E votingproposal

MOBILE VOTING APPLICATION FOR HIGHER LEARNING INSTITUTIONS: A
CASE STUDY OF TAITA TAVETA UNIVERSITY COLLEGE
MORINE GAKII GITONGA
TU01-IC211-0083/2012
A PROJECT PROPOSAL SUBMITTED TO THE SCHOOL OF ICSIT IN
PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE AWARD OF
THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY FOR
TAITA TAVETA UNIVERSITY COLLEGE
APRIL 2016

Declaration
I Morine Gakii Gitonga declare to the best of research knowledge that this proposal is my original
work and has not been presented for a degree in any other University. The literature and citations
from other people’s work has been duly referenced and acknowledged in the text, footnotes and
bibliography.
MORINE GAKII GITONGA
TU01-IC211-0083/2012
……………………… ……………………
Signature Date
Approval
This proposal has been submitted for examination with my approval as University Supervisor
STEPHEN KATOTO
……………….. ...…………………
Signature Date

Abstract
The purpose of this study is to underline the challenges Universities face during election of student
leaders, to determine features of a mobile application system that will enable universities to
efficiently manage election activities and consequently develop a system to be used in carrying
out the study. The objectives of the study are to analyse the current election system and suggest
modern development of an electronic online voting mobile application which will allow voters to
cast their votes in a more convenient way ,to review the current voting system with a view of
specifying requirements for a mobile application voting system, to design a mobile application
prototype of a voting system for students, to develop a mobile application voting system that is
transparent, reliable, tamper proof and that will provide a platform for voting of students, to come
up with a mobile application that will send reminders through use of alerts to remind students to
vote and that which will test and review the system for usability and functionality.
The researcher reviewed the available literature related to the title which covered the efficiency of
using an application and hence the benefits associated with use of such an application and factors
that affect efficient management of voting process relevant to the title.
The study employed an experimental research design methodology which attempts to describe the
challenges faced by higher learning institutions during the election process. To undertake primary
collection of data, the researcher designed a questionnaire to guide in gathering of data which was
delivered individually by the researcher to the students. The research population comprises of the
students in all departments of Taita Taveta University College. The researcher also explains the
system development methods that were used to develop a prototype of Mobile Voting Application
and justification of the same.
The study concludes by identifying the challenges that hinder efficiency which include time
consuming since all activities including learning has to stop during the day of election, Students
may also leave without voting due to long queues. A very high intolerable percentage of lost or
stolen or even miscounted ballots, high number of unclear or invalid ballots, limited or no
accommodation for students with disabilities, bad weather might also cause students who live far
from school to walk long distances to voting stations to cast their votes. There is too much paper
work because the process involves paper storage which is difficult as papers become bulky with
the population size. There are also errors during data entry. Some voting materials may get lost

Errors are part of all human beings; it is very unlikely for humans to be 100 percent efficient in
data entry. Above all, a number of students end up being locked out from voting. By identifying
challenges that hinder efficiency on the current voting system, this project has identified challenges
and the opportunities. Smartphone technology is emerging and soon to be the norm.
Acknowledgement

I would like to thank the God Almighty without who this research proposal and completion would
not have been possible. The efforts that have gone into the preparation for and completion of this
research proposal would not have been possible without the help of my supervisor, Stephen Katoto.
I greatly appreciate the support of my family members and friends for their kind co-operation and
encouragement which helped me in completion of this proposal. I would also like to thank the
university lectures for their most valuable advice and assistance during the research process.

Table of Contents
Declaration....................................................................................................................................i
Abstract ........................................................................................................................................ii
Acknowledement........................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.
CHAPTER 1 ....................................................................................................................................x
INTRODUCTION......................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.
1.1 Background of the study.................................................................................................... 1
1.2 Statement of the problem................................................................................................... 2
1.3 Proposed solution............................................................................................................... 2
1.4 Objectives of the study ...................................................................................................... 2
1.4.1 General objectives .......................................................................................................... 2
1.4.2 Specific objectives .......................................................................................................... 3
1.5 Research Questions............................................................................................................ 3
1.6 Hypothesis ......................................................................................................................... 3
1.7 Justification........................................................................................................................ 3
1.8 Significance of the study ................................................................................................... 4
1.9 Scope of the study.............................................................................................................. 4
CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW ......................................................................................... 5
2.1 Introduction........................................................................................................................... 5
2.1.1 Requirements for a mobile application voting system ..Error! Bookmark not defined.
2.1.2 Design a mobile application prototype of a voting system for students. ........................ 5
2.1.3 Develop mobile application voting system that is transparent, reliable & tamper proof 5
2.1.4 Reminder through use of alerts....................................................................................... 6
2.1.5 System usability and functionality.................................................................................. 7

