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)
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
National Institute of Technology
Arunachal Pradesh, India
anooshmitadas10ece@gmail.com
Subhasish Banerjee(co-author)
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
National Institute of Technology
Arunachal Pradesh, India
subhasishbanerjeeism@gmail.com
AbstractIndia 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 todays 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
Manash Pratim Dutta (co-author)
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
National Institute of Technology
Arunachal Pradesh, India
manashpdutta@gmail.com
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
voters 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 voters 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 EVMs [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 EVMs 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 NGOs. 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 1970s in
collaboration with two government com mpanies- ECIL explicit manner, in the diagram beelow the main blocks of the
(Electronics Corporation of India) and BEL (Bharat project is discussed. Followed byy the flowchart of VOT-EL
Electronics Limited). in a nutshell.
IV. ARCHITECTURE OF THE PROPOSED
D SYSTEM

A. Brief Description of the system

Each user will have a NFC voter id card whhich consists of
the tag; all the baseline information like nam me, age, gender,
location will be stored. The NFC cards comee with a unique
number for the identification purpose of eaach voter. The
information is kept discrete by encapsulation pprocess and the
information can be manipulated at the sstarting set up
procedure. The NFC cards are blank at the innitial stage and
have to be initialized to be entered into the baack end system.
Once the card id is held within the vicinity off the controller,
through the use of serial monitor, the data or the baseline
information contained becomes valid. When the user comes
in the proximity range of the NFC reader, it reetrieves the data
from the tag and passes the inform mation to the
microcontroller. If the user is genuine, the idd matches with
the stored data in the database, he will be allow
wed to move to
the next level of authentication, otherwise a m message will be
shown in the display that the person is nott an authorized
user. Only registered users may process furthher to cast their
vote once they have places their card within the vicinity of
the NFC reader. Then the card is acknow wledged by the
reader, it checks for the unique identificattion number is
present in the database, when this is donne the voter is
signaled to move to the next stage.

Once the voter cast his vote, he wont be aallowed to vote FIGURE 1 : BLOCK- DIAGRAM OF THE PROPOSED SYSTEM
again and if multiple votes are tried by the saame person this
will be reported to the screen. The fingerpriint of the voter
will be taken by the scanner and is beinng sent to the
microcontroller. The processed image of thee fingerprint is
transferred to match with the sample tem mplates in the
database. If the persons identity matches, hhe can cast his
vote in real time only once, choosing the caandidate as per
choice and if invalid user, then the buzzer willl be raised and
a message will be displayed as unauthorized uuser.

The option which is entered by the voter is beeing sent to the

server which keeps on updating through internet every
instant. Once voted, it automatically gets inccremented with
respect to the voting. The server retrieves thee data and starts
the validation process. Finally, the in-charrge of election
commission or the authorized admin has the complete
control on the application and is fully-rresponsible for FIGURE 2 : SCHEMATIC SY
YSTEM FLOW DIAGRAM
governing important functionalities. The adm min can ensure
that the elections are conducted in an unprejuudiced and fair
manner. He can search the database to veriffy a person has V. FLOW CHART OF THE
E PROPOSED SYSTEM
not voted under two different names. And aalso the voting
details of a person is available, he can also traack down a vote The flowchart of the procedural steps
s involved in the design
in case of any irregularities. Finally after the vvote submission being described explicitly. It desccribes the control access of
phase is over, the results can be displayed thhrough internet the authentication system for a registered user through
within fraction of time. Considering the aboove points, the different levels. It also show ws the basic level of
design proposal can handle all security relateed issues. In an
authentication, first being the NFC, secoond being the VI. HARDWARE DESCRIPTION
biometrics and third considered under Internett of Things.
A. Description of the system
The different types of subb-unit and how they are
connected is shown below.
a> NFC controller shield
NFC card interact with the NFC controller shield
module by using EM rad dio field. NFC allows two-
way communication bettween the card and the
device, valid for a 13.56 MHz
M frequency.

b> Finger-print module (SM 630)

Fingerprint recognition, the electronic process of
recording, storing, seearching, matching and
recognizing an individuall fingerprint has advanced
substantially due to introd
duction of modules like SM
630. Now-a-days, identiification can be achieved
within fraction of seconds with great
accuracy.SM630 consist of o optic fingerprint sensor,
high performance DSP processor and flash. It
possess features like sellf -proprietary intellectual
features, self adaptive adjustment
a to fingerprints,
high imaging quality , canc be applied to a wider
range of people. It hass excellent tolerance and
correction to deformed an nd poor quality fingerprints
and also low power consumption.

