VOT-EL: Three Tier Secured State-Of-The-Art EVM Design Using Pragmatic Fingerprint Detection Annexed

With NFC Enabled Voter -ID Card

Anooshmita Das (author) Manash Pratim Dutta (co-author) Department of Computer Science and Engineering Department of Computer Science and Engineering

National Institute of Technology National Institute of Technology Arunachal Pradesh, India Arunachal Pradesh, India

anooshmitadas10ece@gmail.com manashpdutta@gmail.com

Subhasish Banerjee(co-author) Department of Computer Science and Engineering

National Institute of Technology Arunachal Pradesh, India

subhasishbanerjeeism@gmail.com

Abstract—India being the largest democracy in the world, elections forms the cornerstone of our country. Amongst the prominent leaders, a representative is being chosen to run the country and to seek and search for the public affairs, pieces of legislation and constitutional amendments. The onerous task is to maintain transparency in the electoral process and shield the integrity of elections to make it equitable and withstand any fraudulence. Rampage free elections is one of the critical issues in today’s state of affairs which is like finding needle in a haystack, that needs an eye and lots of money is being spent to ensure that the elections are fair and unprejudiced. Privacy is also important to make elections equitable to prevent voter coercion, intimidation and ballot selling. But nowadays it is seen that, many unwanted forces are indulged in bogus voting and recently also been criticized for election irregularities, that leads to ambiguity between the polling results and the actual verdict given by the people. Classical poll-site voting methods along with many other computer based voting system poise several administrative and logistic challenges in terms of cost, voter misinterpretation and tally of votes. This paper proposes a new state-of-the-art Electronic Voting Machine design in quest for election legitimacy, to provide an inexpensive solution which is based on pragmatic biometric system using fingerprint detection along with inclusion of Near- Far Communication technology. Key-words: Bio-metric, Electronic Voting Machine, Fingerprint, Near-Far Communication.

I. INTRODUCTION Elections are the fundamental defining characteristics of any democracy that upholds the very meaning of a system that is being governed by the people expressing their choices or articulate opinions in the form of voting. The traditional electoral process vacillates around tallying manually, which is time consuming and complicated and more erroneous and prone to fraudulency. 978-1-4673-6725-7/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE

Now the voting mechanisms have evolved from leaps and bounds of simple hand written ballots to online voting systems. The proposed design, also have the sui generis feature of being autonomous during the operational mode, which helps to diminish and eradicate the issues of hacking that happened in cases of traditional voting systems and also has an eagle eye view on the privacy constraint which directly conflicts with the capability to audit the data aptly. In this proposed design, the viability study of the emerging technology NFC, in conjunction with biometric is done. The design, suggests the use of a promising technology, i.e. NFC cards for the identification purpose of the voters, which is a short range radio communication wireless technology, in the first tier of security level. This technology allows communication between the NFC card and the device equipped with the reader when they are brought together within less than five centimeters apart in a very secured and reliable manner, which ebbed the complicacy and preventing from the malicious attacks or frauds. NFC is a finely honed version of HF-RFID, operating at the frequency of 13.56 MHz and transmission of data rate is 424Kbits/sec [1]. Peer-to-peer communication and auto-coupling are the feature that sets NFC apart and it also enables slick and intuitive communication between device and tags. NFC tag store the voter’s details like name, age, gender and location which are used to authenticate, before they cast their votes. The user places the NFC tag near the device reader, than it scans the tag and verifies the details with the back-end system. One of the noteworthy features of NFC is its ingrained guaranteed security, as the transmission of data is initiated by bringing two devices in proximity range of each other, separating devices over a range limit will terminate the communication. The range of NFC is so short that if any hacker device comes in the vicinity, it will be clearly recognized. Once the user is verified, the person can proceed to the next level of

biometric authentication. To make the system more stringent and robust, another layer of security is reinforced through the use of biometric fingerprint identification as every individual has unique fingerprints. Biometrics is the science and technology that deals with analyzing the biological information or data. Biometric logistics operates by procuring fingerprints from an individual, then decoction of a feature set from the acquired data, and comparing this feature set with reference to the template set stored in the database[13][14]. Using fingerprint matching is very reliable and popular biometric technique in personal identification process as it generates solemnity while stressing on building or cultivating voter confidence. Common challenges during capturing of unreadable fingerprints are False Acceptance Rates (FAR), where an invalid fingerprint is accepted because of subterfuge or error and another exception is False Rejection Ratio (FRR) where a valid fingerprint gets rejected. So this should be mediated in order to make it more accurate. To maintain the transparency of the system, in the third tier of security level -each time a user casts his vote, a tweet will be generated that the specified user has submitted his/her vote and the total no of vote count increases to prevent from illegal voting (rigging). The proposed design VOT-EL looks into the multiple dimensions to endure the expectations of the voter’s for a secured, reliable and efficacious voting system.

