can cast their votes and

get results of the election process, electronic voting has to do with the registration

process being carried out electronically e.g., use of biometrics and coded voter cards

that that can be scanned by an electronic device to authenticate the voter. Thus, an

electronic voting system may end up having human clerks tallying the votes upon

termination of the election process (Emaase, 2011).

Online voting and electronic have become the technologies that most democracies and

also universities in the 21st century are using. Voting on the internet has its own

disadvantages based on the areas of secrecy and protection against coercion and/or vote

selling. In Nigeria only a few universities, have tried to implement voting via the

internet but they have not been successful on designing a standalone voting system

customized for the particular university. According to the Elections journal of British

Columbia District, Canada, online voting refers to a voting method that transmits voted

ballots via the public Internet through a web browser or client application accessed

through an internet-connected personal computer, smart phone or tablet.

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In an article titled “Why America Can’t vote online” it states that Canada and Estonia

are among the pioneers of online voting, with the town of Markham, in Ontario, having

offered online ballots in local elections since 2003 (Anand & Pallavi, 2012).

David Chaum (2004) advocates for a process, whereby voters could get receipts for

their votes. This receipt would allow them to verify whether their votes were included

in the final tally or not, and to prove that they voted without revealing any information

about how they voted. The inclusion of this improves credibility in the election process

and anonymity of voters. He suggests that e-voting is technologically viable with

application of cryptography and security reinforcement algorithms.

Matt Schultz and Tom Miller (2012) protested that database matching in online voting

processes had loopholes as illegal voters managed to get registered. This is a challenge

that comes when a system provides online registration and should be well addressed to

ensure such incidences never occur. The duo proposes a personal identity number to

uniquely identify each voter and facilitate cross checking. Their insight was therefore

of great aide in the design considerations for the overall building of this project. Dr.

Michael Shamos (1993) presents Six Commandments summary of requirements for a

voting which though similar to others' requirements, he maintains himself as less afraid

of the catastrophic failures and sweeping fraud made possible by imperfections in

electronic voting machines. Shamos is also much less impressed with paper ballots. He

places a great deal of faith in decentralization to make fraud difficult to commit and

easy to detect. Online voting should be a solution to curb the challenge of cheating in

elections and provide a baseline for online voting system as that such a system should

provide a high level of security and establish five core requirements of an electronic

voting system to address issues of privacy, authentication, anonymous, uniqueness and

coercion (Kalaichelvi & Chandrasekaran, 2012). University of

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Texas [A&M University] online voting system shows that web technologies can be

harnessed to facilitate voting processes and one no longer needs to be physically at the

Campus setting to exercise their democratic right as a student. The system exposes a

web interface via which students log in and cast their votes during the electioneering

period (Nzoka & Ananda, 2015). In Nigeria, universities and colleges have to rely on

the human clerk electoral processes. Online voting replaces some of the traditional

methods of voting that are still being used in modern day by some countries and

colleges across the world

The methods can be divided into five;

1. Paper-based voting: The voter gets a blank ballot and use a pen or a marker

to indicate he want to vote for which candidate. Hand-counted ballots is a time

and labour consuming process, but it is easy to manufacture paper ballots and

the ballots can be retained for verifying, this type is still the most common way

to vote.

2. Lever voting machine: Lever machine is peculiar equipment, and each lever

is assigned for a corresponding candidate. The voter pulls the lever to poll for

his favourite candidate. This kind of voting machine can count up the ballots

automatically. Because its interface is not user-friendly enough, giving some

training to voters is necessary.

3. Direct recording electronic voting machine: This type, which is abbreviated

to DRE, integrates with keyboard; touch screen, or buttons for the voter press

to poll. Some of them lay in voting records and counting the votes is very

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 quickly. But the other DRE without keep voting records are doubted about its

accuracy.

4. Punch card: The voter uses metallic hole-punch to punch a hole on the blank

ballot. It can count votes automatically, but if the voter’s perforation is

incomplete, the result is probably determined wrongfully.

5. Optical voting machine: After each voter fills a circle correspond to their

favourite candidate on the blank ballot, this machine selects the darkest mark

on each ballot for the vote then computes the total result. This kind of machine

counts up ballots rapidly.

However, if the voter fills over the circle, it will lead to the error result of optical-
scan.

2.2 Case Study: University Of Abuja Voting System

An online voting system is a web-based that facilitates the running of elections and

surveys online. Users are individuals who interact with the system. All user interaction

is performed remotely through the user's web browser. Users are provided with an

online registration form before voting user should fill online form and submit details

these details are compared with details in the school’s database and if they match then

user is provided with username and password using this information user can login and

vote. If conditions are not correct entry will be cancelled. It contains two level of

user’s administrator level and voter level where each level has different functionality.

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2.2.1 System Background

The system is developed to provide users with a simple and self-explanatory Graphic

User Interface (GUI). Users are supposed to register and login in the system then pick

their favourable candidates to register his vote.

Online voting system is a voting system by which any Voter can use his/her voting rights

from anywhere in country. Online voting system contains:

a) Voter’s information in database.

b) Voter’s Names with ID and password.

c) Voter’s vote in a database.

d) Calculation of total number of votes.

Various operational works proposed in the system are: Recording information of the

Voter in database. Checking of information filled by voter. Discard the false

information. Each information is sent to administrator.

2.2.2 System Workaround

Remote users are eligible to access and exercise voting in the Voting System. Results can

be viewed by the administrator without counting the votes cast. All the counting is

computerized.

2.2.3 Product Functions

The product has a server back-end which takes care of authenticating the users and

maintaining necessary data structures.

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2.2.4 Overview of Data Requirements

The internal memory requirement will be constant or linearly dependent on the number of

users depending on the provision of changing the vote at a later time. The external data

about the candidates

2.2.5 Constraints

Login and password are used for identification of Voter.

2.2.6 Features on the System

Online voting is software system through which a voter can give votes through

registering themselves on the voting website. all the information in sites which has

been entered are stored in database for each page in the website have its own database

table. It deals with design, build and test the online voting system that facilitates user

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2.2.6.1 Home

It is the welcome page of the website, having all the feature options of the website.

Figure 1 Homepage

2.2.6.2 Registration

This is the register page, where the voter, candidate and can register themselves. They

all have to enter basic information best of their known .All the information registered in

the website are saved in the respective database not require geographical proximity of

the voters. For example, soldiers abroad can participate in elections by voting online.

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 Figure 2. Voter Registration Page

2.2.6.3 Login
User Login: After registering into the website, this information is saved to the

database and sent to the election commission. The user can Login to the website with

his unique USERNAME and PASSWORD generated through registration. There is a

option for FORGOT PASSWORD, in case user forget his password then he/she can

go with option of forgot password. Candidate Login: After registration candidate

can see his/her profile and can edit his/her profile. The candidate has facilitated with

all the latest news update regarding election.

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Figure 3. Login Page

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