E Voting Thesis
E Voting Thesis
E Voting Thesis
Research Article
Development of an Efficient and Secured E-Voting Mobile
Application Using Android
Anli Sherine ,1 Geno Peter ,2 Albert Alexander Stonier ,3 Desmond Wong Leh Ping ,4
K. Praghash ,5 and Vivekananda Ganji 6
1
School of Computing and Creative Media, University of Technology Sarawak, Sibu 96000, Malaysia
2
CRISD, School of Engineering and Technology, University of Technology Sarawak, Sibu 96000, Malaysia
3
Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Kongu Engineering College, Perundurai, Tamil Nadu 638060, India
4
Operion Ecommerce & Software Sdn Bhd, Penang, Butterworth 12300, Malaysia
5
Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Christ University, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560029, India
6
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Debre Tabor University, Debre Tabor, Ethiopia
Received 13 June 2022; Revised 30 August 2022; Accepted 6 September 2022; Published 19 September 2022
Copyright © 2022 Anli Sherine et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License,
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Smart technologies, particularly the development of the Internet, are employed to enhance the quality of human existence. Thanks
to the Internet’s explosive expansion, more and more tasks can now be completed quickly and easily compared to the earlier times.
E-voting is a relatively recent field that has been identified. Voting can be conducted in a variety of methods, including in person at
a polling place, online, and via a mobile application. The security of applications cannot be disregarded given the internet’s
explosive growth. In order to prevent phishing attacks, we created an Android application and included a 3-step security process
before voting. Students can now vote online from any location at any time using a mobile device. Android Studio is used to create
and deploy the application. While creating the voting application, this research adheres to the software development life cycle. The
result of this research is the creation of a mobile application that is user-friendly for students and serves as a practical tool for
letting them vote with three levels of security.
colleges the ability to vote on important and private internal developing mobile applications. Online voting is a method
corporate decisions. It uses three layers of security to prevent of conducting elections that enables participants to elec-
phishing attacks. Voting may be carried out from anywhere tronically record and submit a secret ballot. A person or
thanks to its adaptability. By implementing the necessary group of people express their opinions using this procedure.
security measures, the election is conducted in complete Voters can vote anywhere, at any time, and from any lo-
secrecy, allowing the voter to select any of the participating cation with the ease of online voting. Using their own
candidates only provided they enter the correct voting code computers or smartphones, voters can cast their ballots from
[1]. The student council is the official body that represents any location with Internet access with ease and comfort.
college students and allows them to engage in academic Electronic voting technologies can expedite election results
matters. In order to benefit the university and its students, and lower election costs by drastically lowering the number
the student council also works in conjunction with the of workers needed to run a physical polling place and tally
administration and personnel of the university. The mem- the results. With the introduction of the electronic tabula-
bers of the student council are primarily other students, with tion system, it allows the electronic counting of sheets or
support from university teachers and lecturers. Elections are paper cards [3]. Direct-recording is the use of a ballot display
held for a variety of activities, including clubs, in addition to with electro-optical or mechanical components where voters
the student council. Every two years, an electoral process for can record their ballots. Computer software can then process
choosing the eligible student council members will be un- the data and store the results in memory components [4].
dertaken to choose the student council members. Despite the Direct recording electronics and electronic ballot printers
fact that voting is required of all students, the majority of are related. No vote information is saved using this tech-
them choose not to. A week prior to the election, the nique. Only a token or piece of paper with voting options is
candidates for office must register with the election com- printed by the printer. The ballot box, which may be elec-
mittee at the staff office. Voters are also thought of as the tronic and count votes automatically, is then taken by the
candidates themselves. Voters had to wait in a long line voter and placed inside. Voters can use a computer with
before casting their ballots, which added to the strain of the internet access to cast their ballots using the internet voting
voting process. The majority of students decided not to vote system. It can be kept on any electronic device with internet
in this situation. Regular voting will use paper and voters’ connectivity and in an unsupervised, unrestricted place. The
time, and it may not be accurate. Voters have to submit the use of internet kiosks in actual polling places is one example
proper voting room key-ID in order to cast their ballots at of where it can happen in supervised and nonremote lo-
the proper session for the research. To prevent any fraud- cations [5]. The voting system has a number of common
ulent activity, it included three-step verification features aspects, one of which is the ability to specify in advance
where the verification had to be completed by a mobile one- which users are permitted to vote and which are not. This
time password, e-mail verification, and fingerprint verifi- method is employed in the private election section, where
cation [2]. Many voters today do not enjoy waiting in lines those who are not related to the party cannot vote. It can be
because they are too busy with their own business or because used in the workplace, in a classroom, at a university, or even
they live far from polling places. These factors are causing a at a local event. The majority of voting applications display
decline in the voting percentage. Voting nowadays takes a lot the voting results publicly. The outcome can be displayed in
of time, is difficult and uses a lot of paper. In order to a variety of views, including pie chart and bar chart views.
complete this process, a voter must physically visit a polling Trust is one of the main benefits of having expert influence
place and present the voting official with their identification over your election. Voters can feel secure knowing that their
card. When voting in person at a polling place, this iden- votes will be properly displayed and tallied thanks to a server
tification card used is to be issued to obtain authentication. and service that are separately controlled.
