review of existing indian voting system and hybrid design ... · processing [1]. the term...

28 Pooja Chugh and Pradeep Dimri

International Journal of Electronics, Electrical and Computational System

IJEECS

ISSN 2348-117X

Volume 4, Special Issue

May 2015

Review of existing Indian Voting System and hybrid design

using Biometric Security in Voting Authentication Process

Pooja Chugh and Pradeep Dimri

Pooja Chugh, Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, YMCAUST Faridabad,

Pradeep Dimri, Assistant Professor, Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering,

YMCAUST Faridabad,

Abstract

Voting is a decision making mechanism in a consensus-based society and security is most essential

part of voting. The critical role in determining the outcome of an election, Electronic Voting Systems

must be designed and developed with the greatest care. It is claimed by the Indian Election

Authorities that paperless Electronic Voting Systems suffer from significant vulnerabilities. Even

brief access to the machines could allow dishonest election insiders or other frauds to alter election

results. In this paper, an idea is proposed to upgrade the existing voting system that is based on

complete biometric traits of voter which are saved in a government database as Aadhar (U-id)

number database. These biometrics traits provide secure and feasible authentication to the voters,

thus preventing the fraud and illegal voting.

Keywords Aadhar, Biometrics, Electronic voting, Iris Recognition System, GUI, Serial Communication.

1. Introduction

Voting is the key process of a democratic society through which people determine its government.

Based on the promise of greater efficiency, better scalability, faster speed, lower cost, and more

convenience, voting is shifting from manual paper-based processing to automated electronic-based

processing [1]. The term “electronic voting” or “e-voting” characteristically depicts to the use of

some electronic means in voting and ensure the security, reliability, guarantee and transparency

[2],[3]. Security is the heart of e-voting process. Therefore the necessity of designing a secure e-

voting system is very important. Usually, mechanisms that ensure the security and privacy of an

election can be time-consuming, expensive for election administrators, and inconvenient for voters.

There is no measurement for acceptable security level, because the level depends on type of the

information. An acceptable security level is always a compromise between usability and strength of

security method.

1.1 Securities of the E-voting systems:

The main goal of a secure e-voting is to maintain the privacy of the voters on one hand and accuracy

of the votes on other hand. A secure e-voting system satisfies the following requirements:

Eligibility: Only votes of legitimate voters shall be taken into account.

Authentication: Only authorized voters should be able to vote.

Uniqueness: No voter should be able to vote more than once.

Accuracy: Voting systems should record the votes correctly.

Integrity: Number of casted votes must not be modified.

Fairness: Partial tabulation must be impossible.

Reliability: Systems should work robustly, even in the face of numerous failures.



IJEECS

ISSN 2348-117X


May 2015

2. Literature Review on Voting Trends in India

2.1 Paper based Voting System:

Before 2004 voting system was based on paper. Voter had to go to polling booth on the day of

election. For casting his vote, he had to mark seal in front of the symbol of any candidate for which

he wanted to cast his vote on ballot paper. For results, all votes were counted and maximum vote

gainer was declared as winner.

India has population more than 120 crores so if ballot paper voting is used then it will be very

hard to count the vote and there are also problems like replacement of ballot paper boxes with

duplicate, damage of ballot paper, marking stamp seal for more than one candidate hence it was

mandatory for India to overcome this problem.

2.2 Electronic Voting System:

In 2004, India adopted Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) for its elections [4] (e-voting). EVM is

called Direct-Recording Electronic (DRE) voting system.

Votes are recorded correctly and no problem is there in counting, scalability and robustness of

system. Problem lies in authentication, the person who is voting may not be the legitimate person.

There are other problems like booth capturing by political parties, voting done by less aged children

and fraud voting. A person is identified by voter list provided by the Election Commission of India

and Voter ID card issued by Indian government. There are a lot of problems in voter ID card like

name misprinting, missing of name, no clear photo on photo id card, etc.

2.3 Proposed System:

To overcome above stated problems we are proposing a voting system which is more secure, time

saving and provide two level of authentication by electronic means based on individual biometric

traits of voters. The new system will use biometric traits of the voter as authentication by which at

the time of election if scanned biometric data of the voter matches with that of saved in the system

then he is allowed to vote otherwise he is rejected a reported as fake voter and law breaker.

Biometric properties of any individual are unique universally, which cannot be matched with

anybody like fingerprint, iris, gaits, voice, face etc. Out of these, fingerprints, face images and iris

samples are saved in national Aadhar (U-id) database of Indian government. So, there is no need to

create an extra database which contains only biometric data. The need is to connect with the U-id

database. The proposed approach is time saving and provides much better authentication from paper

based authentication.

