1

Online Voting System

A PROJECT REPORT


Submitted by

ARIHANT (11BCE0071)
SAMEER SAH (11BCE0257)



I n partial fulfillment for the award of the degree

Of

BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY


IN

COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING


VIT
U N I V E R S I T Y
(Est. u/s 3 of UGC Act 1956)
Vellore - 632 014, Tamil Nadu, India



VIT UNIVERSITY

SEPTEMBER 2014



2


VIT
U N I V E R S I T Y
(Estd. u/s 3 of UGC Act 1956)
Vellore - 632 014, Tamil Nadu, India

School of Computing Science & Engineering


BONAFIDE CERTIFICATE


This is to certify that the Mini Project entitled Online Voting System
submitted by Arihant (11BCE0071) and Sameer Sah (11BCE0257) to Vellore
Institute of Technology, Vellore in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the
award of the degree of B.TECH in Computer Science and Engineering is a
record of bonafide Mini Project undertaken by them under my supervision. This
project report has not been submitted and will not be submitted for the award of
any other degree or diploma in this institute or any other institute or university.












GOVINDA K.
SUPERVISOR
Senior Assistant Professor
Date: Date:






Internal Examiner (s) External Examiner (s)

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ABSTRACT

The word vote means to choose from a list, to elect or to determine. The main
goal of voting (in a scenario involving the citizens of a given country) is to
come up with leaders of the peoples choice. The present system of casting
votes has resulted in a number of problems such as low percentage of voting,
late results, discomfort to old aged and handicapped people etc. Voting through
EVM has not been able to address these problems completely. To overcome
these, an attempt has been made to introduce an online platform specifically
designed for electronic voting that will enable people to vote securely from
anywhere without moving to a voting machine, all they need is a computer or
mobile and internet connection. This platform will provide the desired comfort
and security to the voters which will bypass the lengthy process which claims a
significant amount of money, time and energy of all concerned. This is a small
scale project for Online voting system. The basic idea is that the citizens of the
country can vote for the candidates during election in the online. It consists of
voter details, security system, status and exits. The administrator can enter the
name and password and generate the reports and can perform operation like add
citizens, search, delete the citizens in the database. In Online voting system we
can get the result of the election based on polling.



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CHAPTER NO. TITLE PAGE NO.

ABSTRACT 3
LIST OF TABLES 6
LIST OF FIGURES 7
LIST OF SYMBOLS 8


1. INTRODUCTION 9

1.1 PURPOSE 10
1.2 SCOPE 10
1.3 PROBLEM STATEMENT 10
1.4 DESCRIPTION OF THE SYSTEM 11
1.4.1 PROPOSED SYSTEM 11
1.4.2 GOALS OF THE SYSTEM 12
1.4.3 TECHNOLOGIES USED 13

2. LITERATURE REVIEW 14

2.1 OLD METHODS OF VOTING 14
2.2 SECURITY ISSUES 15
2.3 CURRENT SYSTEM DRAWBACKS 15
2.4 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS 16

3. DESIGN
3.1 SOFTWARE REQUIREMENT SPECIFICATION 18
3.1.1 FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS 18
3.1.2 NON-FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS 18
3.2 SOFTWARE DESIGN 19
3.2.1 ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN 19
3.2.2 SYSTEM MODELS 20
3.2.2.1 CONTEXT MODEL 20
3.2.2.2 BEHAVOURIAL MODELS 20
3.2.2.3 STRUCTURAL MODELS 26

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3.3 DATABSE DESIGN 30


4. IMPLEMENTATION 31
4.1 USER INTERFACE 31

5. CONCLUSION

6. REFERENCES




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List of Tables

Table 1: Admin Table
Table 2: Voter Table
Table 3: Candidate Table



































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List of Figures

Figure 1: Architecture Diagram
Figure 2: Context Model Diagram
Figure 3, 3.1: Use Case Diagrams
Figure 4, 4.1, 4.2: Data Flow Diagrams
Figure 5, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3: Activity Diagram
Figure 6, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3: Class Diagrams
Figure 7: ER Diagram
Figure 8, 8.1: Sequence Diagram




























