A Design of a Secured E-voting System Framework for Poll-Site Voting in Ghana

Abstract

There is a lack of trust and transparency in the current manual voting system in Ghana, and there is the belief that e-voting technology can address the trust issues. However, an e-voting technology is perceived to have security vulnerabilities which can also affect the integrity of an election. This study aimed to design an e-voting system framework that can bring trust and transparency in the electoral process. In this paper, the researcher reviewed existing e-voting designs and their weakness. The study further examined the weakness in the manual voting system and identified the requirements a secure e-voting system must satisfy. The proposed framework was based on a two-tier architecture that was integrated with blockchain technology to provide a transparent means of processing and storing elections results. The design framework was made up of an authentication system, voting system, tallying system, and vote recording system that runs on a local intranet at polling stations. The design used two-factor authentication which includes voters ID and one-time code. The design also allowed voters to verify how their votes were recorded using a blockchain system. The proposed e-voting system was able to address the security vulnerabilities that impact on the integrity and trustworthiness of the electoral process.