Electronic Voting Machine

International Journal of Information and Electronics Engineering, Vol. 3, No. 2, March 2013 A Preview on Microcontroller Based Electronic Voting Machine Diponkar Paul and Sobuj Kumar Ray, Member, IACSIT Abstract—Voting is most pivotal process of democratic society through which people determine it’s government. Governments around the world are increasingly considering the replacement of traditional paper-based voting schemes with electronic voting systems.Elections of Bangladesh are conducted most exclusively using electronic voting machines developed over the past three years. In this paper we describe the design, construction and operation of a digital voting machine using a microcontroller profoundly. Again we also portray counting system of votes, market survey and cost analysis. Index Terms—Voting system, atmega16l microcontroller, voting analysis, security of EVM. I. INTRODUCTION Voting is a crucial device to reveal the opinion of a group on an issue that i s under consideration. Based on the promise of greater e? iency, better scalability, faster speed, lower cost, and more convenience, voting is currently shifting from manual paper-based processing to automate electronic-based processing. The term â€Å"electronic voting† characteristically depicts to the use of some electronic means in voting and ensure the security, reliability, guarantee and transferency[1],[2]. Now a day the wide range of application of voting include its use in reality student body elections, shareholder meetings, and the passing of legislation in parliament. Perhaps the most important, in? ential, publicised, and widespread use of voting is its use in national elections. Compared to its traditional paper-based counterpart, electronic voting is considered to have many greater potential bene? ts. These bene? ts include better accuracy by eliminating the negative factor of human error, better coverage for remote locations, increased speed for tally computat ion, lower operational cost through automated means, and the convenience of voting from any location Whether or not electronic voting is a necessary replacement for the traditional paper-based method, it is irrefutable that the conduct of voting as been shifting to the use of electronic medium. To date, electronic databases are used to record voter information, computers are used to count the votes and produce voting results, mobile devices are used for voting in interactive television shows, and electronic voting machines have been used in some national elections. Generally, the term â€Å"electronic voting† refers to the de? nition, collection, and dissemination of people’s opinions with the help of some machinery that is more or less computer supported. Despite Manuscript received August 15, 2012; revised October 12, 2012.The authors are with the Department Electrical and Electronic Engineering, World University of Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh (e-mail: [email  pr otected] com, [email  protected] edu. sg) the transition from traditional paper-based systems to electronic medium, the purpose and requirements for voting remain. Voting is a decision making mechanism in a consensus-based society and security is indeed an essential part of voting. The critical role in determining the outcome of an election, electronic voting systems should be designed and developed with the greatest care.However, a number of recent studies have shown that most of the electronic voting systems being used today are fatally defective [3], [4], [5] and that their quality does not match the importance of the task that they are supposed to carry out. Flaws in current voting systems, which were discovered through testing and other analysis techniques, have stimulated a number of research efforts to mitigate the problems in deployed voting systems. These efforts focused on ameliorating security primitives, such as the storage of votes [6], [7] and auditing [8], and on fo rmally assessing and making procedures more effective [9], [10].Finally, the standards that set the functional and performance requirements against which the systems are developed, tested, and operated have often been found to be inadequate [11], [12], [13]. Among the reasons for concern, critics include vague and incomplete security guidelines, insufficient documentation requirements, and inadequate descriptions of the configuration of commercial software. An electronic voting machine has been designed by a microcontroller for which the code is written in assembly language.Various code protection schemes specified by the manufacturer of the microcontroller are used to prevent inadvertent or deliberate reading and reproduction of the code contained in the microcontroller. The election data contained in the EEPROM of the microcontroller can download into a central computer for tabulations. The security of data in this computer is enforced by generating digital signatures for each dat a file created. This process makes it impossible for anyone to substitute wrong or deliberately altered data files at any intermediate stage between the capturing of voter’s intent by the machine and the final results tabulations.Prior to the election, all con? guration data is set up on the counting server. The con? guration is then transferred to the ballot-box server. Con? guration data include: candidate names, polling station identity, and a list of barcodes. During the voting period, voters are authenticated as per the traditional paper-based voting, and asked whether they wish to vote electronically or use the traditional paper-based method. A voter choosing to use the traditional paper-based method proceeds by being given a ballot paper, casting the vote on the ballot paper, and placing the ballot paper in a ballot-box.On the other hand, a barcode is chosen at random and is given to the voter choosing to use eVACS. Voter authorisation on the electronic voting booth co mputer is by 185 DOI: 10. 