II. RELATED WORK India with 834 million registered voters, voting through electronic means is obligatory. India accomplishes the electoral process using over 0.923 million polling stations along with the EVM’s [5] [7].The EVMs which were introduced protruded many computational hurdles and off-grid challenges such as power constraint, usability and access control. Apparently the youth participation is ebbing in elections than other demographic age groups so the Election Commission needs to advance the EVM’s and to set solutions for all security related threats as new digital technology is hitting the world with thunderbolt speed. It is believed that our design will foster youth participation with the e-voting asserting for a democracy to command respect it must operate in the same way as people are performing routine tasks in their lives, and e-voting fits this criteria. Other measures to augment vote count in local government Gujarat made voting mandatory and are also attempting to indulge SMS as well as internet based web portal voting [5]. The cognizance of NOTA (None of the above) is an epitome of innovation that permitted the voters in India the option to participate while abnegating all candidates (Electoral Commission of India, 2013) [8] [12] [16]. A procedure to almost eradicate voter deception through malicious tendencies is the reinforcement of biometrics. A study by NCSA (National Cyber Security Alliance) revealed that using of biometrics parameters provided more security and reliability as this phrase is indeed used “your body is the new password”. Roger hacked the Apple 5S

Application i.e. the first ever mobile technology that acknowledged the fingerprint authentication, although still believes on biometrics [6][9][15].

III. HURDLES OF TRADITIONAL AND EXISTING VOTING SYSTEM

To foster voter enrolment, during 2014 General Elections in India, ECI constantly endeavors and motivates to participate by appealing the sense of citizenship. SVEEP campaign has been started in co-operation with NGO’s. The ECI also augmented the provision of voting slips and cross-checked for any malevolent tendencies. Despite of all this efforts, sustaining interest and motivation in a growing populace seems to be a herculean task, especially when voter cynicism crawls in. The people criticize ECI for everything from the code of conduct, to partisanship to inaction after poll violation. The people want the election to be placid and devoid of any tumult. Due to a result of rampant corruption in the elections, the people have been raising questioning eyebrows about it and the general expression has prevailed that the democratic system has proved to be a boon only to a handful of people having capital. The success of elections largely depends on enlightened masses, honest citizens. The common people relapse into political indolence after the elections are over. On Jan 28, 2015, in Chhattisgarh Panchayat polls, 50% of the candidates elected unopposed in Rebel dominated Bastar. The rebels looted ballot boxes from around 30 booths. Before in India, conventional voting systems used paper-based ballots for voting, this procedure regrettably allowed coercion, where individuals have to queue up to enroll themselves before they cast their votes [2][3]. The traditional voting process was divided into different phases – 1) User Authentication: In this part, the person authenticates himself and is verified by the presiding officer at the polling site. After verification, the officer provides a ballot paper to cast the vote. 2) Voting: The user casts his vote, puts into the ballot box where all the votes are kept together. 3) Vote Tally: As the post poll procedure, the presiding officer collects the ballot boxes and submits to the center. Votes are counted and the results are declared. 4) Verification: Various cross-checking mechanisms are implied in case of frauds. 5) Publication of Results: Finally the polling results are declared after the above steps are completed successfully. As the populace is so high, such a large exercise became unwieldy to supervise. This leads to the progression of voting – with the introduction of lever machines, punch cards which protruded new obstacles such as logistics, breakdown of device, acquiring technical skills while discarding transparency [10] [12]. This signaled the advent of EVM, to contextualize the challenges and beneficially introduce speed, automatic ballot tally, and strained voter monitoring, resolve any voting violation. The idea was mooted by Chief Election Commissioner in late 1970’s in

collaboration with two government com(Electronics Corporation of India) and Electronics Limited).