TABLE I. TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION

FEATURES SPECIFICATION

OPERATING VOLTAGE 4.3 V 6 V

RATING VOLTAGE 6.5 V

OPERATING CURRENT <80 mV (Input Voltage 5V)

FINGERPRINT TEMPLATE 768 template

SEARCH TIME <1.5 s

POWERON TIME <200 MS (Time elapse between

system module on to system ready
to execute instructions)

TOLERATED ANGLE OFFSET 45

FLASH MEMORY 64 Kbyte

INTERFACE PROTOCOL Standard Serial Interface (TTL)

COMMUNICATION BAUD 57600bps

RATE
 VII. COMPARATIVE STUDY
Y WITH OTHER SCHEMES
c> Microcontroller
P89V51RD2 is a 40 MHz 8051 microcontroller, 5V
with 32 I/O lines, 9 interrupts with 4 priority levels, FEATURES TRADITIONA EXISTING
E OUR
L PAPER EVM
E SCHEME
1 k on chip RAM, 64k+8k flash, SPI, dual data BASED VO-TEL
pointers, programmable watch dog tiimer (WDT), 5 BALLOT
channel PCA. It has 3 timers/counteers. It supports
12-clock (default) or 6 clock m mode selections Paper and Ballot Embedded
E Real Time
through software or ISP and enhanceed UART. TTL CONTRIVA Boxes System
S Embedded
NCE System
and CMOS- compatible logic levels.
LEVELS OF NONE Supervision
S 3(Three Level)
d> Raspberry Pi SECURITY provided
p
Raspberry Pi 2 Model B has a 40 pin GGPIO header; it Prone to th
hrough use of 1)NFC
has four USB 2.0 ports that can provide better fraudulence and smart
s cards,
2)Bio-Metric
more erroneous PINs
P or
overcurrent behaviour. It has a nicer push micro SD passwords.
p Authentication
version. It includes ARM 11 processoor to ensure the But
B can be 3)Internet-
easily
e tapped of-things(web
speed efficacy. Power consumption is reduced to
or
o hacked based
0.5W to 1W. The audio circuit incorporate a devoted validation)
low noise power supply. It offers more flexibility to
work with then the earlier versions oof it. Python is
the programming language.

PRIVACY
e> 16*2 LCD Display
The LCD display is connected to thee 80C51 micro- USABILITY
controller, and microcontroller providdes the data will (Any
be shown in the display. demographic
age group)

f> Power Supply RELIABILIT

The main components of the regulatedd power supply Y
are 230 V AC mains, transformer, bbridge rectifier
POWER
(diodes), capacitor, voltage regulaator(IC 7805), CONSTRAI
resistors and LEDs. NT

ECONOMIC
Indelible ink Cost
C is too
and papers high
h
required. So
high cost

ENCAPSULA
FIGURE 3 : BLOCK- DIAGRAM OF THE REGULLATED POWER TION
SUPPLY
SPOOFING
g> Piezo Electric Buzzer
DISPLAY Stamps on paper Touch
T screen Web Based
The piezo buzzer generates sound baased on reverse OUTPUT beside the with
w GUI Portal
of piezo-electric effect. The underlyiing principle is preferred in
nterface
the production of pressure or sstrain by the candidate
application of electric potential acrosss a piezoelectric
material. Here, the buzzer is used as aan alert for any
AUDITING The
T tally is
invalid credentials or unauthorised useer. TRAIL Manual The EVM is
done
d in a
digital
d connected to
 procedure. the internet to
But EVMs provide a 3-tier
are still prone voting system.
to software
mal-
functioning
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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