project launch (electronic voting machine)

8/3/2019 Project Launch (Electronic Voting Machine)

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HITEC UNIVERSITY TAXILADepartment of Electrical Engineering

Subject: Engineering Project Management

LAUNCH OF

ELECTRONIC VOTING

MACHINE

Dated:

August 8, 2011


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Engineering Project Management 2011

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

All praises to the perfect and glorified Allah almighty, none has the right to be worshipped

except Allah almighty, and ALLAH is the greatest. Allah almighty, Who not only provided us

with this golden opportunity to enhance our skills, but also gave us strength and wisdom to

work and plan with full devotion on our project and the related research work.

Hazrat Mohammad (S.A.W) is like the sun, small to the eye when seen from afar, but when

glimpsed close up, it dazzles and overwhelms. Hazrat Mohammad (S.A.W) is a light of

guidance and knowledge for us. We admire HIS guidance above all humans.

May Allahs blessings be showered upon our parents and all the teachers involved during

the complete span of our educational pursuit.

Though our group has carried out this project yet we are by no means the sole contributors

towards the project. So many people have contributed to our research work, to our

education, and it is our great pleasure to avail this opportunity to thank them.

The person we would especially like to thank is our supervisor Ms. Sobia Hayee, her valuable

guidance and encouragement at every stage has enabled us to complete this project. We

are extremely grateful to her for constructive suggestions, valuable comments, continuous

advices and illuminating points which were a big help while preparing this thesis. Without

her kind supervision, this dissertation would not have taken its present shape.

We are grateful to Mr. Waqas Ahmed for always being there to help us when required.In the end we would like to be obliged to Mr. Majid Aleem for giving us a chance to present

our project in front of the class which would help us in projecting our product with

confidence into the market.


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ABSTRACT

The electoral process in Pakistan has always been targeted for being toiling to participate in

and producing results that are indications of deceitfulness and dishonesty. This project is an

attempt to replace the current mechanism of voting with a more efficient, reliable and

advanced setup. The voting machine is expected to eradicate the problems that persist

before, during and after the elections. It substitutes the presently working system with an

automated design that has the capability to identify, verify and recognize a voter without

the involvement of a large polling staff. Moreover, it also keeps an authorized voter to cast

his vote once.

The recognition part verifies a registered voter on the basis of results obtained by matching

his/her fingerprint with a template saved in a database and the information stored in the

barcode pasted on the national identity card. In case of fingerprint matching, the target can

be mainly decomposed into image preprocessing, feature extraction and feature match. For

each sub-task, some classical and up-to-date methods in literatures are analyzed. Based on

the analysis, an integrated solution for fingerprint recognition is developed for

demonstration.

The hardware is supported by MATLAB. For the program, some optimization at coding level

and algorithm level are proposed to improve the performance of the fingerprint recognition

system. These performance enhancements are shown by experiments conducted upon a

variety of fingerprint images. Also, the experiments illustrate the key issues of fingerprint

recognition that are consistent with what the available literatures say.

The hardware in the system comprises of several units such as an image acquiring device, a

barcode reader, a database with fingerprint templates of all registered voters, a voting unit,

a counting unit and a unit for displaying results. Inside the hardware is the brain that works

in the form of software to implement all these processes efficiently.


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1-INTRODUCTION 4

2- BACKGROUND AND HISTORY 5

3- THE NEED OF AN ELECTRONIC VOTING SYSTEM 6

4-THE ELECTORNIC VOTING MACHINE 8

5- COMPARISON 9

6- SCOPE AND APPLICATION AREAS 9

7- CONSIDERATIONS 10

8-CONCLUSIONS 10


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1. INTRODUCTIONAll democratic nations of the world have devised a procedure of electing their

representatives known as Elections. The procedure consists of candidates with their

respective electoral signs and people cast their vote to their desired candidate. Elections are

known to bring if they are held with transparency. Otherwise, they can be a call to a big

chaos if revolutions they are concluded against the wishes of the public. In the modern

world, elections are considered to be the most appropriate forum where people are free to

express their choice for the benefit of their future generations. There are different levels of

implementation of e-governance worldwide but it is more of an interest to find out this in

the developing world.