IV. ARCHITECTURE OF THE PROPOSED

A. Brief Description of the system Each user will have a NFC voter id card whthe tag; all the baseline information like namlocation will be stored. The NFC cards comenumber for the identification purpose of eainformation is kept discrete by encapsulation pinformation can be manipulated at the sprocedure. The NFC cards are blank at the inhave to be initialized to be entered into the baOnce the card id is held within the vicinity ofthrough the use of serial monitor, the data information contained becomes valid. When in the proximity range of the NFC reader, it refrom the tag and passes the informmicrocontroller. If the user is genuine, the idthe stored data in the database, he will be allowthe next level of authentication, otherwise a mshown in the display that the person is notuser. Only registered users may process furthvote once they have places their card within the NFC reader. Then the card is acknowreader, it checks for the unique identificatpresent in the database, when this is donsignaled to move to the next stage. Once the voter cast his vote, he won’t be aagain and if multiple votes are tried by the sawill be reported to the screen. The fingerpriwill be taken by the scanner and is beinmicrocontroller. The processed image of thetransferred to match with the sample temdatabase. If the person’s identity matches, hvote in real time only once, choosing the cachoice and if invalid user, then the buzzer wila message will be displayed as unauthorized u The option which is entered by the voter is beserver which keeps on updating through instant. Once voted, it automatically gets increspect to the voting. The server retrieves thethe validation process. Finally, the in-charcommission or the authorized admin has control on the application and is fully-rgoverning important functionalities. The admthat the elections are conducted in an unprejumanner. He can search the database to verifnot voted under two different names. And adetails of a person is available, he can also train case of any irregularities. Finally after the vphase is over, the results can be displayed thwithin fraction of time. Considering the abodesign proposal can handle all security relate

mpanies- ECIL BEL (Bharat

D SYSTEM

hich consists of me, age, gender, e with a unique ach voter. The process and the

starting set up nitial stage and ack end system. f the controller, or the baseline the user comes

etrieves the data mation to the

d matches with wed to move to

message will be t an authorized her to cast their

the vicinity of wledged by the tion number is

ne the voter is

allowed to vote ame person this int of the voter ng sent to the e fingerprint is mplates in the he can cast his andidate as per ll be raised and

user.

eing sent to the internet every

cremented with e data and starts rge of election

the complete responsible for min can ensure udiced and fair

fy a person has also the voting

ack down a vote vote submission hrough internet ove points, the ed issues. In an

explicit manner, in the diagram beproject is discussed. Followed byin a nutshell.

FIGURE 1 : BLOCK- DIAGRAM

FIGURE 2 : SCHEMATIC SY

V. FLOW CHART OF THE

The flowchart of the procedural sbeing described explicitly. It descthe authentication system for adifferent levels. It also show

elow the main blocks of the y the flowchart of VOT-EL

OF THE PROPOSED SYSTEM

YSTEM FLOW DIAGRAM

E PROPOSED SYSTEM

steps involved in the design cribes the control access of a registered user through ws the basic level of

authentication, first being the NFC, secobiometrics and third considered under Internet

ond being the t of Things.

VI. HARDWARE

A. Description of the system The different types of sub

connected is shown below.

a> NFC controller shield NFC card interact with module by using EM radway communication betdevice, valid for a 13.56 M

b> Finger-print module (SM Fingerprint recognition, recording, storing, serecognizing an individualsubstantially due to introd630. Now-a-days, identiwithin fraction of accuracy.SM630 consist ohigh performance DSP possess features like selfeatures, self –adaptive ahigh imaging quality , crange of people. It hascorrection to deformed anand also low power consu

TABLE I. TECHNICAL

FEATURES

OPERATING VOLTAGE

RATING VOLTAGE

OPERATING CURRENT

FINGERPRINT TEMPLATE

SEARCH TIME

POWER–ON TIME

TOLERATED ANGLE OFFSET

FLASH MEMORY

INTERFACE PROTOCOL

COMMUNICATION BAUD RATE

DESCRIPTION

b-unit and how they are

the NFC controller shield dio field. NFC allows two-tween the card and the

MHz frequency.

630) the electronic process of

earching, matching and l fingerprint has advanced

duction of modules like SM ification can be achieved

seconds with great of optic fingerprint sensor,

processor and flash. It lf -proprietary intellectual adjustment to fingerprints, can be applied to a wider s excellent tolerance and nd poor quality fingerprints mption.

