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Footnotes

 ↵1D.M.T., J.A.W., J.Y., and A.B.H. contributed equally to this work.

 ↵2To whom correspondence may be addressed. Email: [email protected].
 Author contributions: D.M.T., J.A.W., J.Y., and A.B.H. designed research, performed
research, contributed new reagents/analytic tools, analyzed data, and wrote the paper.
 The authors declare no competing interest.
 This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.
 Data deposition: All data, code, and other materials to fully reproduce the results are
publicly available at GitHub, https://github.com/stanford-dpl/vbm.
 ↵*For example, the proposed Klobuchar–Wyden bill calls for all Americans to have
access to no-excuse absentee voting; see ref. 5.
 ↵†The existing papers with clear causal designs for the effect of universal VBM study
overall turnout (4), the participation of low-propensity voters (4), or precinct-level rather than
county-level interventions (6), and only study one state at a time. The closest analogue to
the effect of universal VBM on a party’s vote share comes from ref. 4, which finds that the
turnout rates of high-propensity voters increase by less than those of low-propensity voters,
who, some may assume, have different political leanings from regular voters.
Ref. 7 explicitly estimates the heterogeneous turnout effects of a convenience voting reform
in West Virginia using a county-level difference-in-difference design and finds no evidence
for different effects by party. Yet, the logic that expanding the pool of voters may favor one
party is not flawed—for example, compulsory voting laws appear to improve the
performance of the Labor party in Australia (8). SI Appendix, Table S1 summarizes the
large existing literature on VBM reforms, which generally studies the effect on turnout, with
findings ranging from a large increase (9⇓⇓–12), to a modest increase or null effect (4, 13⇓–
15), to a decrease (6, 16).
 ↵‡Ref. 19 presents evidence that VBM can change primary election outcomes, since
many voters mail their ballots before candidates withdraw.
 ↵§Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah, and Washington now conduct all elections by
mail (see ref. 22).
 ↵¶In California, Utah, and Washington, VBM has become increasingly common. Fig.
1 shows the share of votes cast in the general election that are VBM, in California and
Washington in each election year from 1998 to 2018. In the late 1990s, the majority of votes
cast in both states came from non-VBM options. By the late 2010s, nearly every county in
 California had a majority of their votes cast using VBM, and Washington had all-mail
elections.

 ↵#In California, counties that adopt all-mail elections are required to have one in-
person voting center for every 10,000 registered voters on election day (see ref. 23). Utah
also offers some opportunities for in-person voting in existing government offices, to ensure
those with disabilities or issues with their ballots are able to participate (see ref. 24). As of
2011, all counties in Washington were required to have at least one in-person voting center
for general, primary, and special elections (see “voting centers” in ref. 25). At least some
VBM counties in Washington had an in-person voting option prior to 2011 to comply with the
federal Help America Vote Act (see, e.g., ref. 26).
 ↵∥For the 2018 election, 14 of California’s 58 counties were allowed to opt into this
new format for conducting elections, and all of California’s counties were allowed to adopt
these changes beginning in 2020; see ref. 23.
 ↵**In California, we use only gubernatorial, not presidential, election results. This is
because the earliest county in California to adopt universal VBM was in 2018, and a
presidential general election has not yet occurred since then.
 ↵††Each county’s citizen voting age population is collected from ref. 27.
 ↵‡‡The in-person voting options vary some by state, as we discuss in SI Appendix,
section 2. For this reason, and since these states vary in other ways, we show the results
separately for each state in SI Appendix, section S8. The results are reassuring. In
particular, we do not see any evidence of a larger effect of VBM expansion in Washington,
the state with the most extreme expansion. The estimates appear to be similarly null in all
three contexts.
 ↵§§The number of counties increases in columns 4–6 of Table 2 because we have
data from all three states, whereas, in columns 1–3, we have partisan turnout data from
California and Utah. In SI Appendix, Table S3, we show the same version of Table 2, but
using only California and Utah for all six columns. The results remain substantively similar.
 ↵¶¶Existing work on universal VBM in California and Oregon reaches a similar
conclusion, that voters take advantage of the opportunity to vote by mail (29).

