Mobile Voting Systems
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Background
Voting is a formal indication of a choice between two or more candidates or courses of action, expressed typically through hand-counted paper ballots or by show of hands. Like all other aspects of democracy, voting requires transparency, participation and accountability. Therefore, the efficiency, reliability and security of the procedures used are highly critical. The voting systems in most institutional bodies in the past have been marred with irregularities which have jeopardized this democratic process. There is therefore need for improvement in the voting system as a means of attaining the democracy most people advocate for, through the relevant technologies.
Why Mobile Voting
Business around the world has widely, of recent, been conducted using electronic means. Governments have come to realize the benefits of automating several processes due to efficiency and relatively low cost as compared to traditional means. As the digital age continues to grow, only time will tell until almost every human-handled process becomes computerized. Furthermore, governments are getting more involved in developing the ICT sector due to the pressure imposed by other governments and regulatory bodies for fear of lagging behind.
Mobile communication of recent has taken the world by storm and its getting bigger and better. Due to the numerous advantages they offer, a number of government and private business processes are being carried out under this platform. A case in point is the Mobile Money service provided by Mobile Telecommunications Companies in Uganda that enable users to pay water bills, electricity bills, tax, send and receive money, et al.
Augmenting the current voting systems with mobile voting will enhance the voting process by increasing voter participation. Below are other advantages that mobile voting systems offer;
1. Reduced costs in the materials required for printing and distributing ballots.
2. It permits access to more information regarding voting options and processes also.
3. Efficiency and accuracy in placing and tallying votes and displaying the results to the voters.
4. Minimal chances of invalid votes due to the use of option buttons to represent candidates.
5. Flexibility as mobile voting can support multiple languages, and the flexible design allows up-to-the minute ballot modifications.
The same development concept can be used and applied in other fields of research to support researchers in collecting and analyzing people’s opinions and views.
Mobile Voting Systems
Mobile Voting System (MVS) is a system that will operate in parallel with the existing manual and automated voting processes. It will enable legitimate voters to cast their vote from wherever they please using their mobile devices unlike other means that require the voter to appear at the polling station. This will help alleviate the nuisance of long queues at poll-sites which waste a lot of time. It will also ease the vote-counting process which will be done instantly as the voting progresses and a graphical display will be available on a site (attached to the system) for all stakeholders to view progress, hence ensuring transparency.
According to Nadja et al (2009) [6], Mobile voting falls under a category of voting called e-voting, which is short for ‘electronic voting’, and refers to the option of using electronic means to vote in referendums and elections. There are systems such as DRE (Direct Electronic Recording) voting machines that record the vote without that vote being transmitted over the Internet or another network. The interface of a DRE machine can be a touch screen or a scanner that scans the ballot paper where the voter marked the vote.
The vote is then registered and stored in the voting machine. Then there is voting over the Internet that uses a PC with an Internet-connection to cast the vote and send it to be stored in another remote computer. Personal Digital Assistants (PDA’s), telephones or mobile phones can also be used to cast a vote electronically.
Besides its hype and advantages over traditional voting systems, MVS reliability, security and transparency are still issues that limit its deployment in many countries. According to Bradly et al (2009) [6], Mobile Voting still faces a number of risks and challenges. These include;
- Third parties: Unauthorized intervention of third parties in the voting process. Given the current state of information technology, there is no guarantee, that a programme would not be manipulated to allow the storage and printing of a form or document different from the one appearing on the screen.
- Errors and technical malfunctions: More difficult to detect and identify the source of errors and technical malfunctions than with conventional procedures.
- Unreliability: Possibility that fully digitized system would fail to produce results and lack physical back-up records, making a public recount difficult or impossible.
- Security: In the context of remote e-voting, special attention should be given to the process guaranteeing a free and secret vote. Only entitled voters are allowed to cast a vote and this requires that every voter be authenticated (e.g. by using a PIN -Personal Identification Number or TAN -Transaction Number or by the use of digital signature) and their right to vote verified. In order to prevent multiple votes being cast or other misuse, a record must be made and checked in order to establish whether the voter has already cast a vote. There must be an electronic separation between the vote and the identification of the voter.