SPECIFICATION SPECIFICATION

4.3 V – 6 V

6.5 V

<80 mV (Input Voltage 5V)

768 template

<1.5 s

<200 MS (Time elapse between system module on to system ready to execute instructions)

±45°

64 Kbyte

Standard Serial Interface (TTL)

57600bps

c> Microcontroller

P89V51RD2 is a 40 MHz 8051 micrwith 32 I/O lines, 9 interrupts with 4 1 k on chip RAM, 64k+8k flash, pointers, programmable watch dog tichannel PCA. It has 3 timers/counte12-clock (default) or 6 clock mthrough software or ISP and enhanceand CMOS- compatible logic levels.

d> Raspberry Pi Raspberry Pi 2 Model B has a 40 pin Ghas four USB 2.0 ports that can overcurrent behaviour. It has a nicer version. It includes ARM 11 processospeed efficacy. Power consumption 0.5W to 1W. The audio circuit incorplow noise power supply. It offers mowork with then the earlier versions othe programming language.

e> 16*2 LCD Display The LCD display is connected to thecontroller, and microcontroller providbe shown in the display.

f> Power Supply The main components of the regulatedare 230 V AC mains, transformer, b(diodes), capacitor, voltage regularesistors and LED’s.

FIGURE 3 : BLOCK- DIAGRAM OF THE REGULSUPPLY

g> Piezo Electric Buzzer

The piezo buzzer generates sound baof piezo-electric effect. The underlyithe production of pressure or sapplication of electric potential acrossmaterial. Here, the buzzer is used as ainvalid credentials or unauthorised use

ocontroller, 5V priority levels, SPI, dual data imer (WDT), 5 ers. It supports

mode selections ed UART. TTL

GPIO header; it provide better push micro SD or to ensure the

is reduced to orate a devoted re flexibility to of it. Python is

e 80C51 micro-des the data will

d power supply bridge rectifier ator(IC 7805),

LATED POWER

ased on reverse ing principle is strain by the s a piezoelectric an alert for any er.

VII. COMPARATIVE STUDY

FEATURES

TRADITIONA

L PAPER BASED

BALLOT

EE

CONTRIVANCE

Paper and Ballot Boxes

ES

LEVELS OF SECURITY

NONE

Prone to fraudulence and more erroneous

SpthsPpBeo

PRIVACY

USABILITY (Any demographic age group)

RELIABILITY

POWER CONSTRAINT

ECONOMIC

Indelible ink and papers required. So high cost

Ch

ENCAPSULATION

SPOOFING

DISPLAY OUTPUT

Stamps on paper beside the preferred candidate

Twin

AUDITING TRAIL

Manual

Tdd

Y WITH OTHER SCHEMES

EXISTING EVM

OUR SCHEME – VO-TEL

Embedded System

Real Time Embedded System

Supervision provided hrough use of

smart cards, PINs or passwords. But can be easily tapped or hacked

3(Three Level) 1)NFC 2)Bio-Metric Authentication 3)Internet- of-things(web based validation)

Cost is too high

Touch screen with GUI nterface

Web Based Portal

The tally is done in a digital

The EVM is connected to

procedure. But EVM’s are still prone to software mal-functioning

the internet to provide a 3-tier voting system.

VIII. ADVANTAGES AND FUTURE APPLICATIONS

1) The voters during voting cannot perform any sort of tampering as he/she is not authorised to scroll any other screen.

2) The voter cannot be indulged in any bogus voting as his fingerprint should match with the stored template in the database.

3) The proposed design provides additional security due to reinforcement of RFID tags.

4) The main advantage is that fingerprints of every person are unique and hence the design completely diminishes the chance of illegal voting.

5) The proposed design is economically viable and cheap. This can be further used for online ticketing system for buses and trains, vehicle tracking system, automation of parking lot

IX. CONCLUSION The best solution to diminish corruption is to augment voting machines with a proper auditing trail. Auditing is one of ways to discover patch security holes to uncover specific vulnerabilities. This model guarantees that the voter is not a deceitful rogue. This designed proposal is ubiquitous for biometric capture and using NFC tag which adds security and privacy, is a small contribution towards conducting an unprejudiced and fair election. This model satisfies the democracy, anonymity (privacy), reliability, accuracy and usability criterion. This model shows potential to re-engage all demographic age groups to participate in elections and cast their votes.

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