 This article contains supporting information online

at https://www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.2007249117/-/DCSupplemental.

 Copyright © 2020 the Author(s). Published by PNAS.

This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-

NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND).

https://www.pnas.org/content/117/25/14052#ref-list-1

https://theconversation.com/research-on-voting-by-mail-says-its-safe-from-fraud-and-disease-141847
Review of Literature https://shodhgangotri.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/123456789/6995/3/03_review
%20of%20literature.pdf

Kilian Joseph John (2000) – In this patent the inventor has given a secure receipt-free voting scheme that
is described where each voter does not leave evidence of how the voter voted by using a physically
secure untappable channel. The term “secure untappable channel” refers to the fact that a message can
be sent from a centre without being accessed or detected by another party. The end result of using an
untappable channel is that neither the voter nor another party can show or prove how a vote was cast
or what the message that was sent. Once a message is sent or received, the content may be changed
rendering proof of the message impossible. However, if the message is intercepted it will be detected in
route or at the time of reception. Moreover, even if a non-secure channel is used, if the message travels
along the channel without interruption or detection, by virtue of the protocol used in the present
invention, determination of a particular vote after receipt at its destination is not possible. In other
Words, an untappable channel refers to the transmission of a message without interception or detection
in route. Bannet Jonathan et al. (2003) –This article presents a research voting system and associated
class project which was used to demonstrate several classes of bugs that might occur in such a voting
system unbeknownst to voters, with the difficulty of detecting these bugs through auditing. The intent
of this project is to justify the mistrust sometimes placed in DRE voting systems that lack a Voter-
Verifiable Audit Trail. The direct recording electronic (DRE) voting systems have some usability
advantages over traditional systems, they raise serious security concerns. The authors shown, using a
“toy” voting system called Hack-a-Vote, how easily a purely electronic voting system can be
compromised and how difficult it can be for auditors to identify and correct any “hacks” in the voting
system, any of which could otherwise completely compromise the results of an election. Riza Aditya et
al. (2004) – States in their paper as cheating is an inherent threat to voting, it is essential that an e-
voting system provides a high level of 5 security. At the moment, commercially available e-voting
solutions mainly advertise their convenience, efficiency and low cost. On the other hand,
cryptographically secure voting schemes in the literature are generally considered to be complex and
inefficient for a real-world implementation. This paper examines implementation issues of
cryptographically secure secret-ballot voting schemes. A survey of different schemes and various
implementations was provided. The possibilities of hardware implementations for various cryptographic
primitives are discussed. The paper provides a foundation in designing secure and practical e-voting
schemes to produce a secure, efficient and publicly acceptable implementation of voting schemes in the
real world. Implementing a sound and secure e-voting system is not as straight-forward as simply
employing counting software. Accuracy, privacy, receipt-freeness, eligibility, prevention of double
voting, fairness, robustness and verifiability/accountability are security requirements that an e-voting
system must address. Kargel David (2004) - In this patent the inventor has given a method for
conducting an election among a plurality of voters includes the steps of: providing each voter With a
ballot having at least one unique identifying symbol and a section for authenticating a voting selection;
retaining a record of each voting selection; publishing the record of each voting selection; validating the
published record of each voting selection; tabulating the voting selections from the validated record;
and certifying the tabulated voting selections The present invention provides a method and system that
standardizes and improves the task of ensuring an accurate vote reception and count. The major
components of the method involve providing ballots to a group of voters; recording votes from the
group of voters; publishing the votes from the group; validating the published votes on a per-voter basis;