1.1 ELECTIONS IN PAKISTANPakistan is a democratic republic with a constitution that allows its citizens to elect their

representatives at any level by means of a free and fair electoral process. Elections are

sought to bring a change in the country and people have great expectations towards this

mechanism. They vote for the candidate and the party which they prefer as the most

suitable for the solution of their problems. Whenever the date for ballot voting is

announced, preparations are made over a large scale and the nation prepares itself for

playing their part in the course of action. But over some past decades, this selection of

representatives has been a cause of constant disappointment and frustration for the people

as the outcomes of the whole process are getting more and more unanticipated. The

involvement of shrewd and wily procedures such as bogus votes and mock counting has

significantly quashed the hopes of people disregarding the word Democracy. As a

consequence a large number of public has stepped back from manual voting during the

elections making the whole process a question mark. Following the developed countries of

the world, Election Commission of Pakistan has shown a desire to implement E-voting in the

country so that people could be brought back into the process of democratic selection of

representatives.Electronic Voting System is capable of saving considerable printing stationary and transport

of large volumes of electoral material. It is easy to transport, store, and maintain. It

completely rules out the chance of invalid votes. Its use results in reduction of polling time,

resulting in fewer problems in electoral preparations, law and order, and accurate counting

without any mischief at the counting centre.


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2.BACKGROUND2.1 WHAT HAS HAPPENED SO FAR?

Pakistan has always faced an issue of having real democracy in power and the basic reason

why it has never been able to govern by proper leadership was insecurity of the people and

distrust on the elections, elected bodies and the democratic environment where people can

sell votes and people can buy votes without any problem. If we dig deep into the problem,

we see the root cause is the ill mannered activities people do in the elections. As the whole

system is manual so they buy votes or shake hands with the people working at rge voting

stations. The people in command would fill their pockets and make the whole system unfair.

Pakistan has had a history of unfair election results; if it is not, people would say it is an

unfair result or the losing party will always complain about them. That is why there was no

government surviving for the complete time period of 5 years and has always collapsed. As a

result, Pakistan has always been missing the true democracy.

2.2 Aspects of absence of true DemocracyAlong with the social aspects that include failure of governments to complete their 5 years,

Army intervention, declaration of unfair elections by losing party etc. there are some

technical aspects that negate the manual procedures of voting. They can be explained as

follow:

Appointment of polling staff is problematic. Polling staff can help in corruptionduring the polling, so many of the influential candidates try to appoint their own

staff at their polling booths and thus the authorities are approached by such

candidates. Increasing number of polling booths raises the number of staff required.

Polling staff is appointed away from their area where they belong to, thus many of

the people could not cast their vote.

A huge number of ballot papers are printed and distributed on polling stations andthese costs billions, not acceptable for a developing state like Pakistan.

There is no check and balance on the timings of casting votes as some influentialcandidates let their own people cast cote even after the time is over.

Many of the votes are regarded invalid as some voters leave their thumb impressionin between the two check boxes.

Presiding Officers count the ballot papers, but human-counting is usually sluggishand has chances of errors as well; which means an ultimate disaster ahead in the

process on Democracy.


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Breaking down the problems more deeply into the security concerns we found that the

present day system being followed by the Government of Pakistan is not secure and hence

people can misuse the facilities. As there are a lot of financial issues with the ElectionCommission and hence cannot appoint so many security guards to make sure that the

process runs smoothly without corruption and even if they do so, it is likely they will have a

way to deceive them as well and keep on bluffing the government and the people.

3.THE NEED OF AN ELECTRONIC VOTING SYSTEMKeeping in view the above conditions and events, our group has decided to design an

electronic system of voting that is to replace the existing electoral setup. This system is

based on a mechanism that offers voting in an easier, efficient and quicker manner as

compared to the existing toiling setup of elections and comprises of modern techniques and

electronic equipment that offers accuracy and efficiency with a very little load of

preparation. The voting mechanism is based on electronics; from the registration,

identification and authentication of voters, through casting of votes to their counting and

evaluation of results. This is supported by electromechanical or electronic equipment

(including software, firmware, hardware and documentation required to program, control,

and support equipment) to define ballots; to cast and count votes, and to report or display

election results. Electronic voting technology can include punched cards, optical scan voting

systems and specialized voting kiosks (including self-contained direct-recording electronic

voting systems, or DRE). It can also involve transmission of ballots and votes via telephones,

private computer networks, or the Internet.

