Effect of Online Voting System: A Comprehensive Research Report

This report investigates the effect of online voting systems, focusing on their benefits, challenges, and proposed architecture. It begins with an introduction to online voting and its advantages over traditional methods, such as convenience and reduced congestion. The report then delves into the existing voting system's problems, including high costs, paper-based processes, data entry errors, and limited voter access. It proposes an online voting architecture with voter registration, authentication, and vote recording servers, with the potential for biometric integration, specifically fingerprint scanning, to enhance security. The literature review covers the concept of voting, problems with existing systems, and the advantages of online voting. The research methodology outlines the approach, design, and data analysis methods. The report concludes with recommendations and suggestions for future work, emphasizing the importance of online voting in modern democracies. This assignment is a comprehensive analysis of the benefits and challenges of online voting systems.

Running head: EFFECT OF ONLINE VOTING SYSTEM
Effect of online voting system
Name of the Student
Name of the University

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Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction....................................................................................................................4
1.1 Background.......................................................................................................................4
1.2 Problem statement.............................................................................................................4
1.3 Research Aim, Objectives and research questions............................................................5
1.4 Research Structure............................................................................................................5
Chapter 2: Literature Review...........................................................................................................6
2.1 Concept of Voting..................................................................................................................6
2.2 Problems with existing voting system...................................................................................8
2.3 Proposed architecture of voting systems...............................................................................9
2.4 Advantages of online voting system....................................................................................12
Chapter 3: Research Methodology................................................................................................14
3.1 Introduction..........................................................................................................................14
3.2 Method Outline....................................................................................................................14
3.3 Research Philosophy/Paradigm...........................................................................................15
3.4 Research Approach..............................................................................................................17
3.5 Design of the Research........................................................................................................18
3.6 Methods for the gathering of the information......................................................................19
3.7 Analysis of the information.................................................................................................20
3.8 Sampling..............................................................................................................................20

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3.9 Ethical Consideration...........................................................................................................21
Chapter 4: Data Findings and Analysis.........................................................................................23
4.1 Quantitative data analysis....................................................................................................23
Chapter 5: Conclusion and Recommendation...............................................................................31
5.1 Conclusion...........................................................................................................................31
5.2 Recommendations................................................................................................................32
5.3 Future Work.........................................................................................................................32
References......................................................................................................................................34

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Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1 Background
Online voting system has been an online technique by which voting can be done with other
facilities including online registration systems. These systems might help in casting vote through
online systems. The Online Voting System (OVS) is a term that has been incorporating in
different types of voting embracing both electronic means of counting votes (Kaliyamurthie et al.
2013). It includes transmission of ballots and votes with the help of telephones, private computer
networks with virtual private networks (VPNs). Online voting has been an electronic way of
selecting leaders with the help of internet applications. The advantage of online voting over
common queue method has been that voters have their choice of free time and reduced
congestion in the queue. It helps in saving time of the voters during poll systems (Springall et al.
2014). Democracy has been an important part of the country. It has been a delicate process that
has been the subject of different disturbances with fraud citizens. The electorate process used to
be done with electorate representatives. The existing system has been consist of paper based
voting system. There have been several issues faced in the existing voting system including fraud
cases in counting votes. Therefore, this research has been done on identifying the benefits of the
online voting system (Agarwal and Pandey 2013).
1.2 Problem statement
The main problem of the existing voting system has been related to errors in counting of
votes. There has been various issues and challenges faced by the voting council of the nation.
There have been different perspectives of citizens of nation during voting processes. The existing

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physical voting system has been creating issues related to malfunctioning and misuse of the
votes.
1.3 Research Aim, Objectives and research questions
The aim of the research has been based on identifying benefits of online voting system.
Following are objectives of this research:
 To identify issues in the existing voting system
 To analyze benefits of online voting system
 To recommend strategies for enhancing the use of online voting system
Following are research questions:
 What issues are faced in the existing voting system?
 What are benefits of online voting system?
 How to enhance use of existing voting system?
1.4 Research Structure
Figure 1: Research Structure
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Literature Review
Chapter 3: Research Methodology
Chapter 4: Data Findings and Analysis
Chapter 5: Conclusion and Recommnedation

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(Source: Created by author)
Chapter 2: Literature Review
2.1 Concept of Voting
As commented by Wolchok et al. (2012), voting has been an important part of a
democratic country including the UK. Voting has been helping in providing proper evidence for
selecting a government in the country. Voting has been helping in maintaining a keen approach
in the development of the country. The main permit of voting systems has been prepared in
order to select right candidate for governing the country in a managed way. The UK government
has been able to shine in their country with proper decision and rules under their governance.
However, voting systems have not been settled properly in the country (Gritzalis 2012). The
study and analysis of the voting systems does not helps in providing proper solutions to the
issues faced in the systems. Therefore, comparing voting systems have been a political tasks in
the matter of concern. The political parties in the country need to be essentially active in their
work. This create a positive effect on development of the country and its constituencies. The
existing voting systems have been followed for many years back. It has been based on paper
voting system.
As commented by Halderman and Teague (2015), paper-based voting system are systems
that include electronic mean of tabulation has been used for counting paper ballots. Votes used to
be casted and marked on paper ballots with the help of hands using marking devices and an
electronic tabulation has been used for counting. This help in speeding up process of counting
and not only provide less manual work including less error related to human failure. There have
been use of punch cards for handing the technology that helps in maintaining a keen approach in
the development of the votes in the system. The punch card has been a sorting and tabulation

