International Journal of Electronics Communication and Computer Technology (IJECCT)
Volume 3 Issue 3 (May 2013)
Implementation of Electronic Voting Machine with
Multiple Preferences and Priority
Ramya G. P., S. S. Manvi
Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering,
Reva Institute of Technology and Management,
Bangalore, India
Abstract— Traditional paper based voting procedure was
very long and time-consuming process and very much prone to
errors. Polling by Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) is a simple,
safe and secure method that takes minimum of time. Current
Electronic Voting Machine (EVMs) used in LOK SABHA and
ASSEMBLY elections accepts only one vote from each voter.
But in elections such as GRAMA PANCHAYATH and
COOPERATIVE SOCIETIES, where each voter casts their votes
to more than one candidate, available voting machines will not
work. The paper presents a PROGRAMMABLE ELECTRONIC
VOTING MACHINE that accepts one or more votes depending
on requirement. Mode control is included in EVM, through
which it is possible to set the EVM to accept more than one vote
from each voter depending on the type of elections. The main
advantage of this type of EVM is to avoid the invalid votes
especially in co-operative society elections where each voter has
to cast vote for nine candidates.
Keywords- Election; Polling; EVMs; Ballot Uni;, Control
Unit .
I.
INTRODUCTION
Elections in India are conducted almost exclusively by
using electronic voting machines developed over the past two
decades by a pair of government-owned companies. These
devices, known in India as EVMs, have been praised for their
simple design, ease of use, and reliability. The Electronic
Voting Machine (EVM) consists of two interconnected units,
the Ballot Unit where the voter casts his vote by pressing a
button alongside the name of the candidate and symbol of the
party for whom the person chooses to vote for and the Control
Unit by which the polling official enables the Ballot Unit for
the voter to cast his vote and where all related data like number
of votes polled for each candidate, total number of votes cast
etc. resides. EVMs reduce the time in both casting a vote and
declaring the results compared to the old ballot paper system.
The control unit can store the result in its memory for more
than 10 years. Invalid votes can be greatly reduced by use of
EVMs. Blank votes can be counted. Despite many advantages
of EVMs, there are certain issues in terms of software and
hardware. There must be at least two official technical
evaluations of EVM security performed by the Election
Commission. First one deals with source code of EVMs and
second one with hardware parts of EVMs. Hackers can break
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the security algorithm and can change the actual results. Hence
there is a need of strong and fast algorithms like DES (Data
Encryption Standard) or AES (Advanced Encryption Standard)
[10]. There may be a chance of replacing the entire system with
a fake one, and inserting a device between the ballot unit cable
and the control unit. The EVM firmware is stored in masked
read-only memory inside the microcontroller chips, and there is
no provision for extracting it or verifying its integrity. This
means that if the software was modified before it was built into
the CPUs, the changes would be very difficult to detect. The
risks would appear to be greater when electronic voting
involves the transfer of data by means of network to a server
centralizing the result. Varying climate has great extremes of
temperature, as well as other environmental hazards such as
dust and pollution. EVMs must be operated under these
adverse conditions and must be stored for long periods in
facilities that lack climate control. EVMs must be protected
from dangers “attack by vermin, rats, fungus or due to
mechanical danger, [that might cause] malfunction”[1]. It is
very necessary to perform security analysis of real time EVMs.