2.2 System Review...................................................................................................................... 8
2.2.1 XaP Mobile application.................................................................................................. 8
2.2.2 OVS Gujarat App ....................................................................................................... 14
2.3 System Critique................................................................................................................... 18
2.4 Summary ............................................................................................................................. 19
CHAPTER THREE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY............................................................. 19
3.1 introduction...................................................................................................................... 19
3.2 Research Design .............................................................................................................. 19
3.3 System Design ................................................................................................................. 19
3.4 Development Approach................................................................................................... 20
3.5 sample & sampling technique ............................................................................................. 22
3.6 Target population of study .................................................................................................. 22
3.7 Data Analysis Techniques................................................................................................... 22
3.7.1 Data Collection............................................................................................................. 22
3.7.2 Tools and Techniques ................................................................................................... 22
3.8 System Requirement Analysis ................................................................................................ 25
3.8.1 Functional Requirements .............................................................................................. 25
3.8.2 Non-Functional Requirements...................................................................................... 25
3.9 Logic Design ....................................................................................................................... 25
3.9.1 Use case diagram .......................................................................................................... 26
3.9.2 Class Diagram............................................................................................................... 28
3.9.3 Activity Diagram .......................................................................................................... 29
3.9.4 Sequence Diagram........................................................................................................ 30
4.0 Software and Hardware Requirements ............................................................................. 31
APPENDICES .............................................................................................................................. 33

References..................................................................................................................................... 38
List of Tables
Table 3.1: Software and Hardware Requirements ........................................................................ 32

Table 3.2: Project time schedule................................................................................................... 36
Table 3.3: Project budget .............................................................................................................. 37
Table3. 4: Gant chart..................................................................................................................... 38
List of Figures
Figure 2.1: XaP ............................................................................................................................... 9
Figure 2.2: Registration ................................................................................................................ 10

Figure 2.3: Registered User Message ........................................................................................... 11
Figure 2.4: Active-Login............................................................................................................... 12
Figure 2.5: Voter main menu........................................................................................................ 13
Figure 2.6: voters casting votes .................................................................................................... 14
Figure 2.7: Homepage (the initial page after opening the application) ........................................ 15
Figure 2.8: The registration page .................................................................................................. 17
Figure 3.1: Rapid Application Development ................................................................................ 20
Figure 3.2: Mobile voting Use Case Diagram .............................................................................. 27
Figure 3.3: Mobile voting Class Diagram..................................................................................... 28
Figure 3.4: Mobile voting Activity Diagram ................................................................................ 29
Figure 3.5: Mobile voting sequence Diagram............................................................................... 30
List of Acronyms
RAD-Rapid Application Development

UI-User Interface
TTUC-Taita Taveta University College
XML-Extensible Markup Language
JAD-Joint Application Development
OTP-One Time Password
MVA-Mobile Voting Application

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the study
Voting for any social issue is essential for modern democratic societies now a day. So it is
becoming very important to make the voting process more easy and efficient. In other hand the
rapid development in operating system of the mobile phones gives rise to the application
development on the large scale. The main reason behind the tremendous development in android
application development is that the android is an open source operating system. It means that the
software developers can have customization rights. As well as the software development kit
provides tools to build and run android applications (Prof. Rahul Patil, 2014). Security and
accuracy are the first and foremost requirements for any voting system. Taita Taveta University
College is a university based on democracy. Therefore, elections play an important role. The most
important feature of a democracy includes that the students have the right to choose the leaders for
their school. Thus, electoral process that is election by voting is an important aspect. With the
emergence of technology, various voting techniques have been implemented such as ballot
machines, EVMs, Kiosks and so on. However, recently many E-voting systems have also been
introduced namely punch scan, optical scan, specialized voting Kiosks and so on. Online voting
using internet is one of the methods that has emerged (Kelleher, 2011). This system will be
developed so that the students at different remote locations can vote during elections in the school.
Voters just need internet access. Also latest studies show that one of the major problems present
in the voting scenario is that the students are not present in the school during elections because
they have gone for long holidays. As a result the percentage of voting in the school is
comparatively low. The proposed system mainly aims at solving this problem. With the advent of
technology, mobile phones with programmable platforms have emerged. One such operating
system used on mobile phones is Android OS.Use of applications developed on Android OS helps
us in developing an E-voting system that will solve majority of the aforementioned problems.
Traditional voting systems suffer from various drawbacks such as time consuming, consumes a
large number of paper work, damage of machines due to lack of attention. These drawbacks are
overcome by Online Voting System.

