International Journal of Applied Science and Technology Vol. 1 No.4; July 2011 135 A FRAMEWORK FOR A MULTIFACETED ELECTRONIC VOTING SYSTEM **OKEDIRAN O. O. (Corresponding Author)* OMIDIORA E. O. OLABIYISI S. O. GANIYU R. A. ALO O. O. Department of Computer Science & Engineering Ladoke Akintola University of Technology P.M. B. 4000, Ogbomoso, Nigeria E-mail: dotunokediran@yahoo.com* ABSTRACT The rapid advancement in information and communications technologies has given rise to new applications that were impossible just few years ago. One of these applications is e-voting. The term “e-voting” is defined as any voting method where the voter’s intention is expressed or collected by electronic means. This paper details the requirements, design and implementation of a generic and secure electronic voting system where voters can cast their votes anytime, anywhere and using a number of electronic devices including private computer networks, web and mobile phones. Keywords: e-voting, three tier architecture, Short Message Service (SMS), Virtual Private Network (VPN), Proxy Server, Database Server and Internet. 1. INTRODUCTION “While democracy must be more than elections, it is also true it cannot be less” former United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan once said (Annan, 2000). Democracy is a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system. Election on the other hand is a process in which voters choose their representatives and express their preferences for the way that they will be governed (Kohno et al., 2003) and (Malkawi et al., 2009). Democracy and elections have more than 2500 years of tradition (Krimmer et al., 2007). However, technology has always influenced and shaped the ways elections are held (Held, 2006). In times past, different voting systems that are based on traditional paper ballots, mechanical devices, or electronic ballots were developed for elections (NSF, 2001) and (Malkawi et al., 2009). However, these voting systems have littered history with example of elections being manipulated in order to influence their outcome. Allegations of violence, intimidation, ballot stuffing, under-age and multiple voting, counting error, complicity of the security agencies and the absence or late arrival of election materials etc often trail elections conducted using these systems of voting (NSF, 2001), (Fischer, 2003), (Muir et al, 2005), (Boniface, 2008) and (Malkawi et al., 2009). In Africa, most elections are conducted using paper ballots. However, there have been countless reported cases of eligible voters being unable or prevented from exercising their right to vote as stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations (United Nations, 1948), sometimes due to violence and intimidation, lack of information on physical location of voting poll sites, social discrimination; and by other natural causes like advanced age, physiological disability, terrain, floods, and poor communication infrastructure (Boniface, 2008). Therefore, there is the need of a significant alternative to this conventional system in the delivery of trusted elections. The advancement of information and telecommunications technologies has allow for a fully automated online computerised election process whereby electoral vote counts are done in real time that by the end of elections day, the results are automatically out (Rubin, 2002). This type of election process is referred to as electronic voting (e-voting). E-voting is any voting method whereby at least the voter’s intention is expressed or collected by electronic means (Buchsbaum, 2004), (Magi, 2007) and (Nestas, 2010). The term e-voting is being used from tabulating the votes by electronic means to integrated electronic systems of voters’ and candidates’ registration to the publication of election results (Buchsbaum, 2004). In general, two main types of e-voting can be identified: e-voting supervised by the physical presence of representatives of governmental or independent electoral authorities, e.g. electronic voting machines at poll sites popularly known as Direct Recording Electronics (DRE); and e-voting within the voter’s sole influence (remote e-voting), not physically supervised by representatives of governmental authorities, e.g. voting from one’s own or another person’s computer via the internet, by mobile phones (including Short Message Service, SMS), or via digital television (Buchsbaum, 2004).