In spite of the machines’ simplicity and minimal software
trusted computing base, they are vulnerable to serious attacks
that can alter election results and violate the secrecy of the
ballot. Two attacks are identified and solved by implementing
custom hardware, which could be carried out by dishonest
election insiders or other criminals with only brief physical
access to the machines. Those attacks are replacing the entire
system with a fake one, and inserting a device between the
ballot unit cable and the control unit. Both attacks, the report
states, can be defeated by inspection of the machine [5]. In
1992, 40 out of 758 machines used in Franklin country had
problems that require service. Seven memory cartridges
couldn’t be read and were entered in hand. Finally, there were
problems combining DRE results with hand-entered lever
machine results. In 1998, Ohio (in Franklin) votes for
congressional candidates incorrectly tabulated in 95 of the
country 735 voting precincts because memory cartridges didn’t
match ballot faces for 371 voting machines. In 2000,
Tennessee (in Fayette), problems included double countering
of same ballots were resolved after barrowing a tabulation
machine from a neighboring country.[2]
In the existing voting machines, number of candidates
supported is limited to around 20 only, if number of candidates
exceeds 20 we are supposed to use 2 voting machines. At
present, EVMs are used
only in LOK SABHA and
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International Journal of Electronics Communication and Computer Technology (IJECCT)
Volume 3 Issue 3 (May 2013)
ASSEMBLY elections (it accepts only 1 vote from each voter),
but in elections such as GRAMA PANCHAYATH and
COOPERATIVE SOCIETIES where each voter cast their
votes to more than one candidate; available voting machines
can not be used.
This paper presents a PROGRAMMABLE ELECTRONIC
VOTING MACHINE that accepts one or more votes
depending on our requirement. Here, we have included the
mode control, through this we can set the EVM to accept more
than one vote from each voter (it can accept 1 or 2 or 3 …. or
n votes) depending on the type of elections [3].
Our Contributions are mainly in designing priority and
multiple weighted based voting, where a vote for multiple
persons for a positions. Weights of preferences will be used to
get final vote counting.
The voting sequence using the EVM has been kept as close
to the traditional voting process as possible. The process of
voting is as follows. Once the validity of the voter has been
ensured, the polling official enables the ballot unit and the
voter is asked to go to the area where the ballot unit is placed.
Then, the voter scrutinizes the names of the candidates or
parties displayed on the ballot unit and cast his vote by pressing
the blue button beside the chosen candidate’s name or symbol.
The corresponding LED is lit and an audible beep is heard
confirming the registration of vote in the system. This process
is repeated for the next voter. At the end of polling, the process
is completed by the official by pressing the “Close” button on
the control unit. On operation of the “Result”button of the
Control Unit, the display indicates the results of the poll
including total number of votes cast and the number of votes
polled for each candidate.
The paper is organized as follows. First, working of present
EVM is discussed, with its limitations in present Voting system
Second, proposed work to overcome present EVM is discussed
along with block diagram (modules) and working(in terms of
state diagram.). Finally, simulation results, conclusion, and
future work are presented.
II.
PROPOSED EVM
EVM consists of mainly two interconnected units, ballot
(implemented with FPGA/CPLD) and control unit
(implemented with FPGA), and display module (LEDs) as
given in figure 1. In the ballot unit, voter casts his/her vote by
pressing a button alongside the name of the candidate and
symbol of the party for whom the person chooses to vote.
Control unit is given to the polling official, who enables the
ballot unit for the voter to cast his vote, and all related data,
like number of votes polled for each candidate, total number of
votes cast, etc., resides in it. The controls such as ballot, close,
result, clear, total, Nvotes, ready, and cd are used to control
operations of control unit. Display module is used to display
alphanumeric characters. MSB 2 digits are used to display
candidate serial number and rest 4 digits are used to display the
total number of votes casted for corresponding candidate.
Figure 2. Circuit diagram of Ballot unit
The figure 2 shows the internal block diagram of the ballot
unit of the programmable EVM. It consists of LEDs and push
to on switches corresponding to the number of candidates on
the ballot unit along with 220 ohms resistors in series used to
drive the push to on switches, with the power supply of +5v .
The operation is as follows when the voter presses the blue
button (one of sw0 to sw19) to cast the vote for his chosen
candidate, the corresponding push to on switch gets closed, and
a high signal is sent to the control unit, if this signal is enabled,
then the counter gets incremented indicating the registration of
the vote and the confirmation is done when the red LED glows
(corresponding to pressed switch) and a beep sound is heard.