1.2 Statement of the problem
Many problems are faced during voting manually: the existing manual system of voting is time
consuming since all activities including learning has to stop during the day of election, Students
may also leave without voting due to long queues. A very high intolerable percentage of lost or
stolen or even miscounted ballots, high number of unclear or invalid ballots, limited or no
accommodation for students with disabilities, bad weather might also cause students who live far
from school to walk long distances to voting stations to cast their votes. There is too much paper
work because the process involves paper storage which is difficult as papers become bulky with
the population size. There are also errors during data entry. Some voting materials may get lost
Errors are part of all human beings; it is very unlikely for humans to be 100 percent efficient in
data entry. Above all, a number of students end up being locked out from voting. Hence there is
great desire to reduce official procedure in the current manual student voting process.
1.3 Proposed solution
The current system of vote casting has ensued in number of problems. Some of those issues are
minimal percentage of voting, security issues like fraudulent votes, late results, and inconvenience
to students on long holidays, corrupt votes, and long- hours of waiting. Also absence of voters in
the school at the time of elections is also a major problem. The proposed system will solve these
problems by introducing a voting System that uses mobile devices running on Android OS. The
system mainly aims at solving the voting problems present amongst the students. The proposed
system, will introduce the concept of one-factor authentication for voter/user validation. The one-
factor authentication mechanism includes OTP (One Time Password) generation and verification.
1.4 Objectives of the study
The following are the general and the specific objectives:
1.4.1 General objectives
To analyze the current election system and suggest modern development of an electronic online
voting mobile application which will allow voters to cast their votes in a more convenient way.

1.4.2 Specific objectives
1. To review the current voting system with a view of specifying requirements for a mobile
application voting system.
2. To design a mobile application prototype of a voting system for students.
3. To develop a mobile application voting system that is transparent, reliable, tamper proof
and that will provide a platform for voting of students.
4. To come up with a mobile application that will send reminders through use of alerts to
remind students to vote.
5. Test and review the system for usability and functionality.
1.5 Research Questions
In this study the researcher will try to find out the answers of the following question:
1. Does the current voting system have the required specification?
2. Will the system add value to the voting process as compared to the current system?
3. Will the mobile application voting system be transparent, reliable, tamper proof and will it
provide a platform for voting of students?
4. Does sending of reminders through use of alerts improve the voting turnouts?
5. Does the system meet all users’ functionality and usability?
1.6 Hypothesis
Many smart phones used by students run on android operating system.
1.7 Justification
The implementation of the online electronic mobile voting application will be very profitable to
the university in the following ways, it will be possible to register new members online and keep
the records in a well normalized database unlike the current manual method. The details for each
student shall be easy to retrieve which will aid to reach a member if need be. It will promote
communication as the students can be reached via email. In future the application can be upgraded
to incorporate other functionality. The system is economical in terms of time and resources as
compared to the current system that has been tedious.

1.8 Significance of the study
The main purpose of the online voting system includes: Provision of improved voting services to
students through fast and convenient voting as students can vote from anywhere. Reduction of the
cost incurred by the university during voting time in paying the very many clerks employed for
the sake of success of the manual system. Check to ensure that the members who are registered
are the only ones who should vote. It is a lot easier to independently moderate the elections and
subsequently reinforce its transparency and fairness. Increased number of voters as individual will
find it easier and convenient to vote especially those students are in for their long holidays, the
sick students can also vote.
1.9 Scope of the study
It is focused on studying the existing system of voting in Taita Taveta University College and to
make sure that the students votes count for fairness in the elective positions. It will provide a better
way of electing student leaders and this will have a greater scope and one of the requirement is to
provide a compact and stable online voting system while anywhere in school and while on long
holidays. Mobile voting offers increased convenience to the voter, encourage more students to cast
their votes remotely, and increases the likelihood of participation for students. It also displays
results instantly.

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Introduction
Globally, internet and mobile use is rapidly increasing gaining popularity among people living in
low and in middle income countries. The use of both internet and mobile phones has recently been
proposed as means of promoting election efficiency and reliability. I therefore propose to conduct
a review of the current best evidence for use of mobile phones to promote better elections for
students.
2.1.1 Design a mobile application prototype of a voting system for students.
The goal of this study is to design an efficient and effective prototype that allows students in
universities to instantly cast a vote without time limit during the election period (O. Kogeda and
N. Mpekoa, 2013). The proposed design promotes reusability through the use of standard services
implemented and deployed by employing a platform as a service (Alshaher, 2014). Mobile devices
are the most adopted means of communication in developing countries such as Kenya, with its
penetration higher than that of all other electronic devices put together (J. C. Aker, 2011).
Therefore, mobile devices are considered a good potential alternative for voting platforms and any
other activities. Thus, a simple prototype application that can be installed on user mobile phones
with limited pictures or graphics (less cost) is proposed in this study.
2.1.2 Develop mobile application voting system that is transparent, reliable & tamper proof
According to Jameson (2013), the three properties that a good adaptive interface should possess
are controllability, predictability and transparency, and unobtrusiveness. Controllability refers to
the degree to which users can control the occurrence of a particular actions. Users should be the
ones who make decisions on what a system has to do; Predictability refers to the degree to which
users can predict what will happen after they perform certain actions. Transparency refers to the
degree that the users can understand the system behavior or has a clear picture of how a system
works. Unobtrusiveness refers to the degree to which users can concentrate on their tasks (or
almost without) demands of attention to interface.

