Online Voting System

1. i
Design and Development of a Web-based Applition
Online Voting System (OVS)
Md. Milton Hossain (ID-21213)
Nasir Uddin Ahamed (ID-21214)
Md. Shohel Rana (ID-21217)
Md. Motaleb Hossain (ID-21219)
A project report is
submitted in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of
Post Graduate Diploma in Information Technology
Supervisor: Md. Biplob Hosen, Lecturer, IIT
Institute of Information Technology
Jahangirnagar University
Savar, Dhaka-1342
August, 2022

2. ii
DECLARATION
We hereby declare that this project is based on the results found by ourselves. Materials of
work found by other researchers are mentioned by reference. This project and this report,
neither in whole nor in part, have been previously submitted for any degree, diploma, or
publication.
Name: Md. Milton
Hossain
ID:21213
Name: Nasir Uddin
Ahamed
ID: 21214
Name: Md. Shohel
Rana
ID: 21217
Name: Md. Motaleb
Hossain
ID: 21219

3. iii
CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that the project work entitled “Online Voting System” is prepared and
submitted by Md. Milton Hossain (21213), Nasir Uddin Ahamed (21214), Md. Shohel Rana
(21217) and Md. Motaleb Hossain (21219) in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the Post
Graduate Diploma in Information Technology on August, 2022.
This is to state that the above document has been scanned for plagiarism detection with exclude
quote, exclude bibliography, exclude phases and number of words count less than 10 and the
outcome is given below:
Software used: ithenticate Date: August, 2022
Similarity Index: Less than 20% Total word count: 3560
Md. Biplob Hosen, Lecturer
Supervisor
Accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the Post Graduate Diploma
in Information Technology.
Dr. Risala Tasin Khan, Professor ……………………………
Coordinator, PGDIT
Dr. Rashed Majumder, Associate Professor ....…………………………
Member, PGDIT
Dr. M. Shamim Kaiser, Professor ...…………………………
Member, PGDIT (Ex-officio)

4. iv
ABSTRACT
This project deals with the design and development of an online voting system (OVS) where
people who are citizens and whose age are above 18 years of age and any sex can give hisher
vote online without going to any physical polling station. Voters have to be registered first for
him/her to vote manually. Registration is mainly done by the system administrator for security
reasons. After registration, the voter is assigned a secret Login ID and password with which
he/she can use to log into the system and enjoy services provided by the system such as voting.
If invalid/wrong details are submitted, then the citizen is not registered to vote. Voters can vote
to any party only single time. In this system, voting detail store in database and the result is
displayed by calculation. By online voting system percentage of voting will increases and it
will decrease the cost and time of voting process. It is very easy to use and it is very less time
consuming.
Keywords: Online; Voting; Voters; Polling; OVS.

5. i
TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Diagrams .......................................................................................................................iii
List of Tables ............................................................................................................................iii
Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................1
1.1 Online Voting System................................................................................................1
1.2 Background of Study .................................................................................................1
1.3 Significance of Study.................................................................................................2
1.4 Objective of Project ...................................................................................................3
Chapter 2. JUSTIFICATION.....................................................................................................4
2.1 Project Justification....................................................................................................4
2.2 Scope of Study...........................................................................................................4
2.3 Traditional Methods...................................................................................................4
2.4 Problems with Traditional System.............................................................................5
Chapter 3. REQUIREMENTS...................................................................................................6
3.1 General Requirements................................................................................................6
3.2 Software and Hardware Requirements ......................................................................6
Chapter 4. DATA FLOW DIAGRAM (DFD)...........................................................................7
4.1 Block Diagram...........................................................................................................7
4.2 Activity Diagram .......................................................................................................8
4.3 First Level DFD (For Admin)....................................................................................8
4.4 First Level DFD (For Voter)......................................................................................9
Chapter 5. ERD AND DATABASE TABLES........................................................................10
5.1 Simplified Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD)......................................................10
5.2 Actual Designed Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD)............................................11
5.3 Major Database Tables ............................................................................................12
Chapter 6. SYSTEM DESIGN ................................................................................................14
6.1 Login Screen ............................................................................................................14
6.2 Create Voters Screen................................................................................................15
6.3 Create Candidate Screen..........................................................................................16
6.4 View- Edit Voters Screen ........................................................................................17
6.5 View- Edit Candidates Screen .................................................................................18
6.6 Vote Cast Screen......................................................................................................19
6.7 Results Screen..........................................................................................................20