After completing the authentication procedure, the voter
will proceed to the polling place and cast their ballot by
2.1. Existing Online Voting System. There are several existing
placing a checkmark next to the candidate they choose to
online voting systems, which are discussed below
support. From the line to the vote, it will be a lengthy and
time-consuming process. It is impossible for a voter to cast
another ballot if indelible ink is visible on their right index 2.1.1. Easy Voting and Election. Figure 1 shows the appli-
finger. The expense of labour and paper at each polling place cation of easy voting and election that has been designed to
will be borne in part by the election commission. The voting simplify the voting by a group of people in a physical lo-
station officer is responsible for transporting the vote boxes cation. For example, one of the users creates a new vote, and
to a central location after the voting session to announce the the other user just needs to vote by passing the physical
results. The security along the route is a serious issue, as the device from one person to another. The purpose is to create a
ballot boxes might be changed during the time between the tool that is simple and easy to use, and an internet con-
polling station and the central location. nection is not required. The interface of this app is simple
and easy to handle. When a user creates a new vote, the user
2. Literature Review needs to type in the name and choose the type of vote. These
apps support two types of voting modes, such as in favour/
This section includes publications that have addressed issues against and single choice. The in favour/against type is
related to the examination of present methods for suitable for voting on motions, resolutions, or proposals that
Mobile Information Systems 3
(a) (b)
saved in the database. The system can be used using the Build 1 Design & Testing Implementation
internet, e-mails, and e-SMS. The internet is used by voters Development
who can vote anywhere and anytime. The e-mails are used to
send error reports to the user that has entered the fault Build 2
information. The e-SMS is used for voters who do not have Design & Implementation
Requirements Testing
internet access and e-mails that can be informed through Development
SMS on their mobile phone. This online voting system re-
quires storing a voter’s information in a database, a voter’s
name, ID and password, a voter’s vote in a database, and the
total number of votes. Besides, there are several operational Build 3 Design & Implementation
Testing
Development
works that have been proposed in the system, which is
recording information of the voter in database, checking of Figure 5: Incremental model.
information filled by voter, discard the false information,
and also each information is sent to election commission. implementation. This strategy, as displayed in Figure 5, is
employed because it may break down software development
from broad applications into more manageable components.
2.1.6. Comparison Between the Existing Systems. Table 1 It also enables straightforward, easy redesign, and deploy-
below shows the comparison of summarization and short- ment. The benefits allow developers to work incrementally
comings between each existing system. and maintain concentration on one step before moving on to
the next. If something is lacking, developers can go back to
3. Motivation the previous phases.
User Interface
USER
PRESENTATION Presentation Logic
Communications
Configuration
COMMON
Security
Application Facade
SVc
Data Access Services Sync Remote
Infrastructure
4.3. Election Interface. The user interface for the election password given to the user’s phone number if it is used more
page is depicted in Figure 10 below. Joining an existing than 3 times [6].
election and establishing new election sections make up this The authentication using fingerprints is shown in Fig-
election page. A user who wants to participate in an election ure 14 above. After successfully completing the aforemen-
must enter the relevant election room ID in order to do so. tioned three procedures, users are permitted to click this
The user will be directed to the next stage, which is button. The user will be informed by the instruction if the
depicted in Figure 11 below, after entering the right election fingerprint match was successful or unsuccessful. Based on
room ID. The student identity number, e-mail, contact the fingerprint of the user’s device, fingerprint authentica-
number, and OTP are all listed on the account verification tion is employed. To use fingerprint authentication, a user
page. Each step must be verified by users. The database is must enable their fingerprint on their own device [6].