- Reliability: Mobile Voting Systems have to interact with some database server, or some other server, over a network. There might be instances when this network goes down during the voting process which may cause a potential voter to miss out on casting his/her vote, especially when he/she planned to use the system with no aim of going to the poll-site. Keeping the network stable and available during the voting process is a challenge that MVS application developers need to consider.
- Skepticism: Networks have been widely used all around the world in a number of sectors due to their benefits. The internet is the world’s largest network, with billions of dollars in transactions being carried out over it per fiscal year. Nevertheless, a large number of people, especially in developing countries where internet technologies are beginning to gain ground, still doubt the power that it brings into speeding up communication and information sharing. As governments begin to adopt e-voting, Mobile Voting for that matter, people doubt the security and transparency of such schemes just as they do for the internet.
Besides these challenges and risks, Mobile Voting Systems can still be trusted as a platform to conduct free and fair elections in a secure and transparent manner given that they are well implemented. Richard and Drake (2009) [5] suggest mutual authentication, integrity, voter anonymity and system accountability as some of the critical functional requirements that Mobile Voting Systems should have. If all these and some other requirements are well catered for in the system, then the system can be a success – which is a high possibility.
Saleh et al (2006) [4] suggest that Mobile Voting Systems are composed of several interacting agents, the Vote Collector, the Vote Manager, the Vote Authority, the Candidate, and the Voters. The Vote Authority (VA) is responsible for registering candidates for elections and commissioning Vote Managers. The Vote Collector (VC) is a mobile agent mandated by a stationary Vote Manager (VM) agent to collect votes from stationary voting agents (VOs). The arrangement of the system in such components can ensure a stable system suitable for voting.
Citizens around the world recognize and embrace the benefits of e-Government services such as online tax filing, license renewal, and benefits claims. Now governments are initiating strategies that support e-democracy and in doing so, engaging more citizens in democratic processes. This briefly addresses the highly formal processes of e-democracy, e-voting in particular, to offer governments and democratic-based entities worldwide the infrastructures, applications, and services necessary to implement and manage reliable, secure e-voting systems.
Today, the development and widespread use of information technologies is changing the way people view voting processes and, ultimately, the way they vote.
Mobile Voting Systems offer multiple advantages over traditional paper-based voting systems-advantages that increase citizen access to democratic processes and encourage participation.
Manish et al (2006) [7] explains these advantages as below;
1. Reduced costs - E-voting systems reduce the materials required for printing and distributing ballots. Internet based voting, in particular, offers superior economies of scale in regard to the size of the electoral roll.
2. Increased participation and voting options - E-voting offers increased convenience to the voter encourages more voters to cast their votes remotely, and increases the likelihood of participation for mobile voters. Additionally, it permits access to more information regarding voting options.
3. Greater speed and accuracy placing and tallying votes -E-voting's step-by-step processes help minimize the number of miscast votes. The electronic gathering and counting of ballots reduces the amount of time spent tallying votes and delivering results.
4. Greater accessibility for the disabled and the sick - Because they support a variety of interfaces and accessibility features, e-voting systems allow citizens with disabilities-especially the visually impaired-to vote independently and privately.
5. Flexibility - E-voting can support multiple languages, and the flexible design allows up-to-the-minute ballot modifications.
According to Lumu (2011) [10], an article on the aftermath of 18th February 2011 presidential elections in Uganda, invalid votes accounted for 4% of the votes. This makes the issue of invalid votes in manual voting systems a big problem. However, with a mobile voting system, there will be little or no invalid votes due to the use of option buttons on the electronic ballots to represent candidates.
According to the Electoral Commission Board (2006) [2], Constitutionalism, rule of law and good governance are the fundamental pillars of democracy. Democracy, irrespective of whatever form it takes in different national domains must not lose its universal sense of a government of the people, by the people and for the people. This is why democratic leadership in any country should only be accessed through a free and fair electoral process which is the foundation of true democracy.