tabulating the votes validated; and certifying that the tabulated votes Were accurately counted. Chung
Kevin KwongTai et al. (2005)- The inventor had given a foolproof system for the purpose of voting this
machine is readable ballot comprises a ballot sheet having a voting identifier including a representation
of election 6 jurisdiction information and a unique ballot identifier. A plurality of contest regions each
has two or more mark spaces for making voting selections. The present invention relates to a voting
apparatus and method and, in particular, to voting apparatus and method employing an optically read
ballot. Under current election law and regulations in certain jurisdictions, a paper record of certain
voter‟s voting selections must be made and preserved. Most commonly, a paper voting record or ballot
must be utilized for absentee voting and/or for provisional voting. Absentee voting is Where a voter
Who Will be absent from the jurisdiction or otherwise unable to be present at a designated polling
location during the time for voting is issued a paper ballot in advance of the election and votes by
completing and submitting the paper absentee ballot by hand, mail, messenger, or other permitted
means. Provisional voting is Where a voter who is unable to establish his eligibility to vote at a polling
place during an election is issued a paper ballot and is permitted to vote thereby “provisionally,” i.e. by
sealed paper provisional ballot that is only opened and counted if the eligibility of the provisional voter
to vote is established by election officials after the time for voting ends. Anand Ashish et al. (2007) – In
the paper Evolutionary Enhancements of eVoting Technology the authors states E-Voting being a
complex social, political, legal & technical issue that requires a novel approach to make elections
cheaper, scalable with growing population, enhance quality of national elections, maximizing public
trust. Though there are known ways of detecting bogus & false voting, such methods should be free
from voting secrecy intrusion, privacy intrusion and identity-leak possibilities. Technical issues of e-
voting platform security remain a central concern in addition to tamper-proof being replication-proof
along with public verifiability and accountability as key issue. Another aspect of this paper is about novel
method of post-poll authentic repudiation of false voting. Minimizing human factor, discretionary
powers and ensuring 360 degree accountability for all stakeholders in a democracy is desired. This paper
proposes a unified, novel but small solution for a big vision. This scheme provides each e-Voting
platform unique credentials at hardware, software and platform uniqueness originalities. 7 Yasinsac Alec
et al. (2007) – In this report the authors basically focuses on conducting a scientifically rigorous static
software analysis on the iVotronics version 8.0.1.2 firmware source code to determine and identify
flaws, vulnerabilities or anomalies, if any, that may have potentially caused, contributed or otherwise
created the higher than expected under-vote rate in the District 13 Race. The team‟s unanimous opinion
is that the iVotronic firmware, including faults that they identified, They traced program execution from
terminal initialization, through voter selection, to ballot image creation, to ballot image collection. They
also investigated the possibility of synchronous system faults not associated with any particular phase of
voting. Their investigation provided no evidence that an iVotronic software malfunction caused or
contributed. Enguehard Chantal (2008) - In this paper author determined whether electronic voting can
simultaneously protect secrecy, be transparent, accessible and resistant to intimidation and fraud. He
considers different types of e-voting ranging from Direct Recording Electronic voting systems to remote
internet voting. he showed that there are major contradictions between the constraints of democratic
elections and the possibilities offered by computers. In particular, electronic voting appears to make
massive and invisible fraud possible to achieve by small groups of people with the necessary skills. At
present, it is not a realistic possibility to design an electronic application, remote or not, that could cope
with the demands of democratic elections. Authors analysis demonstrates that traditional voting
systems which use no electronic counting systems compare favourably to electronic voting systems
when transparency is taken into account, transparency being a crucial factor in creating voter
confidence in the voting system, and in consequence, in that of the elected representative‟s legitimacy.
