AN ENHANCED WEB-BASED ELECTRONIC VOTING SYSTEM
ABSTRACT
In recent years, information technology has greatly affected all aspects of our national life, and to a large extent, this includes politics. One basic feature of democracy that cuts across all divides of people is the act of election. Traditional manual methods of conducting elections are no longer preferred because of the long period of preparation, violence, rigging, dis-enfranchization of eligible voters, over-voting, mistakes made in counting the votes, long period of counting and high cost of voting process etc. The most recent method being advocated for is electronic voting (e-voting). E-voting is an election system that allows a voter to record his or her secure and secret ballotelectronically.
This work showed how e-voting through the use of mobile devices like tablets, Ipads and PCs would totally eradicate all these problems as people would no longer go to election venues to cast their votes, rather they would be at the comfort of their homes and offices to exercise their franchise using any of these electronic devices effortlessly.
The application was achieved via means of object oriented software development with the .NET framework. The core web services were implemented with the C# programming language. The design structure was modularized and the design utilized the use of voter identification number and password for voter authentication, as well as token generation for security.
In conclusion, the problems of trust and confidence in the electoral process in Nigeria can be solved if the electoral body embarks on a web-based process. It is recommended that E-voting systems should be certified by an independent agency and audits should be conducted throughout the process to allow independent confirmation of the results produced.
Keywords: Electronic Voting, Permanent Voters Card, Voter Identification Number(VIN), Election, Voter Validation