used to get the student ID, e-mail address, and phone
number, which cannot be changed [15]. If consumers need
help using it, an instruction manual is available to walk them 4.4. Firebase Database. Figure 15 below shows the basis of
through the process step-by-step. the user profile. These data are stored in a Cloud Firestore. In
The graphs below demonstrate account verification the first collection, a user profile collection is created to store
using captcha. For users to prove they are not robots, they the user’s information, which will store all user information
must click the captcha. When the user clicks the captcha under this collection. Inside this collection, a document is
button too frequently, Figure 12 will appear. The user can created every time a new user is registered. Each document
move on to the following phase if they are able to suc- in this field will be set to the user’s university e-mail. Each
cessfully verify the captcha. document is represented by each user. Each document has a
Figure 13 illustrates how to verify a GET OTP. For their field which consists of all of the user’s information. When a
personal OTP, users must click the “GET OTP” button. The user registers, their information will be saved in the field. If
system will then send a 6-digit one-time password code to an existing user updates their information, the data inside
the user’s phone number. The user must enter the proper the field will be updated automatically.
one-time password when clicking the verify button after Figure 16 below shows another collection inside the
getting the one-time password. The user can move on to the Cloud Firestore, which is voting information. This collection
following stage, as illustrated above, if they are successful in stores all the voting information that has been created by the
verifying their one-time password. The one-time password user. Each document inside the collection information will
can only be used once, and each user is only permitted to use be set as the title of the election that has been created by the
it once per day. The one-time password can only be given to user. Inside each document, it will be separated into two
a user three times each day. There will not be a one-time parts, which are the collection part and the field part. The
Mobile Information Systems 9
collection part will store the electoral information while the captcha button. The second step is that users need to get their
field part will store the election information such as date, own unique OTP number through their own phone number
title, organizer, and room ID. and insert it correctly. If the user successfully verifies the
Figure 17 below shows the electoral information in the OTP number, then they can proceed with the third step. The
voting information collection under the Test 2 document. third step is fingerprint authentication. After the user suc-
Inside the electoral information document, a bunch of cessfully verifies their OTP number, they are required to
documents will be created in which its name will be set as the click the authentication button, and the fingerprint au-
electoral student ID. Inside each document, the electoral thentication will pop up. Users are required to scan their
information will be stored here, such as course, ID, name, fingerprints to ensure that they are the owners of the phone
and phone number. All the information will be shown on the in order to proceed to the voting page. Phishing scams are
voting page except for the electoral phone number. avoidable if you know how to correctly identify and prevent
them. Firewalls are an effective way to prevent external
attacks, acting as a shield between your electronic gadget and
5. Conclusion an attacker. However, future improvements can be made to
The proposed system has higher security compared to the fulfil the limitations and widen the scope of the research. The
existing system. The application was tested for the student researcher can add some verification before creating a vote
leader election conducted on a university campus in and also allow users to receive notification when a related
Malaysia, and it proved workable. The only thing needed is field vote is created. Besides, a fully functional result will be
an electronic gadget with the software installed on it along added, such as a pie graph result, a real-time result, a
with an internet connection. No challenges were faced percentage of the result, and the overall result. Electronic
during the test run. Within this research, users need to voting technology aims to speed up ballot counting, reduce
register and log in to their own account before using the the cost of paying staff to manually count votes, and improve
application. The user will directly go into the main page accessibility for disabled voters. In the long term, expenses
fragment, which consists of the homepage fragment, voting are expected to decrease. Results can be reported and
fragment, message fragment, and account fragment. The published faster.
voting fragment page allows users to create a vote and join a
vote. In this research, a 3-step security e-voting method for Data Availability
Android applications is proposed to guard against phishing
attempts. Java and Extensible Markup Language (XML) are The required data can be obtained from the corresponding
used in the development of the suggested system. Before the author upon an e-mail request.
student submits his or her vote in this study, a three-step
verification is put up. Captcha, phone OTP, and fingerprint Conflicts of Interest
verification make up the verification process. Phishing is an
attempt by a person or group to obtain a victim’s private The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
information without their knowledge. To do this, fake
websites that closely resemble the actual webpages are References
hosted. The message fragment will show the system messages
[1] A. Sherine, G. Peter, A. A. Stonier, K. Praghash, and V. Ganji,
and the voting message. While the account fragment allows “CMY color spaced-based visual cryptography scheme for
users to edit their profile and logout, when a user wants to secret Sharing of data,” Wireless Communications and Mobile
join a vote, they need to do a 3-step of verification in order to Computing, vol. 2022, Article ID 6040902, 12 pages, 2022.
proceed. The first step is captcha verification, where the user [2] E. Yavuz, A. K. Koç, U. C. Cabuk, and G. Dalkılıc¸, “Towards
needs to verify that he or she is not a robot by clicking the secure e-voting using ethereum blockchain,” in Proceedings of
Mobile Information Systems 11