Simha Rahul et al. (2008) – In this paper the authors proposed end-to-end independently- verifiable
voting schemes provide encrypted paper receipts to voters, who may later check that these receipts are
in the electronic ballot 8 box. Unfortunately, few voters are likely to follow up on the voting process
after leaving the voting site; as a result, few receipts will be checked. This paper describes an
enhancement to E2E schemes that does not require the voter to perform a task outside the polling
booth. It enables the voter to electronically transmit her receipt, from the polling booth, to a trusted
external verifier. This is done through the use of a human-verifiable digital signature primitive whose
(short-lived) security depends on the hardness of an AI problem. The primitive enables the voter to be
certain without access to trusted computational power in the voting booth that the receipt has been
securely deposited with the external verifier. The approach presents several advantages: the voter is not
required to do anything outside the polling booth, no receipts are needed after polling, all receipts
generated by the polling machine can be checked, and any classical digital signatures on receipts can be
checked instantaneously by the trusted verifier. Additionally, an audiobased format is an easy extension
for those with visual disabilities. Folorunso O. et al. (2010) – The authors found some of undesirable
features in e-voting as it include not allowing recounting of votes after election in case of a protest like
the others. Another issue is that of erroneous software which can greatly affect the result of the
election. All these is further compounded by the fact that voting systems deals with very large amount
of data that is collected from a distributed population source hence the raw data are extremely difficult
to comprehend and therefore monitor. This paper attempts to solve this problem using a Tree Map
based visualization technique to monitor in real-time the distributed balloting and voting processes. The
paper proved that Tree Map algorithms can be configured and deployed on the central server to
monitor effectively the voting transactions in real-time and hence enable transparency. This work has
attempted to alleviate the fear of critics of e-voting systems by adopting a form of information
visualization Tree Map to monitor events in the balloting process. Though the work recognizes that
there are also challenges in the adoption of visualization technologies, research has shown that this can
be easily circumvented 9 D. Ashok Kumar et al. (2011) – The author in his paper suggested novel design
for electronic voting system using finger print. The accuracy and impartiality are tallied in high rate with
biometric system. Among these biometric signs, fingerprint has been researched the longest period of
time, and shows the most promising future in real-world applications. Because of their uniqueness and
consistency over time, fingerprints have been used for identification over time. However, because of the
complex distortions among the different impression of the same finger in real life, fingerprint
recognition is still a challenging problem. Hence in this study, the authors are interested in designing and
analysing the Electronic Voting System based on the fingerprint minutiae which is the core in current
modern approach for fingerprint analysis. The new design is analysed by conducting pilot election
among a class of students for selecting their representative. Various analysis predicted shows that the
proposed electronic voting system resolves many issues of the current system with the help of biometric
technology. Kumar Sanjay et al. (2011) - Electronic Voting Machine is a simple electronic device used to
record votes in place of ballot papers and boxes which were used earlier in conventional voting system.
Being a standalone machine without any network connectivity, nobody can interfere with its
programming and manipulate the result. Keeping the erratic power supply positioning many places in
the country, the machines have been made to run on batteries. It has mainly two units: Control unit and
Ballot unit. The Control Unit is the main unit which stores all data and controls the functioning of EVM.
The program which controls the functioning of the control unit is burnt into a micro chip on a “one time
programmable basis”. Once burnt it cannot be read, copied out or altered. After the voting is completed
and the close button is pressed, the machine does not accept any data or record any vote. Through the
press of “total” button, the control unit can display the number of votes recorded till that time which
can be cross checked with the register of voters. This paper has presented the comparative study of
voting techniques in various countries which highlights the scope of improvement in them. 10 Ofori-
Dwumfuo G.O. et al (2011) - The aim of this study is to design an electronic voting system based upon
the electoral process adopted in Ghana. In order to choose people to various positions different
methods have been set up, with researchers continually trying to find improvement to the existing
methods. The most recent method to be devised is electronic voting. It is meant to phase out outdated
paper ballot, punched cards and other mechanical voting systems with paperless electronic or online
voting systems. E-voting systems endeavour to make elections simple while reducing the total cost of
the election. Designing an air-tight and reliable evoting system is therefore a great task, in that, the
system that must be developed must protect the privacy of the voter, be easily understood and used by
the entire voting populace no matter who they are or where they come from. Based on this, OVIS, an
On-line Voting System, has been developed. Goldsmith Ben (2011) – The author had suggested in this
book that the use of electronic voting and counting technologies has great potential for improving voter
access to the electoral process. The author identifies a number of groups which may benefit from the
greater accessibility provided by such technologies, including people with visual disabilities, those who
struggle to travel to polling stations, access for those using official minority languages, military personnel
overseas and citizens living and working abroad. However, using electronic voting and counting
technologies also has the potential for excluding voters, especially those who may not understand how
to use new systems and may feel intimidated by trying to do so. After a brief discussion on international
electoral standards related to electronic voting and counting technologies, the guide will take each of
these stages of the feasibility. Howlader Jaydeep et al. (2011) - In this paper authors had presented a
technique that would replace the untappable channel used in election and auction protocol by deniable
encryption. The deniable encryption scheme does not require any infrastructure and easy to deploy. The
prior protocols which are based on public key cryptography and assume the existence of 11 untappable
channel are easily upgraded to a protocol without untappable channel without changing the basic
encryption principle. However, deniable encryption has an expansion of the cipher size. Since, it does
not use receipts and concepts of registration, so it can be effectively deployed in electronic auction
mechanisms and is more secure as it does not assume untappable channels. Alpaslan altun Adem et al.