(Nielsen, 2014) argues that usability is quality attribute that assesses how easy user interfaces are
easy to use. It is defined by five quality components: Learnability that is how easy is it for users
to accomplish basic tasks the first time they encounter the design, Efficiency deals with how
quickly users perform their tasks once they have learned the design, memorability deals with how
users can re-establish proficiency after a period of not using the design, errors that is how many
errors do users make, how severe are these errors and how easily can they recover from the errors
and lastly satisfaction that is how pleasant is it to use the design.
As stated by (Zak,2011), basic mobile design principles include simplicity, familiarity, consistent
in terms of similar location of controls, buttons or menu items like Done or cancel, consistent color
and fonts, fastness, feedback, efficiency in terms of minimizing input, easy searchable by filtering
long lists for easier selection and scale that is resizing elements to utilize the screen space.
Transparency is a key principle for credible elections. A transparent election process is one in
which each step is open to scrutiny by stakeholders (political parties, election observers and voters
alike), who are able to independently verify the process is conducted according to procedures and
no irregularities have occurred. Providing transparency in an election helps establish trust and
public confidence in the process, as voters have a means to verify the results are an accurate
reflection of the will of the people.
Electronic voting and counting technologies pose a challenge to ensuring transparency, since many
visually-verifiable steps in a traditional election (such as how ballots were marked) are automated
inside a machine and, therefore, cannot be seen by the voter and others. In such circumstances,
particular efforts must be made to provide transparency in each step of the process (Transparency,
n.d.).Automated elections mean that people can trust the results because it allows for a process that
is so auditable, transparent and secure. Of course, electronic voting also helps reduce human error.
2.1.3 Reminder through use of alerts
Voting Alerts are focused, timely and relevant emails that keep Voters informed about election
dates, important deadlines.

2.1.4 System usability and functionality
According to (Quesenbery, 2011) The word usability has become a catch-phrase for products that
work better for their users, but it is difficult to pin down just what people mean by it. Is a result –
software that is usable, a process, also called user-centered design for creating usable software, a
set of techniques, such as contextual observation and usability testing, used to achieve that result;
or a philosophy of designing to meet user needs? These different meanings can be described in
four key requirements:
Usability means thinking about how and why people use a product.
Good technical writing, like good interaction design, focuses on user’s goals. The first step in
creating a usable product is understanding those goals in the context of the user’s environment,
task or work flow, and letting these needs inform the design.
Usability means evaluation. Usability relies on user-feedback through evaluation rather than
simply trusting the experience and expertise of the designer. Unlike conventional software
acceptance testing, usability evaluation involves watching real people use a product (or prototype),
and using what is learned to improve the product.
Usability means more than just ease of use-The 5 Es – efficient, effective, engaging, error
tolerant and easy to learn – describe the multi-faceted characteristics of usability. Interfaces are
evaluated against the combination of these characteristics which best describe the user’s
requirements for success and satisfaction.
Usability means user-centered Design-Users are satisfied when an interface is user-centered –
when their goals, mental models, tasks and requirements are all met. The combination of analysis,
design and evaluation all approached starting from the user’s point of view creates usable products.
Usability reviews are a structured means of examining the usability of an interactive system by
evaluating it against a set of recognized usability best practice principles. There are two different
types of usability review, scenario based reviews and heuristic based reviews. Scenario based
reviews evaluate a system against likely user scenarios, such as buying a product there are two
different types of usability review – scenario based reviews and heuristic based reviews. Scenario

based reviews evaluate a system against likely user scenarios, such as buying a product for an
ecommerce website. Heuristic reviews on the other hand evaluate an interface against a set of
usability heuristics (i.e. best practice), such as links being clear, descriptive and well labelled. The
two are by no means mutually exclusive and are often most effective when used together. Heuristic
reviews on the other hand evaluate an interface against a set of usability heuristics (i.e. best
practice), such as links being clear, descriptive and well labelled. The two are by no means
mutually exclusive and are often most effective when used together.
2.2 System Review
2.2.1 XaP Mobile application
The m-voting is a client (voter) application developed in Visual Studio 2010 for Windows-based
mobile phones. The application is called XaP because it cuts (X) out the queuing time and all other
inconveniences brought by traditional paper based voting system, which makes voting fast and
easy as possible. Before the registration can start, the voters are expected to have registered their
mobile phone with the MNOs, downloaded the mobile application from the application server, and
install the application on their mobile phone.

