Vijay Krishna's Notes http://vijaykrishna.posterous.com Most of my notes as a student of computer software and everything around it. posterous.com Mon, 14 Feb 2011 17:09:42 -0800 An Early Draft: IC 2009 http://vijaykrishna.posterous.com/an-early-draft-ic-2009 http://vijaykrishna.posterous.com/an-early-draft-ic-2009 This was a portion of one of the 1st drafts I wrote with Kuldeep and Nagesh for our Mobile and Online Voting System, when we took part in the Imagine Cup 2009. We went all the way to the Semis of the Design for Development Award, after which we choose the University Exams over IC. I still have fond memories of those hours of intense brain storming, when the mind was free of technology and strong with ideas and concepts. Take a look at what we came up with. The ELECTION If every section of the society worked towards its own progress successfully then there wouldn't be anything to worry about, barring the conflict of interests between people which can be resolved through amicable means. However, that can never be true as, not all are fortunate in that regard. And thus the need for an unbiased governing body which can look to everyones' welfare. However, if this governing body isn't elected properly by taking everyone's opinion into account then there is bound to be some section of the country that will be left behind(in the race of progress and development.) The lack of interest or inability of the people to participate in the process of electing their own governments has become an acute problem for many developing and under developed countries over the past few decades. This hampers the formation of stable and proper governments. In such a vacuum of good governance one cannot expect a country to meet The Millennium Goals set in front of us by the United Nations irrespective of any measures that are taken otherwise. The voter turnout for an election is generally low and many factors are attributed to this:
  1. The lack of time for many, due to the wait in the long queues.
  2. The lack of interest amongst the younger generation(18-30 yrs of age).
  3. The inability of people to vote from their electoral zones due to their unavailability in their respective zones during elections (due to migration to other areas for higher education, business,employment, etc).
  4. The inability to reach out to the poorer sections of the urban population.
  5. The inability and the inefficiency to reach out to the remote and rural areas of a country.
Thus, there is a lack of an efficient, fast and reliable voting system that can mitigate the above mentioned problems. The SOLUTION With the growing number of INTERNET and mobile phone subscribers in the developing countries, reaching out to the uninterested and remote population of a country for during elections can become more efficient, faster and simpler. With the use of INTERNET, a mobile platform and short messaging service (SMS), people can cast their votes through their mobile phones and their personal computers sitting at home or while on the move. If votes can be cast through mobile phones then the people in the rural and remote areas  can easily participate in the elections on a much more regular basis. The vision of villagers having mobile phones with the SMS application, is no longer a vision of the future. It is happening and it is time that we took full advantage of it. Further, a person would no longer be required to be present in his electoral zone for casting his vote. He can simply specify the same over the Internet or a Mobile SMS. Plus, as far as those people who are pressed for time, they would no longer have to worry about standing in long queues and “wasting” their time. They would now only have to shoot a text message for their vote to be counted. This use of the Internet and the mobile services would not only make the entire process of voting faster but more secure. Against the usual fears of a hack or data corruption of the system, we believe if the entire system is designed properly then all these baseless fears can be easily cast away. After all, we are living in an age where we trust computer based systems with our hard earned money, then why not our votes? To further amplify the basis of the just point, Booth Capturing will be virtually non-existent. The amount of violence can be drastically reduced on the election days. People will no longer be bullied into casting their votes against their own choices. All these factors will contribute in the overall increase of turnout during elections and will also help in holding voters for the future. Adding on to the list of advantages, this form of voting can reduce the costs involved in voting exponentially both for the government and the common man. No longer will, countries have to sit in a vacuum of  leadership while the results of elections eat into months. Electoral results will be processed in matter of days and speed up the formation of Governments. Thus, reducing money and time to very large extents.

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