(2011) - In this study, an electronic voting system, E-voting for a general election is developed and
fingerprint authentication based e-voting system is applied. As a result, security of the voting system is
greatly improved by using biometric authentication system. Modern technology is used for elections
and/or referandums commonly. Number of the reseraches on electronic election systems is increasing in
recent years. As a result of being in search of more efficient, more trustable and faster election, different
kinds of voting boxes are manufactured and put into service of the countries. Biometrics is also expected
to be increasingly used in conjunction with other technologies like the knowledge based authentication
on the Internet. In this study, user friendly electronic voting system based on biometric verification is
designed and proposed. Thus, electronic voting boxes are offered instead of voting boxes of the present
election system. Autade Kirti et al. (2012) - This paper provides the specification and requirements for E-
Voting using an Android platform. The e-voting means the voting process in election by using electronic
device. We also described how the android mobile phones are efficient and can be used for voting. This
paper focused on the analysis of development of E-voting application on an android platform. The
usability of this system is very high if it will used in real life election process. It will definitely helpful for
the users who wish to vote and the voting process will be made very easy by using this application.
However, after having tested the system, in future we tend to add additional functionality of image
validation for the security constraint and uniqueness which will provide very strong security for the
confidential information about vote. 12 Jegede A.J. et al. (2012) - The research proposed and developed
software to cater for electronic voting. Hosting the proposed electronic voting system on the Internet
will facilitate online real time voter‟s registration, record verification, party registration as well as the
actual conduct of voting electronically via internet/telecommunication services with the resultant
transparency, speed and reliability of the electioneering process. Although there may be challenges in
the area of infrastructure such as electricity and shortage of personnel, it is possible for countries to
adopt a gradual migration from conventional voting system to electronic voting. The gradual migration
would allow a reasonable time to address the infrastructural and personnel problems as well as enable
the citizens to adapt to the new approach. Mundalik Vijay et al. (2013) - The target of this paper is on
use techniques like Cryptography and Steganography for Password Security to Voter Account as well as
by using Eigen Face recognition technique the highly more secure Online Voting System is implemented.
The security level of the project can be increases by using new concept randomly generation of cover
image for every user. By using Embedding and Authentication process of the system password security
highly improved. Thus this technology gives chance to every citizen for voting from any place, and they
can be sure that they alone can choose their Candidate. Aggarwal Indresh et al. (2013) - In this paper,
authors proposed to introduce a new voting system that will be accurate, transparent, and faster and
will ensure a single vote for a single person. Our proposed system has covered all of these issues
successfully. Moreover this system will provide boundary less voting. A better database maintenance,
automated registration system and the process of casting vote using finger print will further help us to
fulfil our purpose. Based on the design principles and requirement, a prototype of the system for E-
voting System has been proposed by the researchers and developed. The using of electronic voting has
the potential to reduce or remove unwanted human errors. In addition to its reliability, evoting can
handle multiple modalities, and provide better scalability for large elections. 13 Parveen Atiya et al.