Figure 2.1: XaP
All users of the system are required to be registered to be able to use the system, but voting is not
compulsory. The initial screen after the application has loaded is the login screen as shown in
Figure 2.1 above. To register the voter must click on the "+" option.

Figure 2.2: Registration
The log-in button is inactive as all necessary information is not entered yet. During the registration
process (Figure 2.2), the voter is required to enter the ID number, which is verified with the Staff
database. Once the voter has been verified (Figure2), then all other fields become available to fill-
in. The date of birth will be used to calculate the actual age of the voter, if a voter is less than 18
years of age he/she can register but cannot vote. The voter must create a password, which must be
a mix of 10 or more characters (letters, numbers and symbols).

Figure 2.3: RegisteredUser Message
Once the voter has been registered, a message appears with the PIN (Figure 2.3).

Figure 2.4: Active-Login
Once the voter has successfully registered, then they log-in to access the main menu of the system
as shown in Figure 2.4. The voter enters the ID number, the password they created during the
registration process and also the PIN they received after the registration.

Figure 2.5: Voter main menu
After a successful log-in, the voter can now access the system main menu (Figure 2.5). The voter
has three options to choose from the main menu which is voting, check results or update personal
details.

Figure 2.6: voters casting votes
Once the voter clicks on "Voting" option, the ballot appears on the screen as shown in
Figure 2.6 and the "Save" button is inactive. After the voter has made the choice, the "Save" button
becomes available. The radio button associated with each party can only accept one choice, so
there will be no over or under voting or otherwise invalid votes. The voter confirms their choice
by clicking "OK" or otherwise cancels it by clicking "Cancel". Once the voter has confirmed the
choice the system will give a message that shows that the vote has been cast. After a successful
voting process, the "Vote" option in the main menu becomes inactive because the voter has already
casted his/her vote.
Source: Designing, developing and testing a mobile phone voting system in the South African
context
2.2.2 OVS Gujarat App
OVS Gujarat Mobile App, is a newer and innovative approach of State Election Commission of
Gujarat that provides facilities of User Registration for Online Voting and many other facilities.

This is the homepage immediately you open the application.
Figure 2.7: Homepage (the initial page after opening the application)

Figure 2.8: The registration page
Figure 2.9: The registration pages

Figure 2.10: The registration pages
2.3 System Critique
Much of the existingliterature talksaboutsettinguponline systemstohelpinefficientmanagementof
votingprocessneglectingtoshedlightthe issue of codtof such systemsandaccessibilityof such
systemssince userwill require computersandinternetconnectiontouse them.Thereviewedsystems
thoughhavingmodulesthatwill aidinelectionprocessare complexandthusnoteasy to use by non-
technical persons.Userswillneedtobe trainedsince nodocumentationisprovidedwiththe systems.
XaP has a low rating value since it is not compatible with android devices thereby limiting
its usage since most of the population uses android phones.
The application is fixed in portrait mode that is it has been designed not to respond to screen
rotations thereby reducing the value ranking

2.4 Summary
With the reviewed systems, the researcher will try to come up with features in order to deal with
the gaps identified as well as to incorporate some of the existing features.
CHAPTER THREE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 introduction
Methodology implies more than simply the methods you intend to collect data. The methods
section of study describe how each objective of the study will be achieved. In this chapter the
researcher focuses on how the application will be analyzed and designed in order to meet the
required specifications and functions it intends to have. Methodology includes the use of fact-
finding methods such as data collection, analysis and design tools and development. Information
system project methodology can be captured from the activities of the Rapid Application
Development(RAD). The design methods that will be used in coming up with the system are
qualitative techniques
3.2 Research Design
This section explains the research design which will be employed in the study and encompasses
the methodology and the procedures employed to conduct the study. These study employees an
experimental research design which is used with the main aim of conducting a more precise
investigation and in this case is to explore the use of mobile application to carry out the voting
process while maintaining control over all factors that may affect the result of the experiment.
3.3 System Design
System design is the process of defining the components, modules, interfaces, and data for a system
to satisfy specified requirements. In this dynamic word, system analysis and design, mainly deals
with the software development activities whose main objectives is to: understand a system,
understand the different phases of a system development lifecycle, know the components of system
analysis and know the components of system designing (Richard, 2013).

