Description
ABSTRACT
The heart of democracy is election which involves two processes – accreditation and voting. The beauty of voting is trust that each voter is accredited and their vote is recorded and tallied with accuracy and impartiality. The accuracy and impartiality are tallied in high rate with biometric and advanced digital technologies. Among these biometric signs, fingerprint has been researched the longest period of time, and shows the most promising future in real-world applications and for the advanced mobile technology, a Near Field Communication (NFC) is used. Because of their uniqueness and consistency over time, fingerprints and Near Field Communication (NFC) have been used for identification over time.
These two technologies are used to record votes in place of ballot papers and boxes which were used earlier in conventional voting system.
CHAPTER ONE
1.0 Introduction
1.1 Background of the study
1.2 Statement of the problem
Fundamental right to vote or simply voting in elections forms the basis of democracy. All earlier elections be it local, state or federal elections, a voter used to cast his/her favorite candidate by putting the stamp against his/her name and then folding the ballot paper as per a prescribed method before putting it in the Ballot Box, and these happened after they are been accredited manually – which is a traditional means of casting vote. In this traditional method, voters are accredited and are asked to return for voting. This is time wasting and at times accredited voters may not return to voters, this being deenfranchised (Ahmed et al., 2017).
This situation continued till election scene was completely changed to electronic voting machine. No more ballot paper, ballot boxes, stamping, etc. all this condensed into a simple box called ballot unit of the electronic voting machine. Because biometric identifiers cannot be easily misplaced, forged, or shared, they are considered more reliable for person recognition than traditional token or knowledge based methods. So the Electronic voting system has to be improved based on the current technologies viz., biometric system incorporated with mobile technologies (Ezzaldeen et al., 2019). Biometric system (fingerprint) and mobile technologies (Near Field Communication) is a simple electronic device used to accredit and record votes in place of ballot papers and boxes which were used earlier in conventional voting system. This technology makes both accreditation and voting fast and authentic which prevent errors and cheating.
1.3 Aim and objectives of the study
Aim
To design and implement a system that allows voters to be accredited and vote immediately.
Objectives
- To design and implement the accreditation unit of the system
- To design and implement the voting unit of the system
- To design and implement the votes storage unit of the system
- To increase the level of security during accreditation and voting process
1.4 Scope of the study
The scope of this work covers building a smart voting machine using Biometric system (fingerprint) and mobile technologies (Near Field Communication). The system is a simple electronic device used to accredit and record votes in place of ballot papers and boxes which were used earlier in conventional voting system. Near Field Communication (NFC) lets you share small payloads of data between an NFC tag and an Android-powered device, or between two Android-powered devices. Tags can range in complexity. The system has the capacity of accrediting and accepting 2000 voters.
1.5 Significance of the study
This system will provide a means of ensuring that both accreditation and voting are done in an accurate and fast means which prevent errors and cheating.
CHAPTER FIVE
5.1 Conclusion
The project is found to be very helpful in overcoming the difficulties faced during voting times. Also, it efficiently uses both the Finger Print Recognition and NFC Tag as voter ID. This serves to be an efficient method to reduce manpower requirements and other illegal activities. Also, it eliminates manual errors incurred during voting and displays the polling results at the end. The process can be extended to help the government during elections and reduce fraudulence to a great extent. This project aims at providing a more secure and transparent method of voting. This system prevents the loss of votes due to mechanical faults this is a contactless process. It is a secure authenticated voting system based on NFC and Finger Print Recognition Technology. To ensure the security of the voter and preserve the sanctity of the method, a two-layer security scheme is introduced. We assume this method is useful in conducting fair and open elections.
5.2 Recommendation
We recommend that the future voting machine may be integrated with face recognition system also by replacing the fingerprint block. All voter details can be stored in server rather than in the device. So the voter can poll his vote anywhere.