(2013) – The authors proposed new Electronic Voting in which a voter has to just logging on the
computer with an internet connection. Also, this voting requires an access code for the e-voting through
the advance report of a voter. To reduce these disadvantages, the authors suggest a process in which a
voter, who has the wireless certificate issued in advance, uses its own mobile phone for an e-voting
without the unique registration for a vote. In this paper, a polling scheme by means of mobile
technology is resented as most fundamental application of GSM based Personal Response System,
which allows a voter to cast his vote in simple and convenient way without the limit of time and location
by integrating an electronic voting method with the GSM infrastructure. Abdulhamid Shafi Muhammad
et al.(2013) - After much investigation and research carried out on the manual method of voting, it was
observed that a lot of problems and inconsistencies that result from the manual voting method has led
to serious manipulations and rigging of the process, Electronic voting system can guarantee a credible
and reliable election, with results produced in real-time and without any possibility of interference with
the election results. This research work has therefore come as a platform to propose an electronic
voting system that will place our democracy on a path of success. In a whole, this research seeks to
increase the efficiency of voting process and the image of the independent national electoral
commission. Therefore, authors recommend the followings: INEC should review the standards of ICT
infrastructure in the country and develop more secure databases and networks before embarking on e-
voting; there should be adoption of distributed encryption techniques for the purpose of secured data
transmission; there should be use of biometric capturing devices, which will serve as a means of voter‟s
authentication; there should be adequate and proper public enlightenment before the system is fully
implemented. Hoque Md. Murshadul (2014) - In this paper, an Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) system
is proposed which is in operation as transparent as the digital system. The Simplified Electronic Voting
Machine (SEVM) responds on some 14 flow of pulses coming from the switch operated by voter and
produces the output of the counting values i.e. total casting votes of individual nominee and displays it.
The machine is controlled both automatically and manually to operate the system for successive voters
and to ensure that a voter can give only one vote to his/her chosen candidate of the same position. The
manual controlling system must be operated by presiding officer who have the authorization to check
and to declare a voter valid after checking some unique information e.g. NID number where as the
automatic controlling happens whenever a voter pushes a switch to vote. Sidqi Haval Mohammed
(2014) - In this paper, an electronic voting scheme using GSM mobile technology is presented. By
integrating an electronic voting scheme with the GSM infrastructure, we are able to exploit existing GSM
authentication mechanisms and provide enhanced voter authentication and mobility while maintaining
voter privacy. In this paper, SMS has been used to send message which contain only code or
identification of candidate, on the other hand used mobile to receive message and it is connected to a
server to collect messages. Herstatt Maximilian et al. (2014) – The author explained the social
construction of the Indian EVM. The Security research team led by Hari Prasad and VeTA used the frame
„vulnerable and risky EVM‟. In many respects the electronic voting system has advantages over the
paper ballot system. Yet in terms of transparency and verifiability, VeTA and the security research team
claim that the paper ballot system had advantages. More radically it has been argued by them that
paperless electronic voting will never be secure. This decision was decisive for closure to occur in the
controversy. Yet the controversy has not only been closed in technical terms. Many of the allegations
that were made about EVM malfunctions and manipulation possibilities were simply answered by
neglecting them. According to VeTA and the security researchers argued that EVM has a major security
flaw. Looking at the present situation of electronic voting in India fair to say that the EVM has stabilized
and the controversy has been 15 closed, although there are still some isolated individuals who fight for
their voice to be heard. Meher Sukanya Sagarika (2014) – In this paper, electronic voting machine
presents a way to develop a voting machine which displays the count of votes on a 16x2 LCD interface.
This LCD based small scale electronic voting machine is designed for four candidates. A user can get
his/her vote register through a set of switches which consists of a 3x4 keypad. The final count can be
seen on LCD. The 3x4 keypad and 16x2 LCD are interfaced to microcontroller AT89C51 for various
operations and displays. The author proposed the electronic voting device that is portable and the
display of results are instantaneous and accurate. Appropriate message is displayed on the LCD
throughout the voting process thus providing a user friendly interface. However the drawback of the
device is that it is reset on power off and hence can be used only as long as it is kept powered on, thus
being useful only in small scale applications. This small scale voting machine has a lot of advantages such
as it is economical , less manpower required ,time conscious as less time required for voting & counting ,
avoids invalid voting , saves transportation cost due to its compact size and convenient on the part of
voter. Malviya Pankaj Kumar (2014) - This paper depicts the new model of Evoting system using cloud in
Indian Scenario. The preferred model is more secure and efficient than the Conventional voting system.