3.4 Development Approach
Rapid Application Development
RAD is a system development methodology designed to give much faster development and
higher quality results than those achieved in the traditional life-cycle. It is designed to take the
maximum advantage of the powerful development software that has evolved recently. Rapid
application development is an Object Orientated approach to software development that includes
a method of development as well as software tools (Kendall and Kendall, 2012). The primary
purpose of a RAD is to speed up the systems development process.
Figure 3.1: Rapid Application Development
3.4.1 Requirements Planning Phase
In the requirements planning phase, users and analysts meet to identify objectives of the
application or system and to identify information requirements arising from those objectives.
This phase requires intense involvement from users at different levels of the organization. The
orientation in this phase is to solve voting problems. This phase consists of the review of the
areas immediately associated with the proposed system. This review provides a broad
definition of system requirements through the use of JAD sessions between the researcher and
some students. This includes the use of questionnaires and interviews which enable direct
participation of the target population. With this the needs of the target population are acquired
and the researcher makes sure that the objectives are in line with them.

3.4.2 System design
This phase consists of detailed analysis of the users related to the proposed system. The
researcher completes the analysis by creating use case, sequence, activity and class diagrams
defining the interactions between processes and data. With this the researcher is able to develop
the visual models or layouts of the screens that helps in testing whether the requirements are
met or not.
3.4.3 Construction/Development
With the use of diagrams defining interaction in the system the researcher will use android
operating system to develop the system based on the requirements of the target users. Also the
researcher will prepare a documentation that will include instructions to help guide the target
users in the operation of the system.
3.4.4 Cutover
The researcher will then perform unit testing on the individual components of the source code
area before handing over the setup of the system. System testing will also be done in order to
test the system as a whole once all units have been integrated. Finally, the researcher avails the
system to the user for them to test if their mentioned requirements are fulfilled.
3.4.5 Justification of RAD
Improved and increased user involvement: prototyping requires user involvement and allows
them to see and interact with a prototype allowing them to provide better and more complete
feedback and specifications. The ability of the research to develop the visual look of the system
such as buttons, this screen layouts, the feel and performance helps the target users to familiarize
themselves with System.
Reduced time and costs: prototyping can improve the quality of requirements and specifications
provided to developers. Because changes cost exponentially more to implement as they are
detected later in development, the early determination of what the user really wants can result into
a faster and less expensive software.

3.5 sample & sampling technique
The sample will be picked using Simple Random Sampling. Simple random sample is a subset
of individuals chosen from a larger set or population. Each individual is chosen randomly and
entirely by chance, such that each individual has the same probability of being chosen at any stage
during the sampling process, and each subset of k individuals has the same probability of being
chosen for the sample as any other subset of k individuals. This technique is employed as it is much
faster and often less expensive to use random sampling and as a result is a much more efficient
way to obtain results. To support this technique, convenience sampling was adopted to enable
collection of information from students in the population who were conveniently available to
provide it. A sample size of 30% from each department to provide the information.
3.6 Target population of study
The target population is the students in Taita Taveta University College. The university has 3
departments namely; Mathematics and Informatics, Business and Mining and Mineral Processing
Departments. Each department has students from first year of study to fourth year apart from
MMPE which has up to fifth year of study.
3.7 Data Analysis Techniques
3.7.1 Data Collection
Data collection involves finding facts of the activities being carried out in in TTUC during
elections, aiming at gathering information on how the University is currently carrying out the
election process. Observe the electoral process in other universities. Document Review-look for
other people who have made similar systems and get ideas from them which could be applied on
the proposed system, see what gaps are there in those systems that could be solved through the
system.
3.7.2 Tools and Techniques
Primary sources
In order to get facts on how the elections take place in the university, I would get firsthand
information from the students. This will include interviewing the students, use of questionnaires
and observing.

Secondary sources.
The secondary sources, includes:
 The Internet.
 Textbooks from the library.
 Previous research work.
3.7.2.1 INTERVIEWS.
The interviewees include the students, personnel’s who conducted the elections, dean of student.
This will enable me to understand the problems that they faced during elections.
Advantages
1. Easy correction of speech: Any misunderstanding and mistake can be rectified easily in an
interview. Because the interviewer and interviewee physically present before the interview
board.
2. Development of relationship: Relation between the interviewer and the interviewee can be
developed through an interview. It increases mutual understanding and co-operation between
the parties.
3. Selection of suitable candidate: Suitable candidates can be selected through interview
because the interview can know a lot about the candidate by this process.
4. Collection of primary information: Interview can help to collect the fresh, new and primary
information as needed.
5. Sufficient information: Sufficient information can be collected through the
interview process. Because the interviewer can ask any question to the interviewee.
6. Time saving: Interview can help to save time to select the best suitable candidate. Within a
very short time communication can be accomplished with the interview.
7. Less costly: It is less costly than other process of communication. It is very simple, prompt
and low cost method of communication.
8. Increasing knowledge: Any interview increases the knowledge of both the interviewer and
the interviewee. They can interchange their views and ideas.