6. ii
6.8 Reports Screen .........................................................................................................21
Chapter 7. SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT..................................................................................22
7.1 Database Tables Source Code..................................................................................22
7.1.1 User Table............................................................................................................22
7.1.2 Voters Table.........................................................................................................22
7.1.3 Candidates Table..................................................................................................23
7.1.4 Vote Cast Table....................................................................................................23
7.2 Development Screen’s Source Code........................................................................24
7.2.1 User Create...........................................................................................................24
7.2.2 User Update .........................................................................................................25
7.2.3 User Delete...........................................................................................................26
7.2.4 User View ............................................................................................................26
7.2.5 Candidate Create..................................................................................................27
7.2.6 Voter Creation......................................................................................................29
7.2.7 Voter Update........................................................................................................31
7.2.8 Voter Delete.........................................................................................................32
7.2.9 Vote Casting.........................................................................................................32
Chapter 8. TESTING AND SECURITY.................................................................................33
8.1 Testing......................................................................................................................33
8.2 Security Issues .........................................................................................................33
Chapter 9. FUTURE ENHANCEMENT.................................................................................34
9.1 Future Enhancement ................................................................................................34
9.2 Conclusion ...............................................................................................................34

7. iii
LIST OF DIAGRAMS
Diagram 4.1. Block Diagram.............................................................................................. 6
Diagram 4.2. Activity Diagram. ......................................................................................... 7
Diagram 4.3. First Level DFD (For Admin)....................................................................... 7
Diagram 4.4. First Level DFD (For Voter)......................................................................... 8
Diagram 5.1. Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD)............................................................. 9
LIST OF TABLES
Table 5.2. Voters Table..................................................................................................... 10
Table 5.2. Candidate Table............................................................................................... 10
Table 5.2. Vote Cast Table ............................................................................................... 11

8. iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We would like to express our gratitude and appreciation to all related persons who gave us
the possibility to complete this project report in time. Special thanks are due to our honorable
supervisor Md. Biplob Hossain, Lecturer, IIT whose help, guideline, suggestions and
encouragement helped us to successfully complete our project works and completion of writing
of this report.
We would also like to acknowledge with much appreciation to all the faculty of IIT who
have helped us to enrich our knowledge, encourage us to grow further throughout the course
and have helped us directly and indirectly to accomplish this project.

9. v
DEDICATION
This project is dedicated to our honorable supervisor Md. Biplob Hossain, Lecturer, IIT,
Jahangirnagar University because without his guidance, suggestions and encouragement
we were unable to complete this project

10. 1
Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 ONLINE VOTING SYSTEM
"ONLINE VOTING SYSTEM" is an online voting technique. In this system people who are
citizens and whose age are above 18 years of age and any sex can give hisher vote online
without going to any physical polling station.
In "ONLINE VOTING SYSTEM" a voter can use hisher voting right online without any
difficulty. HeShe has to be registered first for him/her to vote manually. Registration is mainly
done by the system administrator for security reasons.
After registration, the voter is assigned a secret Login ID and password with which he/she can
use to log into the system and enjoy services provided by the system such as voting. If
invalid/wrong details are submitted, then the citizen is not registered to vote.
1.2 BACKGROUND OF STUDY
The Online Voting System (OVS) also known as e-voting is a term encompassing several
different types of voting embracing both electronic means of counting votes. Electronic voting
technology can include punched cards, optical scan voting systems and specialized voting
kiosks (including self-contained direct-recording electronic voting systems or DRE). It can also
involve transmission of ballots and votes via telephones, private computer networks, or the
internet.
Online voting is an electronic way of choosing leaders via a web driven application. The
advantage of online voting over the common "queue method" is that the voters have the choice
of voting at their own free time and there is reduced congestion. It also minimizes on errors of
vote counting. The individual votes are submitted in a database which can be queried to find
out who of the aspirants for a given post has the highest number of votes.
This system is geared towards increasing the voting percentage in Bangladesh since it has been
noted that with the old voting method (the Queue System), the voter turnout has been a wanting
case. With system in place also, if high security is applied, cases of false votes shall be reduced.