The E-voting system avoids the delay of result it is capable to count all votes within few times. A unique
AADHAAR identification number is the base point of this model. This model easily verifies to the voter
and elector. In this proposed model, we have endeavoured to make more secure E-voting and it avoids
unauthorized access. The model of E-voting system using cloud will enhance the transparency and
reliability of the current electoral system. HTET NE OO et al. (2014) - This paper presents the types of
electronic voting systems as well as different methodologies for electronic voting schemes: blind
signature scheme, homomorphic encryption and mixnets. 16 Moreover, various kinds of electronic
voting systems in different countries around the world are also mentioned. This paper renders a survey
on various kinds of electronic voting systems with their strength and defects. Finally, the advantages and
disadvantages of electronic voting are described. Mythili K. et al. (2014) - This review discussed
introduction about EVM and its variation, Issues of EVM, Taxonomy, and Biometric based EVM. Our
efforts to understand electronic voting systems leave us optimistic, but concerned. This paper suggest
that the SMS system has to be further studied and innovated to reach all level of community, so that the
voter confidence will increase and election officials will make more involvement in conducting smooth,
secure, tamper- resistant Elections. However these techniques will be suitable to the new technology,
mobile phones like smart phones which contain android, Nokia OS. The basic model mobile phone does
not support this technique. queue. In order to improve the voting ratio SMS voting has been introduced.
This article discusses complete review about voting devices, Issues and comparison among the voting
methods and technology support for SMS voting. Pedgulwar Ashish et al. (2015) – The aim of the author
in this paper is to provide the details and need for e-voting based on android system. In election
electronic device is used for voting process i.e. E-voting. The evoting uses SMS protocol. In this proposed
system we are providing e-voting system through SMS using Smartphone so result shows that there is
no need of internet in their mobile. In Smartphone there will be an android application through which
voting process will be done without internet in Smartphone. A real-time e-voting system based on
android phones. The analysis of this system is based on SMS voting. It is then developed by
implementing techniques using android platform. If this system will be used in real life election process
then the usability of this system is very high. It will definitely helpful for the users who wish to vote and
the voting process will be made very easy by using this application. 17 Nithya Ms. J. et al. (2015) - By
application of this project into real time we can avoid malfunctions, Time maintenance system,
Automatic counting of votes. It is also insensitive to variations in the lighting conditions and noise levels.
It specifically uses the zero crossings of the wavelet transform of the unique features obtained from the
grey-level profiles of the iris. It uses only a few selected intermediate resolution levels for matching, thus
making it computationally efficient and less sensitive to noise and quantization errors. Iris detection in
the application works to a very high degree of accuracy in every seen case. This, unfortunately, is not a
property shared by the iris, making it significantly more difficult to isolate than the pupil. Day by day the
population is increasing enormously which in turns demands the improvement in the voting system. The
primary goal of every voting system is to increase the participation of the civic. Undoubtedly the above
discussed voting techniques are exceptionally good, but there is always scope for further improvement.
Pandit Anil et al (2015) - This paper focuses on various security flaws in the design of EVM hardware for
voters and voting protocols that support the voting process, without implementing the security
mechanisms required for preventing fraud and protecting voter's privacy. Slew of security concerns have
been raised and various references have been added in this paper to support our issue of security in
EVMs‟. This paper describes the overall security issues in the hardware of EVMs microprocessor of the
EVMs‟, the EVM‟s firmware is stored in masked read-only memory inside the microcontroller chips, and
there is no provision for extracting it or verifying its integrity. The main objective of this paper is to
describe the primary role of EVoting and its security in securing the voters privacy, verifiability, coercion
and accountability by implementing cryptographic algorithms while transmitting Electoral Voting Data in
a Centralized Pool. In this paper the authors have analyzed issues of security in EVM used in many
countries in their election process. Strong demerits were reported in our paper regarding the hardware
and functioning of EVMs Traditional authentication and authorization mechanisms cannot fully cover the
security requirements of the administrative workflow in EVM. An extension of the authentication18
authorization scheme is necessary only when cryptographic mechanism is put in place. Lauer Thomas W.
(2015) - This paper considers two different e-voting schemes, Internet voting and direct recording
electronic (DRE) voting systems, explicitly focusing on risk to the integrity of the voting process. Fair
elections must assure voter authentication, vote confidentiality and integrity, and the ability to audit the
election. E-voting poses special challenges. The paper analyzes security risks that may threaten e-voting
schemes and makes recommendations. There is strong indication that the deployment of e-voting
systems will continue. This should not be done at the expense of conducting fair elections. This analysis
has shown where of the risks lie.