A STUDENT e-VOTING SYSTEM: A case study of College of Computing and Information Science (CoCIS)

Description

Much as students in the College of Computing and Information Science (CoCIS), Makerere University can physically vote for their leaders, the current voting process involves a lot of lengthy paper work procedures and requires students to move to the polling station in order to cast their vote. In this lengthy process, the students have to provide their credentials to the administrators/officials at the polling stations and then they verify the information provided and the students are given ballot papers in order to complete the voting process. This process is tiresome and time consuming, which increases the rate of students’ absenteeism from voting. These students’ voting problems were bridged through the implementation of the student e-Voting system that provides an easier way of voting that does not require ones’ physical presence in order to cast their vote. The project scope was limited to CoCIS, Makerere University. The objectives of the project were fulfilled using a number of tools and techniques. In objective one, the researchers carried out a study using data collection tools like questionnaires and interview guides. In objective two, the project was designed using data flow diagrams and entity relationship diagrams. In objective three, the system was developed using HTML, PHP, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, MySQL, and Bootstrap. In objective four, the developed system was tested using techniques such as black-box and white-box testing of different units as well as the whole integrated system. The system was validated by taking it to the users to confirm whether it meets the user requirements. A validation questionnaire was provided to the users and results were analyzed using excel spreadsheet. From the results of validation, it was realized that the users of the developed system confirmed that it was; scalable (90%), authenticates users (95%), efficient (95%), effective (90%), user friendly (85%) and flexible (95%). Therefore based on the findings of the study, the researchers recommended that the developed student e-Voting system should be adopted and deployed for efficient and effective e-Voting of student leaders remotely using all types of devices not limited to laptops, tablets and smart phones connected to the internet.