11. 2
With the "ONLINE VOTING SYSTEM", voter can use his/her voting right online without any
difficulty. HeShe has to register as voter first before being authorized to vote. The registration
should be done prior to the voting date to enable data update in the database.
However, not just anybody can vote. For one to participate the elections, he/she must have the
requirements. For instance, he/she must be registered citizen i.e. must be 18 and above years
old. As already stated, the project ‘Online Voting' provides means for fast and convenient
voting and access to the system limited only to registered voters.
Internet voting systems are appealing for several reasons which include; People are getting
more used to work with computers to do all sorts of things, namely sensitive operations such
as shopping and home banking and they allow people to vote far from where they usually live,
helping to reduce absenteeism rate.
1.3 SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY
The main purposes of Online Voting System (OVS) include:
➢ Provision of improved voting services to the voters through fast, timely and
convenient voting.
➢ Reduction of the costs incurred by the Electoral Authority during voting time in
paying the very many clerks employed for the sake of the success of the manual system.
➢ Check to ensure that the members who are registered are the only ones to vote.
Cases of "Dead People" voting are also minimized.
➢ Online voting system (OVS) will require being very precise or cost cutting to
produce an effective election management system.
➢ Increased number of voters as individual will find it easier and more convenient
to vote, especially those abroad.

12. 3
1.4 OBJECTIVE OF PROJECT
The specific objectives of the project include:
➢ Reviewing the existing/current voting process;
➢ Coming up with an automated voting system;
➢ Implementing a an automated/online voting system;
➢ Validating the system to ensure that only legible voters allowed to vote.

13. 4
Chapter 2. JUSTIFICATION
2.1 PROJECT JUSTIFICATION
The ONLINE VOTING SYSTEM shall reduce the time spend making long queues at the
polling stations during voting. It shall also enable the voters to vote from any part of the globe
as explained since this is an online application available on the internet. Cases of vote
miscounts shall also be solved since at the backend of this system resides a well-developed
database using SQL Server that can provide the correct data once it's correctly queried. Since
the voting process shall be open as early as possible, the voters shall have ample time to decide
when and whom to vote for.
2.2 SCOPE OF STUDY
It is focused on studying the existing system of voting and to make sure that the peoples vote
is counts, for fairness in the elective positions. This is also will produce:
➢ Less effort and less labor intensive, as the primary cost and focus primary on
creating, managing, and running a secure web voting portal.
➢ Increasing number of voters as individuals will find it easier and more
convenient to vote, especially those abroad.
2.3 TRADITIONAL METHODS
➢ Paper-based voting: The voter gets a blank ballot and use a pen or marker indicate he
want to vote for candidate. Hand-counted ballots a time labor consuming process, but
it is easy manufacture paper ballots and ballots can be retained verifying, this type is
still the common way to vote.
➢ Lever machine: machine peculiar equipment, and each lever assigned for corresponding
candidate. The voter pulls the lever to poll for favorite candidate This kind of machine
can count up ballots automatically. Because interface is user-friendly enough, giving
training to voters necessary.

14. 5
➢ DRE, Direct Recording Electronic voting machine: This type, which is abbreviated to
integrates with keyboard; touch screen, or buttons for the voter press to poll. Some of
them lay in voting records and counting the votes is very quickly. But the other DRE
without keep voting records are doubted about its accuracy.
➢ Punch card: The voter uses metallic hole-punch to punch a hole on the blank ballot. It
can count votes automatically, but if the voter's perforation is incomplete, the result is
probably determined wrongfully.
➢ Optical voting machine: After each voter fills a circle correspond to their favorite
candidate on the blank ballot, this machine selects the darkest mark on each ballot for
the vote then computes the total result.
2.4 PROBLEMS WITH TRADITIONAL SYSTEM
Problems of the existing manual system of voting include among others the following:
➢ Expensive and time consuming
➢ Too much paper work
➢ Errors during data entry
➢ Loss registration forms
➢ Short time provided to view the voter register