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equipment which was invented by statistician Herman Hollerith in 1890 (Hanifatunnisa and
Rahardjo 2017). It was used at that time in US Census and later developed for scientific and
commercial purposes. The components of the punch card system have been provided in the
below figure.
Figure 2: A punching device to punch holes in a punch card
(Source: Katakis et al. 2012)
This device helps in punching data and information on cards. There have been different
decks of punched cards a card collator machine and can sort different cards. The punch cards
have been stiff cards and paper strips that have been punched accordingly for a certain value or
designation. As per research done by Powell et al. (2012), punch cards have been used for input
data for processing in various electromechanical devices including tabulation machines and unit
record equipment that have been used before invention of modern electronic computers. These

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machines have been functioning of sensing punched holes with either electrical or optical
sensors. As argued by Walake and Chavan (2015), the traditional voting has been creating issues
with accuracy of voting. There have been various human error during counting of votes. This has
been creating issues with winning wrong political party in the voting procedure (Paul and
Anilkumar 2012). Additionally, most of the voters are not able to come to the voting centre and
cast their votes. Most eligible students do not have time to come to voting centre due to their
university studies and other personal work. Therefore, the number of votes casting have been
decreasing continuously. Therefore, this research has helped in proposing a new voting
architecture to minimize these challenges in the voting systems.
2.2 Problems with existing voting system
The existing voting system has been facing a lot of issues in the scenario. Some of these issues
have been described below:
Expensive and Time Consuming: The data collection process and entering this data into
database has been a difficult process and takes time and cost. Both time and money is spend on
printing data capture forms, in making registration stations together with the help of human
resources (Kshetri and Voas 2018).
Too much paper work: This process involves many paper work and storage of paper has
been becoming bulky and difficult. The paper work create a lot of human errors during
calculation. There have been many miscalculation faced in the counting of votes in this method.
Errors in data entry: As commented by Walake and Chavan (2015), errors have been part
of all human beings. Therefore, it has been very unlikely for humans to get 100 percent efficient
in data entry.

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Loss of registration forms: Eventually, registration forms used to get lost after being
filled in with voter’s details and difficult to take follow up. Therefore, many remain unregistered
even though they have been voting age nationals and interested in exercising their right to vote.
Short time provided to view the voter register: This has been a big issue as people have
free time during short period of time for checking and updating voter register (Osgood 2016).
2.3 Proposed architecture of voting systems
The proposed architecture has been online voting system. There have been three models in the
architecture:
 Voter registration server
 Authentication server
 Vote recording and casting server
In voter registration server, voter will register themselves with their personal information and
biometric data including thumb impression. Only registered users have been allowed to vote at
the time of election (Traunmueller and Fatah gen Schieck 2013).

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Figure 3: Architecture of Online Voting System
(Source: Pan, Hou and Ansari 2012)
The user have to register at first in the online voting system. This he in sending all
information of voter to the server of the registration portal. The login portal used to validate this
information for accessing the portal. Therefore, only registered users can cast their vote online.
The vote directly goes to the vote recording and casting server where it is stored in the database.
This architecture can be enhanced with utilizing biometrics in the system.
As commented by Alaguvel and Gnanavel (2013) fingerprint scanning has been an
essential security approach to be connected in the online voting system. It helps in identifying
user with the help of their unique fingerprint. The real fingerprint identification process have
been changing with variety of products and systems. Standard systems have been compromised

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with a sensor for scanning a fingerprint and a processor storing fingerprint database and software
comparing with the fingerprint to predefined database. As commented by Pan, Hou and Ansari
(2014), fingerprint recognition has been helping in describing process of obtaining a digital
representation of a fingerprint and comparing with the stored digital version of fingerprint.
Electronic fingerprint scanners capturing digital pictures of fingerprints based on light reflections
of finger ridges and valleys. These pictures used to be processed with digital templates
containing unique extracted features of finger. These fingerprints can be stored in the databases
and utilized replacing traditional passwords for secure access (Kling et al. 2015). Instead of
typing a password, user place their finger on an electronic scanner. The scanner used to read the
digital prints of finger and matches it with the predefined stored in databases.
Figure 4: Fingerprint scanner
(Source: Yang et al. 2018)

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Figure 5: The Enrolment process
(Source: Olaniyi et al. 2013)