7763/IJIEE. 2013. V3. 295 International Journal of Information and Electronics Engineering, Vol. 3, No. 2, March 2013 using the barcode. The electronic voting booth computer communicates the barcode to the ballot-box server for validation and to inform that the voting process is initiating. Upon validation of an invalid barcode, the ballot-box server returns an error message to the voting booth computer.Otherwise, the ballot-box server returns the equivalent of a ballot-paper containing the names of candidates to the voting booth computer. The voter may select the candidates in a particular preference ordering, and restart or complete their selection afterwards. The selection is displayed on the screen forcon? rmation, and the voter is allowed to change or con? rm their selection. The voting booth computer returns a warning given invalid selection or informal vote, however casting invalid or informal vote is allowed. The voter con? ms the selection by using the barcode, and both the vote and a log of key sequence pressed are then communicated to the ballot-box server. The ballot-box server checks that the same barcode is used to initiate the server counts the votes, and produces a voting result. II. HARDWARE DEVELOPMENT OF ELECTRONIC VOTING MACHINE Fig. 1. Block diagram of digital voting system Fig 2. Circuit diagram of the digital voting system A. Circuit Description The high level digital voting machine built with ATmega16 Micro controller. The Micro controller port D uses for LCD display and port C. (pin 22) uses for voting power or presiding officers button. The candided button input from Port C. 1 – C. 4 (pin 23 to 26; 4 candided). The output LED and buzzer uses Micro controller port C. 5 and C. 6. The LCD backlight also connected to port C. 7 via a transistor. At the starting of voting the election commission offices setup the machine at the centre. Then power on the switch and sealed it that nobody can power off. The pre siding officer identifies the original voter of that particular area and pushes the voting power button. The voting power LED glow then and continue it until once press the candided buttons.The voter then goes to the secret room where Voting unit placed and press button beside his candided symbol. Voter can watch success of voting by glowing confirmation LED and beep indication. The presiding officer can also hear beep sound watch a confirmation LED. Same time the voting power goes down and nobody can vote again. Mainly when presiding officer press voting power button, Micro controller start scanning from pin 23 to pin 26. When get response from a specific pin, increase the counter one of that candided and stop scanning. So it is not possible to voting twice or more.All the counter result store at Micro controller EEPROM. When the voting is under process it will showed at display â€Å"Voting under Process†. At the end of voting we need to know result. Then election commissio n or presiding officer presses the secret key (password). Now the Micro controller shows the result and supply the power to LCD backlight that it illuminated. If it needs to return voting process again one should press another secret key. There uses a transistor to operate buzzer and confirmation LED with proper current. There also uses a voltage regulator (7805) to supply 5v continuously.Here uses a dry cell 9V battery as power source. The power consumption of the system is very low (50mW150mW varying). After collected data and need erase recorded data from EEPROM just broken the sealed on power button and power off the system. Now the system is ready for next election. This measurement System includes the following components: †¢ Voting Unit †¢ Control Unit †¢ Confirmation Unit †¢ Display Unit (LCD) †¢ Power Supply Unit B. Voting Unit Fig. 3. Output circuit diagram of the digital voting system Fig. 4. Voting 186 International Journal of Information and Ele ctronics Engineering, Vol. 3, No. 2, March 2013Fig. 5. Confirmation unit In this Voting unit we have been used five button switch and five 2. 2K? resister which connected to the five button switches. C. Buzzer A buzzer or beeper is an audio signaling device, which may be mechanical, electromechanical or piezoelectric. Typical uses of buzzers and beepers include alarm devices. These devices are output transducers converting electrical energy. As power is applied this mechanical device will energize and by doing so interrupt the power source and the cycle continue until the power is removed. The frequency of oscillation is strictly dependent on mechanical inertia.The piezo buzzer produces sound based on reverse of the piezoelectric effect. The generation of pressure variation or strain by the application of electric potential across a piezoelectric material is the underlying principle. These buzzers can be used alert a user of an event corresponding to a switching