Fig 3.1 Electronic Voting Machine


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3.1 EFFECTIVENESSEffectiveness can be described as ability to achieve stated goals or objectives, judges in

terms of both output and impact. In the case of electoral system, effectiveness means the

power of a ballot to influence the election outcome. It can be based on four criteria as

mentioned:

i. Costs Resources Investments

ii. Time Casting a vote Calculation of results

iii. Results Correct results Avoiding human error

iv. 4-TransparencyThe electronic voting has three main users;

A-Voters (Time, transparency, correct results, easy-to-use system)

B-Government (cost, time, results)

C-Electoral candidates (time, transparency, correct results)

3.2 SUCCESSIf an event accomplishes its intended purpose, it is said to be successful. In case of e-voting

success means being effective to replace paper-based voting. It should also satisfy the

groups of users mentioned before. For voters it should b an easy-to-use system, providing

fast voting, lesser complications (transparency), reliability, security, objectivity and faster

results provided with paper-based system. From government perspective the system would

be successful if the price of the system is affordable and not much sensitive for the budget,

reusable, able to work in the long-term perspective and generates results in a short time.Also it should help to eradicate the complaints from voters and candidates about the

procedure and results of the elections eliminating human factor errors. From the electoral

candidates perspective e-voting will be successful if they get faster and correct results of

voting and are able to monitor the electoral process at any time.


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4.THE ELECTRONIC VOTING MACHINE4.1 PHYSICAL LAYOUT

The system can be divided into different sections on the basis of the various processes being

implemented on it at different levels:

v. Voter recognitionvi. Vote casting

vii. Vote countingviii. Results

The system layout

4.2 A BRIEF DECRIPTIONAll the three stages of the electronic voting machine are automated with a vey little human

contribution. The voter is recognized and verified by using his/her fingerprint or the barcode

on the national identity card. A fingerprint acquring device or a barcode reader with built in

algorithms are involved in this stage. The obtained sample is then matched automatically

with an original template stored in a database. If results are satisfactory, the person is

marked and authenticated to cast his vote.


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The polling of votes is also an automated process which comprises of an LCD or a touch

screenwith a clear display of all the electoral signs of the candidates participating in the

election. Only an authorized voter is allowed to cast his vote by selecting the appropriatesign and then comforming the selected choice.

The machine replaces the manual methods of counting by hands with a more accurate and

error-free mechanism. It has built in separate software counters for each sign and whenever

a valid vote is casted in favour of a candidate, the respective counter is incremented by a

single value. The counter is free from any kind of human access or interrupt.

After the voting has been completed, the machine dislays the result of all the counters one

by one. A authorized person from the administration can then announce the result.

As mentioned before the existing mechanism of manual voitng has many imperfections and

consumes a lot of resources including money and time. So, to provide a substitue for thecurrent electoral process, an electronic voting machine is a much better option.

5.COMPARISON BETWEEN MANUAL AND E-VOTINGMANUAL VOTING E-VOTING

Chances of rigging, fake votes Transparent

Complaints from candidates as well as

citizens

Very few complains

Governmental, Staff and Party

influence

Free from any external influence

Long calculation time Effficient and quick

Complicated procedures Easy-to-use system

Miscounting Accurate computerized counting

6.SCOPE OF EVM AND APPLICATION AREASConsidering the advanatges and features of the electronic voting machine it can replace all

areas where manual voting is used. It can be employed to serve in:

Presidential Elections National Assembly Provincial Assembly


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Districts Union councils Organizations Institutions

7.SOME CONSIDERATIONSAwareness-about computer technology in rural areas of the country

Literacy-make people literate enough to understand e-voting

Infrastructure-strong infrastructure to support the new system

Security-processes used eradicate illegal manipulations

Transparency-process is open for anyone to monitor at any stage

Public confidence-respect for the opinion of the people

Training-officials to promote its effectiveness and media

Smooth transition-to the new system without any offence

Privacy-safety of personal data and information

8.CONCLUSIONSWhile going through the various stages of the manual electoral process and then comparing

them with the electronic voting machine, one can conclude that the latter is a more suitable

and reliable option. A system that eradicates the complications of the manual methods and

offers the citizens to play their part in the democratic process of electing representatives

can bring a postive change through the country.

project launch (electronic voting machine)

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