3. Current Voting System

To design a voting system, to be able to overcome these shortcomings, we need to analyze the

current voting system.

3.1 How the system works?

Voting is done by secret EVM. Polling stations are usually set up in public institutions, such as

schools and community halls. To enable as many electors as possible to vote, the officials of the

Election Commission try to ensure that there is a polling station within 2 km of every voter. On

entering the polling station, the elector is checked against the Electoral Roll, and allowed to cast

his/her vote by EVM.

Currently voting is done by EVM in India and voter is allowed to only cast his/her after complete

authentication. Authentication is done by voter list at that polling station and Voter ID card. Both

Voter ID card and voter list are issued by the Election Commission of India (ECI), a government and

constitutional body of India to control and take care of the Indian election. If voter name matches

with the name with that on the voter ID card and he has not casted his/her vote before, then the voter

is allowed to vote. This authentication is completely paper based.



IJEECS

ISSN 2348-117X


May 2015

3.2 Issues with Present Voting System:

There have been several studies on using computer technologies to improve elections. These studies

caution against the risks of moving too quickly to adopt electronic voting system, because of the

software engineering challenges, insider threats, network vulnerabilities, and the challenges of

auditing.

Problems encountered during the usual elections are as follows:

Improper validation of voters.

Capturing of Polling Booth.

Even brief access to the machines could allow dishonest election insiders or other frauds to

alter election results.

The voters finds the event boring resulting to a small number of voters.

Deceitful election mechanism.

Constant spending funds for the elections staff are provided.

Also, there is no procedure to give voters a way to verify their vote and ensure transparency.

So, the proposed electronic voting system has to be addressed with these problems.

3.3 Different Stages of Election:

1. Registration

2. Authentication

3. Vote Casting

4. Vote Tallying

In this paper, we will discuss the securities related to authentication process.

4. Proposed System Design

Figure1. Basic Block Diagram

4.1 Description:

Firstly the voter will swap his/her Aadhar Card on the Aadhar Card Reader Module. The Aadhar

Card Reader Module is connected to the Microcontroller unit, hence, it will send the data obtained

from the card to the Microcontroller. The Microcontroller (is connected to the central server where

all information of Aadhar Card holders has been stored already) access the data stored in its memory



IJEECS

ISSN 2348-117X


May 2015

by the code obtained from the code. Now, the voter will be subjected to Iris recognition system.

Here, a sample of the iris will be taken and matched with the stored Aadhar database. Also, the voter

can be subjected to face recognition and finger print test to validate all the details of the voter in case

of any discrepancy found in the photo due to ageing etc. This way we can rule out the fraud voting.

4.2 Biometrics:

A biometric system provides automatic recognition of an individual based on some sort of unique

feature or characteristic possessed by the individual [5],[6]. Biometric systems have been developed

based on fingerprints, facial features, voice, hand geometry, handwriting, the retina, and the one

presented in this paper, the iris.

Figure 2.Flowchart

4.3 AADHAR

Aadhar [7] is a 12 digit individual identification number issued by the Unique Identification

Authority of India (UIDAI) on behalf of the Government of India. Each individual can enroll only

once which is free of cost. Each Aadhar number will be unique to an individual and will remain valid

for life. Aadhar number is envisaging to provide access to services like banking, mobile phone

connections and other Government and Non-Government services. Biometric data like fingerprint,

iris and palm geometry face is stored in database of Aadhar. This number will serve as a proof of

identity as well as address, anywhere in India. Any individual, irrespective of age and gender, who is

a resident in India and satisfies the verification process laid down by the UIDAI, can enroll for

Aadhar.

4.4 Embedding Iris Recognition

The task can be accomplished in three phases:

Phase1. Designing of Iris recognition code in MATLAB, i.e. Recognition of Human Iris Pattern for

Biometric Identification and obtaining the result of comparison in the form of GUI.

Phase2. Obtain the output in the form of a string and send it serially to COM port of PC.

Phase3. Receive the serial data from COM port of PC to the microcontroller 8051 and display it on

LCD.

The three phases can be represented in the form of a flowchart as:



IJEECS

ISSN 2348-117X


May 2015

Figure3. Flowchart

4.5 Proposed Algorithm

Phase 1: Iris Matching in MATLAB.

Step 1: Implement a code in MATLAB which performs iris recognition.

Step 2: Draw a GUI (Graphical User Interface) in MATLAB. Write the appropriate callback codes.

The following window will open:

Figure 4. GUI in MATLAB

Step 3: Now browse camera image and the image from database (previously stored).

(a) If the two are same, the result will be „MATCHED‟, as can be seen in the following window.



IJEECS

ISSN 2348-117X


May 2015

Figure 5. Iris Comparison

(b) If the images are not matched, then the result will be „NOT MATCHED‟ as in the following

window.