action, counter sign al or sensor input. They are also used in alarm circuits. The buzzer produces a same noisy sound irrespective of the voltage variation applied to it. It consists of piezo crystals between two conductors. When a potential is applied across these crystals, they push on one conductor and pull on the other.This, push and pull action, results in a sound wave. Most buzzers produce sound in the range of 2 to 4 kHz. The Red lead is connected to the Input and the Black lead is connected to Ground. D. Light Emitting Diode (LED) A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor light source. LEDs are used as indicator lamps in many devices and are increasingly used for other lighting. Introduced as a practical electronic component in 1962, early LEDs emitted low-intensity red light, but modern versions are available across the visible, ultraviolet, and infrared wavelengths, with very high brightness.When a light-emitting diode is forward-biased (switched on), electrons are able to recombine with electron holes within the device, releasing energy in the form of photons. This effect is called electroluminescence and the color of the light (corresponding to the energy of the photon) is determined by the energy gap of the semiconductor. LEDs are often small in area (less than 1 mm2), and integrated optical components may be used to shape its radiation pattern. LEDs present many advantages over incandescent light sources including lower energy consumption, longer lifetime, 187 mproved robustness, smaller size, and faster switching. LEDs powerful enough for room lighting are relatively expensive and require more precise current and heat management than compact fluorescent lamp sources of comparable output. Light-emitting diodes are used in applications as diverse as replacements for aviation lighting, automotive lighting (in particular brake lamps, turn signals, and indicators) as well as in traffic signals. LEDs have allowed new text, video displays, and sensors to be developed , while their high switching rates are also useful in advanced communications technology.Infrared LEDs are also used in the remote control units of many commercial products including televisions, DVD players, and other domestic appliances E. Controller Unit A control unit in general is a central part of the machinery that controls its operation, provided that a piece of machinery is complex and organized enough to contain any such unit. One domain in which the term is specifically used is the area of computer design. In this work Microcontroller ATMEGA 16L is used as the controller unit which controls the sensed signal.A single highly integrated chip that contains all the components comprising a controller. Typically this includes a CPU, RAM, some form of ROM, I/O ports, and timers. Unlike a general-purpose computer, which also includes all of these components, a microcontroller is designed for a very specific task — to control a particular system. As a result, the parts can be simplified and reduced, which cuts down on production costs. Microcontrollers are sometimes called embedded microcontrollers, which just mean that they are part of an embedded system that is, one part of a larger device or system.F. Power Supply Unit Power supply is a very important part of electronic circuit this circuit required fixed +5 V supply so to fix this voltage we needed voltage regulator. In this work used 7805 Voltage regulator which output fixed +5 volt. A voltage regulator generates a fixed output voltage of a preset magnitude that remains constant regardless of changes to its input voltage or load conditions. There are two types of voltage regulators: linear and switching. A linear regulator employs an active (BJT or MOSFET) pass device (series or shunt) controlled by a high gain differential amplifier.It compares the output voltage with a precise reference voltage and adjusts the pass device to maintain a constant output voltage. G. Display Unit Display device sho wn the result of the measuring instrument. A observer can see the result and observe the temperature of electrical machine. In this work we used a 2Ãâ€"16 character LCD (LM016L) display. A liquid crystal display (LCD) is a thin, flat electronic visual display that uses the light modulating properties of liquid crystals. H. Printed Circuit Board A printed circuit board, or PCB, is used to mechanicallyInternational Journal of Information and Electronics Engineering, Vol. 3, No. 2, March 2013 support and electrically connect electronic components using conductive pathways, tracks or signal traces etched from copper sheets laminated onto a non-conductive substrate. It is also referred to as printed wiring board (PWB) or etched wiring board. A PCB populated with electronic components is a printed circuit assembly (PCA), also known as a printed circuit board assembly (PCBA). Printed circuit boards are used in virtually all but the implest commercially produced electronic devices. PCBs ar e inexpensive, and can be highly reliable. They require much more layout effort and higher initial cost than either wire wrap or point-to-point construction, but are much cheaper and faster for high-volume production; the production and soldering of PCBs can be done by automated equipment. Much of the electronics industry's PCB design, assembly, and quality control needs are set by standards that are published by the IPC organization. Pin