9. Explore cause behind the problem: In business, executives need to solve different types of
problems. To explore or to find out the actual reasons behind the problem interview method
can be used.
10. In depth analysis: Through planed interviews detailed information can be collected which
enables proper analysis of a problem. Abstract factors like attitudes, feelings, opinion etc.
Can be successfully evaluated or analyzed through interviews.
11. Solving labor problems: Labor unrest and other disputes are very common in the industries.
Sometimes human resource managers use the interview as a means of reveling actual causes
behind the labor deputes.
12. Flexible: One of the major advantages of interview is feasible. That depends on the situation
it can be framed differently.
3.7.2.2 QUESTIONNAIRES
Involves formulating questions, which are both open ended and closed ended questions and giving
them out to individuals who will fill in the questions as required. This tool helps in the collection
of data from the students.
Advantages of Questionnaires
1. One can get a lot of answers from a lot of people in a relatively short space of time.
2. They provide lots of data for analysis and the more data sets, the more accurate the analysis.
3. Reduces bias-every one answers the same questions.
3.7.2.3 OBSERVATION
This involves examining of activities going on from the time the student enters the voting room
until the time he/she casts his/her votes on the polling box. It is a very tiresome exercise because
all the activities are done manually hence sometimes the students heads up confusing the ballot
papers by putting them on wrong bullet boxes. This gives a true picture of what happens, who does
what activity and how he/she does it.

3.8 System Requirement Analysis
3.8.1 Functional Requirements
1. The system should be able to allow the students to create an account.
2. Allow registered users to login to the system.
3. The system should authenticate users during login.i. e the user should be what he/she claims to
be.
4. The system should allow an authenticated user to cast a vote.
5. The system should send voting results to students.
6. The system should allow the administrator (voting officer) to manage candidates. i.e adding
contestants, removing contestants
3.8.2 Non-Functional Requirements
1. The system should support response time for addressing severe issues in less than
5minutes, due to the shortness of the voting time frame.
2. The system should provide documentation to inform users of system functionality and any
change to the system.
3. The system should provide friendly graphical Interface to ensure ease of use when end
users utilize system functionality.
4. The system should be able to be integrated in future if need be.
5. The application should be available all the time for students on google play to download.
3.9 Logic Design
Data Flow Diagrams and use case diagrams will be used. The data flow diagrams will represent
how information flows in the system. There will be a context diagram which can further be
broken down to level 0 and level 1 Data Flow Diagrams. The Use case diagram will represent

how the two entities, the voter and the database administrator will interact with the system.
3.9.1 Use case diagram
Use cases are “a description of set of sequences of actions, including variants, that a system
performs that yield an observable result of value to an actor”. They are used in order to: design
system from user’s perspective, communicate system behavior in user’s term and enumerate all
externally visible behavior.
Here are the use cases for the online mobile voting system (there are two actors for the system: a
normal user and an administrator).

Figure 3.2: Mobile voting Use Case Diagram

3.9.2 Class Diagram
Class diagrams are the mainstay of object-oriented analysis and design. Class diagrams show the
classes of the system, their interrelationships (including inheritance, aggregation, and association),
and the operations and attributes of the classes. Class diagrams are used for a wide variety of
purposes, including both conceptual/domain modeling and detailed design modeling.
Figure 3.3: Mobile voting Class Diagram

3.9.3 Activity Diagram
Figure 3.4: Mobile voting Activity Diagram

3.9.4 Sequence Diagram
Figure 3.5: Mobile voting sequence Diagram

4.0 Software and Hardware Requirements
Item Requirement
Hardware Memory of 4 GB RAM or more
Monitor resolution of 1024 x 768 or
higher
Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon 2
GHz (or faster)
1 GB (or more) available hard disk
space
Software Description
Windows XP SP2 or
above
Operating system
Xampp local server
(version 2.5)
database
Apache server Web server

Item Requirement
Internet explorer 4.0 and
above
browser
Adobe Photoshop 7.0 design
Macromedia
Dreamweaver MX
design and coding of backend
Table 3.1: Software and Hardware Requirements
A web server which supports MYSQL Databases.
This project will be an application to be developed in android having; Database Design (My SQL),
Coding (PHP, ANDROID), Testing (XAMP SERVER, EMULATOR), Reporting Tool (DATA
REPORT).

