Benefits Of Electronic Voting System In Contrast To Traditional Paper Based System
Man is a social animal. He has a natural urge to live an associated life with others. Man needs society for his existence or survival. The human child depends on his parents and others for its survival and growth. The inherent capacities of the child can develop only in society. The ultimate goal of society is to promote good and happy life for its individuals. It creates conditions and opportunities for the all-round development of individual personality. To ensure smooth running of the society, there is a need for a leadership system that will make laws to govern the operations of the society and to help the society achieve several goals. As such, every society requires a leader irrespective of its size. In the time past, leaders have been selected based on birthright, family name, intelligence levels, physical strength possessed by the individual, popularity etc. However, in our world today, the democratic method of governance is in use in the selection of a leader. Democracy is a system of government in which the citizens exercise power directly or elect representatives from among themselves to form a governing body, such as a parliament. Democracy is sometimes referred to as "rule of the majority". Democracy is a system of processing conflicts in which outcomes depend on what participants do, but no single force controls what occurs and its outcomes. The democratic approach involves the voting of several individuals into several positions. Voting is a method for a group, such as, a meeting or an electorate to make a decision or express an opinion, usually following discussions, debates or election campaigns. Paul and Ray (2013) defined voting as a crucial device to reveal the opinion of a group on an issue that is under consideration. Voting systems are broadly classified into two major types – Traditional Paper Based System (TPBS) and Electronic Voting System (EVS).
The traditional paper-based voting system, sometimes called a "document ballot voting system", is a paper-based voting system originated as a system where votes are cast and counted by hand, using paper ballots. In the traditional voting system, the electorates cast their votes to select their candidates. The electorates in the presence of certified representatives simply deposit their designated ballots in sealed boxes. At the end of the day these sealed boxes under the supervision of security persons are carried to counting place. At counting place, all these boxes are officially opened and votes counted manually in presence of certified representatives of all candidates. This voting system has several problems in real life. Sudhakar and Sai (2015) identified problems with the traditional paper-based voting system to include its time-consuming nature, probability of bogus voting and its high susceptibility to errors. Kumar and Begum (2011) stated these problems to include its proneness to human error, low participation by voters, deceitful election mechanism, and huge cost. Hoque (2014) opinioned it to be lacking of transparency and time consuming in counting. Haque et al. (2016) reports that the main drawback of the traditional paper-based voting system is that voter’s id checking process is manual hence possibilities of illegal voting by a wrong candidate. Also, there is possibility of multiple votes by same person. This type of voting system involves cost, large number of resources, counting errors, erroneous judgment due to counting errors, long duration from planning to result and several other issues. To overcome these identified issues, the electronic voting system has largely replaced traditional hand-counted paper ballots in most states and countries.
The electronic voting system (also known as e-voting or EVM) refers to voting using electronic means to either aid or take care of the chores of casting and counting votes. Depending on the particular implementation, e-voting may use standalone electronic machines (also called EVM) or computers connected to the internet. It encompasses a range of Internet services, from basic data transmission to full function online voting through common connectable household devices. Similarly, the degree of automation may vary from simple chores to a complete solution that includes voter registration & authentication, vote input, local or precinct tallying, vote data encryption and transmission to servers, vote consolidation and tabulation, and election administration. A worthy e-voting system must perform most of these tasks while complying with a set of standards established by regulatory bodies, and must also be capable to deal successfully with strong requirements associated with security, accuracy, integrity, swiftness, privacy, auditability, accessibility, cost-effectiveness, scalability and ecological sustainability.
Electronic voting technology can include punched cards, optical scan voting systems and specialized voting kiosks. It can also involve transmission of ballots and votes via telephones, private computer networks, or the Internet.
The benefits of the electronic voting system include the elimination of negative factor of human error, better coverage for remote locations, increased speed for tally computation, lower operational cost through automated means amongst others. Musa et al. (2012) opinioned that the major advantage of the remote electronic voting system is the convenience for the voter which can enhance turn out. Sudhakar and Sai (2015) believed that the use of electronic voting machines retains all the characteristics of voting by ballot papers, while making polling a lot more expedient. E-voting has the potential to increase policy inclusion of marginalized groups, especially the disabled and residents overseas by making it easier to cast their votes in a more convenient and user-friendly way.