Control unit is as shown in figure 3. The inputs to the
FPGA are Close, Clear, Total, Result, Nvotes, Ballot. The
'Nvotes' is set by the presiding officer, which indicates the
number of votes to be accepted from individual voters. 'Ballot'
is also under the control of presiding officer, which is set to
accept votes from voter. 'Clear' is set in order to store the votes
registered for individual candidate in to FPGA ROM. When
'Result' is set high, number of votes accepted for each
candidate, which is stored in ROM is displayed on multiplexed
seven segment LED display.
Figure 1. Block Diagram of Programmable EVM
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International Journal of Electronics Communication and Computer Technology (IJECCT)
Volume 3 Issue 3 (May 2013)
Nvotes is the maximum number of votes that has to be
accepted by each voter. for ex it is set to 9 for Co-operative
election.
Enc is enable counter signal which is set to enable counter
for incrementing result after voting for individual candidate.
Buz is buzzer signal which will set by hearing beep sound
after voting is proceeded.
Cd is the candidate number (or identity number) given for
all candidates.
Mode(N votes) is the maximum value of votes that need to
be accepted by individual voter.
Ready signal is set high to enable all counters.
When in state 0, the decision box below it checks for Ballot
input, if asserted by election officer then state changes to 1,
else it remains in the same state.
Figure 3. Block Diagram of Control Unit
A 7-segment display shown in figure 4 consists of 7 LED’s
arranged in a figure-eight pattern, and then by selectively
powering-on various combinations of segments, alphanumeric
characters may be displayed. The LED display can be driven
by a common cathode or common anode. With a common
cathode display, the common cathode must be connected to the
0V rail and the LEDs are turned on with a logic one.
When in state 1, it checks whether close is high, if so then it
remains in the same state, Else, Ready signal is set high, all the
counters are enabled and state changes to 2.
When in state 2, the decision box checks for the key
pressed (i.e., Cd=1), if so then state changes to 3, else it
remains in the same state until key pressed.
When in state 3, key pressed is scanned and is as follows: If
cd(0)=1( i.e., voter has cast vote for 1st candidate), then the
decision box below the decision box for cd(0)=1 checks
whether enc0=1, which indicates counter 1 is enabled. Then the
counter corresponding to candidate 1 is incremented and is
then disabled, the buz0 signal is asserted, general counter is
incremented and state changes to 4. In case if enc0=0
indicating counter 1 is disabled, then the state changes directly
to 4 without incrementing any counter and without asserting
buz0 signal.
If cd(0)=0 then the next button cd(1) for candidate 1 is
scanned in similar way.
When in state 4, all buzzers are disabled and the decision
box in state 4 checks if general counter has reached the mode
value (nvotes), if so then the ready signal is disabled and state
changes to 0. Else the state changes to 2 in order to accept the
remaining votes from that voter.
Figure 4. Six digit multiplexed seven-segment display
Fig.4 depicts the state diagram indicating working of
software in EVM. Nomenclature used in diagram is as follows.
The EVM can be used to allow a person to vote for multiple
persons (may be upto 3), with priority (by having priority
buttons). The candidate's vote values will be counted as
follows. Vote_value =
preference_1_votes * x +
preference_2_votes * y + preference_3_votes * z. Where x, y
and z are weights assigned to preferences and x>y>z.
The signals (inputs) to FPGA(control unit) are Ballot unit is
set to accept votes from voter.
Clear is set in order to store the votes registered for
individual candidate.
Result is set high to display the number of votes counted
for candidate.
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International Journal of Electronics Communication and Computer Technology (IJECCT)
Volume 3 Issue 3 (May 2013)
Xilinx offered two main FPGA families, High performance
Virtex series and high volume Spartan series. Spartan series
targets applications with a low power footprint, extreme cost
sensitivity and high volume (eg: displays, set-top boxes etc).
The Spartan-6 Family is built on a 45-nanometer ,9-metal
layer, dual-oxide process technology. The board has 50MHz
Oscillator; therefore clock signal is so fast that the human eye
is unable to see the sequence of the flashing lights. So it is
necessary to add an additional file called counter.vhd which
will slowdown the incoming clock.