APPENDICES
Appendixes 1.0 Questionnaire
1. How often do you use the internet?
Always
Occasionally
never
2. Would you prefer to use mobile voting application over the traditional voting system?
Yes No
Give reasons why
………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………
3. what type of operating system does your phone run on?
Android OS
BlackBerry OS
iPhone OS
ME ego OS
Windows Mobile

4. Have you ever heard of any online voting system?
YES
NO
5. Is there any online system in Taita Taveta University College?
YES
NO
If yes name it
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………
6. Can introduction of mobile based online voting system in Taita Taveta University
College improve the voting process of student leaders?
YES NO
7. Do you think providing a mobile voting app is convenience to all students?
YES NO
8. Do you think mobile online voting system is effective and efficient way of managing
elections?
YES NO

9. How likely do you recommend the development of Mobile online voting system?
Excellent
Likely
Not Important
10. What is course do you pursue in the university?
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………
11. Do you encounter problems during the voting day in school?
Yes
No
12. If Yes, what sort of problems?
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………
Appendixes 2.0 Project time schedule
Index Description Duration Date(weeks)
1. Project Title 14 days 1 & 2

2. Problem statement 14days 3&4
3. Literature review 21days 5,6&7
4. System Analysis 21days 7,8&9
5. Presentation 2days 11
Table 3.2: Project time schedule
Appendixes 3.0 Project Budget
ITEM
NO.
PARTICULARS COST (KSH)
KSH CTS
1. Android based Smartphone 15,500 00
2. Internet services 4,000 00
3. Laptop 49,000 00
4. Online research material 3,000 00
5.

6. Miscellaneous expenses 1,500 00
7. Flash disk 2,500 00
TOTAL AMOUNT KSHS.75,500 00
Table 3.3: Project budget
Appendixes 4.0 Gant Chart
Task Name Duration in weeks
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
Research & project
planning
Proposal writing
and submission
Data collection

Table3. 4: Gant chart
References
Africa., S. (2012, june 5).
http://www.southafrica.info/business/economy/infrastucture/telecoms.htm. Retrieved
from South Africa.:
http://www.southafrica.info/business/economy/infrastucture/telecoms.htm
Alshaher, M. A. (2014). Development of an Electronic Election System to Promote The
Participation Of All Students in Choosing Their University Representatives.
J. C. Aker, P. C. (2011). "Is information power? Using cell phones during an election in
Mozambique.
Data analysis
Project design
Coding
Implementation
and debugging
Documentation
Project
presentation

Kelleher, W. J. (2011). Internet Voting Now!: Here's Why. Here's How. Empathic Science
Institute, 2011.
Kumar, M. K. (2012). Secure mobile based voting system. Emerging Technologies in E-
Government, 324-330.
Little, L. &. (2011.). E-voting in an ubicompworld. trust, privacy, and social.
O. Kogeda and N. Mpekoa. (2013). Model for A Mobile Phone Voting. seek Digital Library.
Ofori-Dwumfuo, G. O. (2011). The design of an electronic voting system. Research Journal of
Information Technology, 91-98.
Okediran, O. O. (2011). A framework for multifaceted electronic voting system. International
Journal of Applied Ssience and technology, 135-142.
Prof. Rahul Patil, P. B. (2014). E-Voting System on Android Platform. Kolkat: International
Journal of Engineering Research & Technology.
Quesenbery, W. (2011). Looking Beyond ‘Ease of Use’. Retrieved from wq usability:
http://www.wqusability.com/articles/more-than-ease-of-use.html
Rexha, B. N. (2012). International Journal of Computers and Communications. Improving
authentication and transparency of e-Voting system – Kosovo case.
Topiwala, M. (2015, Nov 3). Now register as e-voter from your mobile in Gujarat. Retrieved
from The Times of India Tech: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/tech-news/Now-
register-as-e-voter-from-your-mobile-in-Gujarat/articleshow/49641667.cms
Transparency. (2013). Retrieved from National Democratic Institute: https://www.ndi.org/e-
voting-guide/transparency

Appendixes 5.0 Introductory Letter
HEAD OF ICT DEPARTMENT,
TAITA TAVETA UNIVERSITY COLLEGE,
635, VOI, KENYA.
Dear sir/Madam,
RE: REQUEST FOR A SURVEY
I am a fourth year student pursuing Bachelor of Science in Information Technology at Taita Taveta
university College. As part of course completion requirement, am expected to carry out a research
on my topic of my choice which is: Electronic voting Mobile Application for efficient election
process for higher learning institutions.
This is to kindly request your assistance and cooperation in providing information on the topic by
allowing the students to respond to the questions in the attached questionnaire. This is an academic
research and the information obtained will be purely for academic purposes and the answers will
be kept confidential. Should you have any enquires concerning this survey you can contact me on
0718380947.
I am looking forward to your response and cooperation.
Yours Sincerely,
Morine Gakii

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