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List of Symbols, Abbreviations and Nomenclature

OVS Online Voting System
HTTP Hyper Text Markup Language
PHP
DBMS Database Management System































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1. INTRODUCTION
The online voting system is the system that aims in reducing the complexity
and cost of the election process. Here the voter can vote in spite of his absence
in the particular locality. The administrators effort is much reduced by
checking the election status of all the localities individually forms a place and it
is easy for him to announce the election result. The administrator is the soul
controller of the online voting system in all process including refreshing the
votes, editing the voter details, creating new nominee and so on. Thus the online
voting system can reduce the cost and effort of election process.
In this voting system each voter will be provided with a specific voter-id and
a password through which access for the voting can be granted. If once the
access is granted for a voter-id then the access is denied for logging in till the
voting system is refreshed for the next election. Similarly the administrator will
be provided with a special id through which he can view the status of the
election.
Based on the id segregation between the voter and administrator is carried
out initially. If the user id is invalid then an error message will be displayed. If
the id entered is of type administrator then an information i.e., the election
status will be displayed which changes dynamically. Otherwise the voter
information will be displayed which changes dynamically depending on the
changes made which will proceed him to the next level in which he can cast his
vote and it is updated automatically.
The advantages of the online voting system are that the speed of information
retrieval and updating is made easy and other advantages are:
Online implementation makes it easy for voters to participate in election.
It becomes easier to conduct election.
Election expenses can be reduced.
Non-Residential citizens can also participate in the election.
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1.1. PURPOSE

In OVS a voter can use his\her voting right online without any difficulty.
He\She has to fill a registration form to register himself\herself. All the
entries are checked by the DATABASE which has already all
information about the voter. If all the entries are correct then a USER ID
and PASSWORD is given to the voter, by using that ID and
PASSWORD he\she can cast his\her vote. If conditions are wrong then
that entry will be discarded.

1.2. SCOPE

The supplementary specification applies to online voting system. This
specification defines the non-functional requirement of the system such
as:
Functionality: Since it stand alone application, one or more user may use
it at a time.
Usability: Desktop interface (Windows XP/7/8)
Reliability: The system is available only at the Election time.
Performance: The performance depends on hardware specification.

1.3. PROBLEM STATEMENT:

The online voting system is the system implemented to make the voting
system easy for both polling and also for the administrator to view and
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check the result for each area individually. Here the voting is done
anywhere with in spite of the area in which they reside.
The voters or the administrator can login only if they already have a user
id and password. New user can be only created by the administrator.
The voter can login with his user id only if he has not casted the vote
already. If he has already casted the vote the voter status is changed to
voted and he cannot login with that user id unless the administrator
refreshes the voting system.
The administrator controls all parts of the online voting system except
the vote casting part which is restricted to the voters only.
The voter when logs in he can view his personal details which cannot be
edited by him he can only report the changes to the administrator who
can edit the details. The voter is granted permission only to view his
personal details and vote.
The voter while voting is provided with the option of voting for one of
the candidates or he can choose none of the above.

1.4. DESCRIPTION OF THE SYSTEM

1.4.1 PROPOSED SYSTEM

The proposed system is divided into four stages: Register,
Authentication, Voting and Counting. All are based on the Client-
Server model.
Register Stage: First, all the users who want to vote in the election
ought to register in advance. Here, the user is provided with a
unique username and password that would later be used to log-in
on an election day.
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Authentication: The registered voters will need to log-in using
access credentials provided at the registeration stage. They will be
allowed to vote once they are verfied.
Voting Stage: The voter casts his vote once he is verified. Then,
the vote is encrypted and stored.
Counting Stage: All the votes cast are decrypted and then result is
declared.
In order to encrypt and decrypt the votes, RSA algorithm is used.
This asymmetric primitive has a pair of two keys, the public key
and the private key. It involves three steps that are: key generation
(which occurs at the Registration Stage), encryption (during the
Voting Stage) and decryption (at the Counting Stage). Any
encrypted text with one key of the pair, can be decrypted with the
other one. If encryption occurs with the public key then it must be
decrypted using the private key and vice versa. The key pairs are
generated based on two large prime numbers that must be kept in
secret just as the private key. Then, AES-256 is implemented on
the system to grant the security needed to keep safe the
asymmetric cryptography keys that are being generated. The
encryption/decryption keys are stored in the Database with limited
access; however, they are encrypted using AES-256 before being
stored on the server.