15. 6
Chapter 3. REQUIREMENTS
3.1 GENERAL REQUIREMENTS
➢ Registration of the voter is done by ELECTION AUTHORITY.
➢ ELECTION AUTHORITY can change the information any time if required.
➢ Registration of the Voter depends upon the information filled by the user
manually to the ELECTION AUTHORITY.
➢ Voter is given a unique Login ID and PASSWORD.
➢ In the DATABASE information of every voter is stored.
➢ Database shows the information of every user.
3.2 SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS
Software Requirement:
The software requirement of the software is as follows:
➢ Windows 7/8/8.1/10 64-bit operating system
➢ Development Language: PHP
➢ Database: MySQL
➢ Framework: 4.0
➢ A Browser
Hardware Requirement:
The hardware requirements of the software include the following:
➢ CPU: Intel Pentium (Dual Core)
➢ Motherboard: Asus Motherboard
➢ Memory: 2 GB DDR2 667 MHz
➢ Display: Samsung 20'' wide-screen 1440 X 900px res LCD-TFT
➢ A Router

16. 7
Chapter 4. DATA FLOW DIAGRAM (DFD)
4.1 BLOCK DIAGRAM
Block Diagram – Online Voting System (OVS)
Voter/
General
Public
Candidate
Administrator
Start
Register/ Signup
for online
voting system
Register for
Voter ID
Cast Vote
View Own Details
View/Generate
Related Reports
End
Start
Register/ Signup
for online
voting system
Add/Update
Profile
Register for
Nomination
View Own Details
View/Generate
Related Reports
End
Start
Validate Reg.
of Voters
Validate Reg.
of Candidates
Add Manual
Poling Result/
Notice
View/Generate
All Reports
End

17. 8
4.2 ACTIVITY DIAGRAM
Activity Diagram – Online Voting System (OVS)
Online
Voting DB
Voter Admin
Sign-up and Sign-in with
user name and password
Get Status
Login with
user name and password
Get Status
4.3 FIRST LEVEL DFD (FOR ADMIN)
First Level DFD (For Admin) – Online Voting System (OVS)
Create
Voter
Admin
Login with
user name and password
Get Status
Create
Candidate
Voter
Details
Candidate
Details
Voter s Entry Candidate s Entry
Voter s Details
Stored
Candidate s Details
Stored
Login

18. 9
4.4 FIRST LEVEL DFD (FOR VOTER)
First Level DFD (For Voter) – Online Voting System (OVS)
Register For
Voter ID
Voter
Login with
user name and password
Get Status
Cast Vote
Voter
Details
Vote
Update
Voter s Information Authentication
Voter s Details
Stored
Candidate s Details
Stored
Candidate
Details
Candidate s
Information
Result
Counted
Vote
Result
Sent
to Voters
Login

19. 10
Chapter 5. ERD AND DATABASE TABLES
5.1 SIMPLIFIED ENTITY RELATIONSHIP DIAGRAM (ERD)
Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD) of Online Voting System (OVS)
Voter
Admin
Candidate
Admin ID
Login ID
Password
First Name
Middle Name
Last Name
Gender
DoB
Phone Number
Email ID
Voter ID
Login ID
Password
First Name
Middle Name
Last Name
Present Address
Permanent Address
Gender
DoB
Age
NID
Marital Status
Phone Number
Email ID
Constitution
Profile Photo
Candidate ID
Login ID
Password
First Name
Middle Name
Last Name
Gender
DoB
Age
NID
Marital Status
Phone Number
Email ID
Constitution
Political Party Name
Profile Photo
Electoral Symbol
Vote Cast
Voter ID
Candidate ID

20. 11
5.2 ACTUAL DESIGNED ENTITY RELATIONSHIP DIAGRAM (ERD)

21. 12
5.3 MAJOR DATABASE TABLES
Voter Table
Field Name Data Type Size Description
Voter ID Varchar 50 Primary Key, ID of Vote Card
Login ID Varchar 50 ID to Login
Password Varchar 50 Password to Login
First Name Varchar 50 First Name of Voter
Middle Name Varchar 50 Middle Name of Voter
Last Name Varchar 50 Last Name of Voter
Present Address Varchar 50 Present Address of Voter
Permanent Address Varchar 50 Permanent Address of Voter
Gender Varchar 50 Gender of Voter
DoB Date 50 Date of Birth of Voter
Age Integer 50 Age of Voter, based on DoB
NID Integer 50 National ID Number of Voter
Marital Status Varchar 50 Marital Status of Voter
Phone Number Integer 50 Phone Number of Voter
Email ID Varchar 50 Email ID of Voter
Constitution Varchar 50 Constitution Belongs to Voter
Profile Photo Varchar Max Voter’s Profile Photo
Candidate Table
Field Name Data Type Size Description
Candidate ID Varchar 50 Primary Key, ID of Candidate
Login ID Varchar 50 ID to Login
Password Varchar 50 Password to Login
First Name Varchar 50 First Name of Candidate
Middle Name Varchar 50 Middle Name of Candidate
Last Name Varchar 50 Last Name of Candidate
Gender Varchar 50 Gender of Candidate
DoB Date 50 Date of Birth of Candidate