Mugisha (2006) [3], lists the steps used in the manual electoral process as follows;
1. Formulating legislation, through Parliament, that will guide and support any election process.
2. Calling of elections,
3. Registration of candidates,
4. Preparation and display of voter’s register at polling stations
5. Voting at polling stations
6. Counting and tallying of votes,
7. Declaration of results by the Electoral Body
A citizen of Uganda of or above 18 years who is registered has the right to vote in a parish or ward where he or she is registered as a voter for public elections and a referenda. That person cannot be compelled to vote in any election in Uganda under the present constitution. A person, however, is not qualified to vote at an election if he/she is not a registered voter.
The Constitution of the Republic of Uganda (1995) [1], gives guidelines to be followed when voting at elections and referenda in articles 68 (1), (2), (3), (4) and (5)
Also, further articles on the right to vote – articles 59 (1), (2), (3), and (4) – identify citizens eligible for voting and the role of the state and the parliament in the electoral process.
According to the Department of Innovations and Software Development (DISD), School of Computing and Informatics Technology (2010) [8], In March 2009, Makerere University office of the Dean of Students approached DISD and requested that an application be developed that could help to alleviate, among other things, election rigging, loss of votes, disparities in regard to how many voters registered and the number of votes counted and any other election malpractices that have plagued the university over the years. The system was supposed to be used in the Makerere University Guild elections.
A prototype of the system was used in the Guild Representative Council Elections at the Halls of Residence where the students were electing student leaders. Basing on this, the system was enhanced and is now ready to be used in the entire Guild elections. Because of the projects success, Makerere University Administration asked the Department to maintain it for future election that shall be conducted at the University.
The system had the following capabilities;
1. It does instant counting; counts the voters who have voted instantly
2. Instantly counts the voters who have voted for a particular candidate
3. Gives overall count and tallies the votes for each candidate
4. Can provide option of manual counting of votes by printing the ballot papers that were ticked in case one doubts its results
5. It totally eliminates the involvement of human force during the counting and tallying the results
6. In less than a minute, the winner is known
According to Rich (2009) [9] Estonia is a small country hidden away on the shores of the Baltic Sea and Gulf of Finland. Despite its small size and population, it has already made a significant contribution to the communications world, being home to much of the R & D that has gone into the skype application now used by some 370 million people globally.
In 2008, Estonia became the first country to allow voting in nationwide general elections to be done online. The online turnout wasn’t very great – only about 3.5% of registered voters – but it signaled again that the country holds its own when it comes to technology.
Now, Estonia has again landed itself in the global technology spotlight. Its parliament voted to allow voting via mobile phones – Mobile Voting. Though it won’t actually implement the process until the 2011 general elections, it is the first country to pass such a law.
Estonia’s mobile penetration rate was rated at more than 120% in 2008. The first question that comes to mind is regarding the security of such endeavor. Following 2009 elections, officials said there were no instances of hacking, fraud, or other malicious activity with the online voting process.
According to Alves et al (2009) [6], In September 2000, the European Commission launched the CyberVote project with the aim of demonstrating fully verifiable on-line elections guaranteeing absolute privacy of the votes and using fixed and mobile Internet terminal. The project involved partners from industries: EADS Matra Systèmes & Information of France, Nokia Research Centre of Finland, and British Telecommunications of the United Kingdom, universities: K.U.Leuven Research & Development of Belgium, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven of The Netherlands, and potential users: Freie Hansestadt Bremen of Germany, Mairie d'Issy-les-Moulineaux of France, Kista Stadsdelsnämnd of Sweden.
The CyberVote project involved the development of an e-voting system that was tested in different elections in 2002-2003. The first test was held on 11 December 2002 in the French town of Issy-les-Moulineaux. 860 voters have elected their representatives to the city boroughs' counsels electronically. The second test took place in Germany on 13-15 January 2003 at the Bremen University. The trial covered the elections of the three University's representative bodies: the university council, the councils of the different university departments and the student council with a total of 47 voters casting their votes electronically. The last test took place in the Swedish Kista with the participation of the elderly citizens in Kista. Much work was needed to attract voters aged over 55. The trial was open all day during the week of 27-31 January 2003. At the end of that period, 226 voters had participated in the electronic voting.
Kristina et al (2009) [6] researched on a number of other countries that have employed mobile voting systems in some of their referendums and elections. These include; Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, The Netherlands, UK and USA.
PDF. Downlaod - Mobile Voting System Report
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