S0
No
Ballot
Yes
S1
Yes
Close
No
For this article, biometric reader can be added to increase
the security. These biometric readers read the finger print from
the voter, check for valid voter. If valid voter then accepts the
vote. Finger print based locking and open system can be added
so that unauthorized persons cannot be possible to change data.
Ready, Enc
S2
No
Cd
Yes
IV.
SIMULATION RESULTS
S3
No
Preference_1
a>b
No
Preference_2
b>c
Yes
......
No
Yes
Yes
No
Cd(0)
Preference_19
y>z
No
......
Cd(1)
Cd(19)
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
......
No
Enc(0)
Enc(1)
Enc(19)
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Sc0=Sc0+1,
Enc0=0, Buz0=1,
Cont=Cont+1
Sc1=Sc1+1,
Enc1=0, Buz1=1,
Cont=Cont+1
Sc19=Sc19+1,
Enc19=0, Buz19=1,
Cont=Cont+1
S4/Buz=0
No
Count==mode
Yes
Ready=0,Enc,
Count=0
Figure 5. State diagram
The main advantage of this article is to avoid the invalid
votes especially in co-operative society elections where each
voter has to cast vote for nine candidates. The cost of this
project is very less and operation is simple.
III.
SOFTWARE DESIGN
Xilinx Software is used to implement programmable voting
machine on FPGA [4]. Testing of an EVM can be obtained
through simulation results by using VHDL[7].
Figure 6. Nvotes is set to 3
Fig 6 shows the simulation result , when the ballot is set
one, The ready signal is asserted indicating the voter can cast
his votes now and all counters are enabled.
Xilinx Co-Founders, Ross Freeman and Bernard
Vonderschmitt, invented the first commercially viable field
programmable gate array in 1985 – the XC2064. The XC2064
had programmable gates and programmable interconnects
between gates, the beginnings of a new technology and market.
The XC2064boasted a mere 64 configurable logic blocks
(CLBs), with two 3-input lookup tables (LUTs). More than 20
years later, Freeman was entered into the National Inventor's
Hall of Fame for his invention.
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International Journal of Electronics Communication and Computer Technology (IJECCT)
Volume 3 Issue 3 (May 2013)
Figure 9. Enables the ballot unit until accepting of 4 votes.
Figure 7. Asserted ready signal
Fig 7 shows, the ready signal is asserted and nvotes set to
3. Hence control unit is ready to accept 3 votes from each
voter.
Fig 9 shows, once the ballot is pushed, it outputs the ready
signal high until nvotes are accepted. if the accepted votes
reaches n then ready signal becomes low.
Figure 10. Disabling counter after accepting the vote.
Figure 8. Displays number of Votes accepted from voter
st
Fig 8 shows, When the voter cast vote for 1 candidate then
1 is displayed on the LED display (“0000110” is send to LED
display)
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Fig 10 shows when the voter cast vote for 1st candidate the
corresponding counter gets incremented and is then disabled
automatically, so that the same voter cannot cast any more
votes to same candidate, but allowed to cast to other
candidates.
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V.
CONCLUSIONS
In earlier elections, we as a voter, casted vote to our
favourite candidate by putting the stamp against his/her name
and then folding the ballot paper as per a prescribed method
before putting it in the Ballot box. This is a long, timeconsuming process and very much prone to errors. Polling by
Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) is a simple, safe and secure
method that takes minimum of time. In this article,
Programmable EVM that accepts more than one vote from
individual voter, depending on type of elections, is presented.
This voting machine has an advantage that it can be used in all
kinds of elections like gramapanchyat, Co-operative societies,
assembly elections etc. It can also consider priority as
weightage when voter has capability to provide multiple
preferences.
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Figure 11. When close is asserted to 1.
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Fig 11 shows when Close is set to 1,the counter
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Figure 12. When result is asserted
Fig 12 shows simulation results when the result is set high,
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