22. 13
Candidate Table
Field Name Data Type Size Description
Age Integer 50 Age of Candidate, based on DoB
NID Integer 50 National ID Number of Candidate
Marital Status Varchar 50 Marital Status of Candidate
Phone Number Integer 50 Phone Number of Candidate
Email ID Varchar 50 Email ID of Candidate
Constitution Varchar 50 Constitution Belongs to Candidate
Political Party Name Varchar 100 Political Party Name of Candidate
Profile Photo Varchar Max Candidate’s Profile Photo
Electoral Symbol Varchar Max Candidate’s Electoral Symbol
Vote Cast Table
Field Name Data Type Size Description
Voter ID Varchar 50 ID of Vote Card
Candidate ID Varchar 50 ID of Candidate

23. 14
Chapter 6. SYSTEM DESIGN
6.1 LOGIN SCREEN

24. 15
6.2 CREATE VOTERS SCREEN

25. 16
6.3 CREATE CANDIDATE SCREEN

26. 17
6.4 VIEW- EDIT VOTERS SCREEN

27. 18
6.5 VIEW- EDIT CANDIDATES SCREEN

28. 19
6.6 VOTE CAST SCREEN

29. 20
6.7 RESULTS SCREEN

30. 21
6.8 REPORTS SCREEN

31. 22
Chapter 7. SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT
7.1 DATABASE TABLES SOURCE CODE
7.1.1 User Table
7.1.2 Voters Table

32. 23
7.1.3 Candidates Table
7.1.4 Vote Cast Table

33. 24
7.2 DEVELOPMENT SCREEN’S SOURCE CODE
7.2.1 User Create

34. 25
7.2.2 User Update

35. 26
7.2.3 User Delete
7.2.4 User View

36. 27
7.2.5 Candidate Create

37. 28

38. 29
7.2.6 Voter Creation

39. 30

40. 31
7.2.7 Voter Update

41. 32
7.2.8 Voter Delete
7.2.9 Vote Casting

42. 33
Chapter 8. TESTING AND SECURITY
8.1 TESTING
Unit Testing:
All the modules are being separately tested.
System Testing:
All the components are being separately tested.
a. Accessibility Testing
b. Functional Testing
8.2 SECURITY ISSUES
Foreign experience revealed that they are often confronted by security issues while the online
voting system is running. The origin of the security issues was due to not only outsider (such
as voters and attackers) but also insider (such as system developers and administrators), even
just because the inheritance of some objects in the source code are unsuitable. These errors
caused the voting system to crash.
The proposed solutions were correspondingly outlined to hold back these attacks. For example,
to avoid hacker making incursion into the voting system via network, we can design our system
to transmit data without network. Another example is to limit voter to input particular data, so
that we can prevent the command injection from running.

43. 34
Chapter 9. FUTURE ENHANCEMENT
9.1 FUTURE ENHANCEMENT
The Online Voting System (OVS) platform can be made more secure by using the following
methods
➢ Password Changing - Ensure more security concern during password changing
of voters/ public access.
➢ Finger printing - Mandatory finger printing options for each users could be
introduced for more security concern.
➢ Cornea Detection - Cornea Detection options for each users should be
introduced for more security concern.
9.2 CONCLUSION
This Online Voting system will manage the Voter's information by which voter can login and
use his voting rights. The system will incorporate all features of Voting system. It provides the
tools for maintaining voter's vote to every party and it count total no. of votes of every party.
There is a DATABASE which is maintained by the ELECTION AUTHORITY in which all
the names of voter with complete information is stored.
In this user who is above 18 year's register his/her information on the database and when he/she
want to vote he/she has to login by his id and password and can vote to any party only single
time. Voting detail store in database and the result is displayed by calculation. By online voting
system percentage of voting is increases. It decreases the cost and time of voting process. It is
very easy to use and it is very less time consuming.