1.4.2 GOALS OF THE SYSTEM

Planned approach towards working: - The working in the
organization will be well planned and organized. The data will be
stored properly in data stores which will help in retrieval of
information as well as its storage.
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Accuracy: - The level of accuracy in the proposed system will be
higher. All operation would be done correctly and it ensures that
whatever information is coming from the center is accurate.
Reliability: - The reliability of the proposed system will be high
due to the above stated reasons. The reason for the increased
reliability of the system is that now there would be proper storage
of information.
No Redundancy: - In the proposed system utmost care would be
that no information is repeated anywhere, in storage or otherwise.
This would assure economic use of storage space and consistency
in the data stored.
Immediate retrieval of information: - The main objective of
proposed system is to provide for a quick and efficient retrieval of
information.
Immediate storage of information: - In manual system there are
many problems to store the largest amount of information.
Easy to Operate: - The system should be easy to operate and
should be such that it can be developed within a short period of
time and fit in the limited budget of the user.

1.4.3 TECHNOLOGIES USED

This project will be a Web application to be developed in PHP
having
Database Design (My SQL)
Form Design (HTML 4.0)
Coding (PHP)
Testing (WAMP SERVER)
Reporting Tool (Data Report)
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2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 OLD METHODS OF VOTING
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 labor 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.
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 favorite 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.
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 quickly. But the other DRE without
keep voting records are doubted about its accuracy.
Punch card: The voter uses metallic hole-punch to punch a hole on
the blank ballot. It can count votes automatically, but if the voters
perforation is incomplete, the result is probably determined
wrongfully.
Optical voting machine: After each voter fills a circle correspond to
their favorite candidate on the blank ballot, this machine selects the
darkest mark on each ballot for the vote then computes the total result.
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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.
Recent years, a considerable number of countries has adopted E-
voting for their official elections. These countries include; America,
Belgium, Japan and Brazil.

2.2 SECURITY ISSUES

Foreign experience revealed that they are often confronted by security
issues while the online voting system is running. The origin of the
security issues was due to not only outsider (such as voters and
attackers) but also insider (such as system developers and
administrators), even just because the inheritance of some objects in the
source code are unsuitable. These errors caused the voting system to
crash. The proposed solutions were correspondingly outlined to hold
back these attacks. For example, to avoid hacker making incursion into
the voting system via network, we can design our system to transmit
data without network. Another example is to limit voter to input
particular data, so that we can prevent the command injection from
running.

2.3 CURRENT SYSTEM DRAWBACKS

The problems of the existing manual system of voting include among
others the following:
Expensive and Time consuming: The process of collecting data and
entering this data into the database takes too much time and is expensive
to conduct, for example, time and money is spent in printing data capture
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forms, in preparing registration stations together with human resources,
and there after advertising the days set for registration process including
sensitizing voters on the need for registration, as well as time spent on
entering this data to the database.
Too much paper work: The process involves too much paper work and
paper storage which is difficult as papers become bulky with the
population size.
Errors during data entry: Errors are part of all human beings; it is very
unlikely for humans to be 100 percent efficient in data entry.
Loss of registration forms: Some times, registration forms get lost after
being filled in with voters details, in most cases these are difficult to
follow-up and therefore many remain unregistered even though they are
voting age nationals and interested in exercising their right to vote.
Short time provided to view the voter register: This is a very big problem
since not all people have free time during the given short period of time
to check and update the voter register.
Above all, a number of voters end up being locked out from voting.