Figure 6. Iris Comparison

Phase2: Steps to establish serial communication between MATLAB and COM port of PC.

Step1. Open virtual serial port driver 7.2 Eltima Software; Create a pair of virtual ports, say COM1

and COM2. This is called NULL MODEM CONFIGURATION i.e. we have shorted the virtual

COM port1 to COM port2. Thus, the data transmitted from COM1 will be available at COM2 and

vice versa.



IJEECS

ISSN 2348-117X


May 2015

Figure 7. Virtual Serial Port Driver Window

Step2. Open MATLAB. Write a MATLAB code in the command window (or in the editor window)

Create a serial object assigned to COM1, set its different parameters like BaudRate, Terminator, Stop

bits, Data flow, Parity assigned etc. Then, transmit some data serially to this port using the command

fprintf /fwrite.

Figure 8. MATLAB Command Window

Step3. Open HyperTerminal software. Create a connection/call using COM2. Here, we can see the

data coming from COM1 through MATLAB.

Step4. Observe the status of COM1 and COM2 in Eltima Software .We can see the status of both

ports; COM1 sending „x‟ Bytes and COM2 receiving „x‟ Bytes.



IJEECS

ISSN 2348-117X


May 2015

Figure 9. Virtual Serial Port Driver Window

Phase 3: Establish serial communication between COM port of PC and Microcontroller 8051.

Step1: Build the Keil program and check for errors.

Step2: Open Proteus Design Suite. Draw the circuit by choosing the components from the

component library. Set the properties of different components and finally, simulate the design.

Figure 10. Proteus Simulation Design Suite

(a) If the data obtained at the virtual port is „M‟, then LCD displays “MATCHED” and

“AUTHENTICATED”.



IJEECS

ISSN 2348-117X


May 2015


(b) If the data obtained at the virtual port is „N‟, then LCD displays “NOT MATCHED” and “NOT

AUTHENTICATED”.


5. Conclusions and Future Scope

5.1 Conclusions:

Although the proposed system provides best solutions to problems related to the Indian voting

system but it is vulnerable to security attacks. Confidential biometric data may be leaked due to

network connectivity or system hacking [8], [9]. Full implementation is not an easy task, it involves

political issues, financial issues and regional issues. It may take 5-7 years to get this system in

working condition, so it need time to go live. Illiteracy is the main hurdle in this project to come true

because for an illiterate persons this not easy to work with machine interface.



IJEECS

ISSN 2348-117X


May 2015

5.2 Future Scope:

Other biometric traits may be considered as add-ons for making the method more robust in terms of

security as we get time-and-cost effective solutions with the advancements in technology [10]. The

voting system can also be made flexible in terms of being able to be operated from anywhere in the

country through online procedures.

6. References

[1] Diponkar Paul and Sobuj Kumar Ray, Member, IACSIT, A Preview on Microcontroller Based

Electronic Voting Machine, International Journal of Information and Electronics Engineering,

Vol. 3, No. 2, March 2013.

[2 ] D. Balzarotti, G. Banks, M. Cova, V. Felmetsger, R. A. Kemmerer, W. Robertson, F. Valeur,

and G. Vigna, “An Experience in Testing the Security of Real-World Electronic Voting

Systems,” IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, vol. 36, no. 4, 2010.

[3] A. Villafiorita and K. Weldemariam, and R. Tiella, “Development, Formal Verification, and

Evaluation of an E-Voting System with VVPAT,” IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics

and Security, vol. 4, no. 4, 2009.

[4] http://www.bravenewballot.org/e-voting-in-india.html.

[5] Anil K. Jain, Arun Ross and Salil Prabhakar, “An Introduction to Biometric Recognition”, IEEE

Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, Special Issue on Image- and Video-

Based Biometrics, Vol. 14, No. 1, January 2004.

[6] Anil K. Jain and Umut Uludag,“Hiding Biometric Data,” IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis

and Machine Intelligence, Vol. 25, No. 11, pp. 1094-1098,Nov 2003.

[7] http://uidai.gov.in/aadhaar.html

[8] S. Prabhakar, S. Pankanti, and A. K. Jain, “Biometric Recognition: Security and Privacy

Concerns”, IEEE Security and Privacy Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 33-42, 2003.

[9] J. L. Wayman, “Fundamentals of Biometric Authentication Technologies”, International Journal

of Image and Graphics, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 93-113, 2001.

[10] L. Hong, A. K. Jain, and S. Pankanti, “Can Multibiometrics Improve Performance?”, Proc.

AutoID'99, pp. 59-64, Summit(NJ), USA, Oct 1999.

http://uidai.gov.in/aadhaar.html

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