2.4 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS:

MYSQL DBMS- It allows combination, extraction, manipulation and
organization of data in the voters database. It is platform independent
and therefore can be implemented and used across several such as
Windows, Linux server and is compatible with various hardware
mainframes. It is fast in performance, stable and provides business
value at a low cost.
NetBeans IDE 7.1.2- The NetBeans IDE is an award-winning
integrated development environment available for Windows, Mac,
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Linux, and Solaris. The NetBeans project consists of an open-source
IDE and an application platform that enable developers to rapidly
create web, enterprise, desktop, and mobile applications using the Java
platform, as well as PHP, JavaScript and Ajax, Groovy and Grails, and
C/C++. The NetBeans project is supported by a vibrant developer
community and offers extensive documentation and training resources
as well as a diverse selection of third-party plugins.
JAVA coding- This is for advanced user who find PHP codes easy to
work with.
Testing- is done via WAMPSERVER.
Web browsers: Mozilla Firefox, Google chrome, Opera and Internet
Explorer
Reporting Tool i.e. through Data Report.

HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS:

Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP3/Vista SP1/Windows 7
Professional:
Processor: 800MHz Intel Pentium III or equivalent
Memory: 512 MB
Disk space: 750 MB of free disk space
Ubuntu 9.10:
Processor: 800MHz Intel Pentium III or equivalent
Memory: 512 MB
Disk space: 650 MB of free disk space


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3 DESIGN

3.1 SOFTWARE REQUIREMENT SPECIFICATION

FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS:

Registration of the voter is done by the Administrator.
Administrator can change the information any time if required.
Registration of the Voter depends upon the information filled by
the user.
Voter is given a unique ID and Password.
Voter can give vote after login and entering the ID and
Password.
In the Database information of every voter is stored.
Database shows the information of every user to the
Administrator.

NON-FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS:

Secure access of confidential data (users details). SSL can be
used.
24 X 7 availability on the voting day.
Better component design to get better performance at peak time
on the Election Day.
Flexible service based architecture will be highly desirable for
future extension.
User friendly interface for inexperienced internet users.

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3.2 SOFTWARE DESIGN

3.2.1 ARCHITECTURE DIAGRAM










Counting

Registration

Authentication

Voting Stage




Voter


Figure 1: Architecture Diagram
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3.2.2 SYSTEM MODELS

3.2.2.1 CONTEXT MODEL






















Figure 2: Context Diagram


3.2.2.2 BEHAVIOURAL MODEL

USE CASE DIAGRAMS


Figure 3: Use Case Diagram
Online Voting
System

Voters Database
Voters
Management
System

Update Voters
details
Candidates
Database

Results
Add and
Remove
candidates

Registration
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Figure 3.1: Use Case Diagram


DATA FLOW DIAGRAMS


DFD LEVEL 0:
















Figure 4: Data Flow Diagram


User
and
Administrator


Output


System
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DFD LEVEL 1:























Figure 4.1: Data flow Diagram



















Login
Process

Voting
Process

Voter
information
checking
process

Voter
Registration
Process


Final
Report
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DFD LEVEL 2:




































Voter data Stored Data Voting Data Results

Figure 4.2: Data Flow Diagram



Administrator Voter

Final
Result

Voting
process

Voter
Registration

Informatio
n
checking
Login Process
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ACTIVITY DIAGRAMS

LOGIN:





































Figure 5: Activity Diagrams


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VOTER DETAILS:


Figure 5.1: Activity Diagrams


CAST VOTE:

Figure 5.2: Activity Diagrams
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The voter selects the
view to see the result
System displays the no. of vote
of each nominee & also winner
STATUS:













Figure 5.3: Activity Diagram


3.2.2.3 STRUCTURAL MODELS

CLASS DIAGRAMS

LOGIN:




















Figure 6: Class Diagrams
27

REGISTRATION:





















Figure 6.1: Class Diagrams

CAST VOTE:


Figure 6.2: Class Diagrams

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STATUS:


Figure 6.3: Class Diagrams

ER DIAGRAM













Figure 7: ER Diagram
Voter Candidates
Registration
Process
Registered Voter Databas
e
Registered Candidate
Voting
ADMIN



Add
Candidates
Update Candidate
Details

Delete Candidate

Add Voters
Update Voter
Details
Check Results
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SEQUENCE DIAGRAMS




Figure 8: Sequence Diagrams



Figure 8.1: Sequence Diagrams





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3.3 DATABASE DESIGN

The project uses three tables:
Administrator Table
Voter Table
Candidate Table

ADMIN TABLE:
Table 1: Admin Table


VOTER TABLE:
Table 2: Voter Table

Field Name Data Type Description
Username Varchar Login id for Admin.(Primary key)
Password Varchar Password for Login
Field Name Data Type Description
VoterId Integer Login id for Voter(Primary key)
Name Varchar Name of the voter
Sex Varchar Sex of voter
Age Integer Age of voter
City Varchar City of voter
Security Varchar Security Question
Status Boolean Status of voter(he/she can vote or not)
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CANDIDATE TABLE:

Field Name Data Type Description
Symbol Varchar Party Symbol (Primary key)
Name Varchar Name of the voter
Sex Varchar Sex of voter
Age Integer Age of voter
City Varchar City of voter
Count Integer Count the no of votes
Table 3: Candidate Table



4 IMPLEMENTATION

4.1 USER INTERFACE



HOME WINDOW
32


SIGN UP WINDOW





LOGIN WINDOW





33


REGISTRATION FORM





SELECT REGION
34


SELECT CANDIDATES


























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5 CONCLUSION

This Online Voting system will manage the Voters information by which voter
can login and use his voting rights. The system will incorporate all features of
the traditional Voting system. It provides the tools for maintaining voters vote
to every candidate and it counts total number of votes of every candidate. There
is a database which is maintained by the Administrator in which all the names
of voter with complete information is stored.
In this, user who is above 18 years registers their information on the database
and when they want to vote they have to login by their id and password and can
vote to any candidate only single time. Voting detail is stored in database and
the result is displayed by calculation. By online voting system the percentage of
voting increases. It decreases the cost and time of voting process. It is very easy
to use and it is very less time consuming. Also it is very easy to debug in case
some of technical malfunction.




















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6 REFERENCES




1. Anderson C. (2006). How to Rig a Democracy: A Timeline of
Electronic Voting in the United States. The Independent. Retrieved
November 28, 2006 from: http://www.indypendent.org/?p=608
2. Bellis, M. (2007). The History of Voting Machines. Retrieved November
9, 2006 from: http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa111300b.htm
3. Cranor, L.F., & Cytron, R.K. (1996). Design and Implementation of a
Security-Conscious Electronic Polling System. Washington University
Computer Science Technical Report (WUCS). Retrieved October 9, 2006
from: http://www.acm.org/crossroads/ords2-4/voting.html
4. Electronic Voting and Counting Development of the System. (2005).
Elections ACT. Retrieved February 11, 2007 from:
http://www.elections.act.gov.au/EVACS.html http://www.iiec.or.ke/
5. Electronic Voting Systems, ACE Project The Electoral Knowledge
Network, [online] 2013, http://www.aceproject.org May 19, 2013
6. Eliver Prez Villegas, Gina Gallegos-Garca, Gualberto Aguilar Torres,
Hctor Flores Gutirrez, Implementation of Electronic Voting System in
Mobile Phones with Android Operating System, Vol. 4 No. 9 September
2013, http://www.cisjournal.org
7. Hakan Evecek, Applying MESE processes to Improve Online E-Voting
Prototype System with Paillier Threshold Cryptosystem Web Services,
University of Colorado, Spring 2007.
8. Jrg Ritter, Decentralized E-Voting on Android Devices Using
Homomorphic Tallying, Bern University of Applied Sciences
Engineering and Information Technology CH-2501 Biel, Switzerland,
February 7, 2014
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9. Roger S. Pressman, Software Engineering- A Practitioners Approach,
McGraw-Hill International Edition, Seventh Edition, 2009.
10. Software engineering 8th edition by Ian Sommerville.
11. Simply Voting System Project https://www.simplyvoting.com/
12. Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Modeling_Language
13. Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_voting