descriptions of ATmaga16L Microcontroller VCC: Digital supply voltage.GND: Ground. Port B (PB7†¦ PB0) Port B is an 8-bit bi-directional I/O port with internal pull-up resistors (selected for each bit). The Port B output buffers have symmetrical drive characteristics with both high sink and source capability. As inputs, Port B pins that are externally pulled low will source current if the pull-up resistors are activated. The Port B pins are tri-stated when a reset condition becomes active, even if the clock is not running. Port B also serves th e unction’s of various special features of the ATmega16. Port C (PC7†¦PC0) Port C is an 8-bit bi-directional I/O port with internal pull-up resistors (selected for each bit). The Port C output buffers have symmetrical drive characteristics with both high sink and source capability. As inputs, Port C pins that are externally pulled low will source current if the pull-up resistors are activated. The Port C pins are tri-stated when a reset condition becomes active, even if the clock is not running. If the JTAG interface is enabled, the pull-up resistors on pins PC5 (TDI), PC3 (TMS) and PC2 (TCK) will be activated even if a reset occurs.Port C also serves the functions of the JTAG interface and other special features of the ATmega16. Port D (PD7†¦ PD0) Port D is an 8-bit bi-directional I/O port with internal pull-up resistors (selected for each bit). The Port D output buffers have symmetrical drive characteristics with both high sink and source capability. As inputs, Po rt D pins that are externally pulled low will source current if the pull-up resistors are activated. The Port D pins are tri-stated when a reset condition becomes active, even if the clock is not running. Port D also serves the functions of various special features of the ATmega16.Port A (PA7†¦ PA0) Port A serves as the analog inputs to the A/D Converter. Port A also serves as an 8-bit bi-directional I/O port, if the A/D Converter is not used. Port pins can provide internal pull-up resistors (selected for each bit). The Port A output buffers have symmetrical drive characteristics with both high sink and source capability. When pins PA0 to PA7 are used as inputs and are externally pulled low, they will source current if the internal pull-up resistors are activated. The Port A pins are tri-stated when a reset condition becomes active, even if the clock is not running.RESET Reset Input. A low level on this pin for longer than the minimum pulse length will generate a reset, even if the clock is not running. Shorter pulses are not guaranteed to generate a reset. AVCC Fig. 6. Printed circuit board (pcb) of this voting system I. Pin Configurations Discription Fig. 7. Pin configuration of Atmega16L microcontroller[14] AVCC is the supply voltage pin for Port A and the A/D Converter. It should be externally connected to VCC, even if 188 International Journal of Information and Electronics Engineering, Vol. 3, No. 2, March 2013 he ADC is not used. If the ADC is used, it should be connected to VCC through a low-pass filter AREF AREF is the analog reference pin for the A/D Converter. III. SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT FOR ELECTRONIC VOTING MACHINE Flowchart of Program: user. In both of the systems that we analyzed, we found major security vulnerabilities that could compromise the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the voting process. The results of our study suggest that there is a need for a drastic change in the way in which electronic systems are designed, deve loped, and tested.Researchers, practitioners, and policy makers need to define novel testing approaches that take into account the peculiar information flow of these systems, as well as the combination of computer security mechanisms and physical procedures necessary to provide a high level of assurance. Electronic voting software is not immune from security concerned. Here we describe Hack-a-vote, a simplified DRE voting system that we initially developed to demonstrate how easy it might be to insert a Trojan horse into a voting system.In case of a discrepancy, there either must be a row with the fresh random number. But without a mark of the voter or the alignment information on the ballot and on the receipt must differ. The proof consists either of a row containing the fresh random number but no mark without revealing which row this is or the proof consists of the two differing alignment bar codes without showing the mark at all. After the publication of the receipts the situatio n is analogous to the paper based schemes above as the voter possesses a correct receipt as electronic evidence.In addition to using unforgivable receipts with a special paper one can assume a trusted printer containing a chip card this printer could have the chip card and print the signature to the receipt. Having two in dependent ways to proved receipt to be not a forgery is a big advantage. REFERENCES D. Balzarotti, G. Banks, M. Cova, V. Felmetsger, R. A. Kemmerer, W. Robertson, F. Valeur, and G. Vigna, â€Å"An Experience in Testing the Security of Real-World Electronic Voting Systems,† IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, vol. 36, no. 4, 2010. [2] A. Villa? orita and K. Weldemariam, and R. Tiella, â€Å"Development, Formal Veri? ation, and Evaluation of an E-Voting System with VVPAT,† IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security, vol. 4, no. 4, 2009. [3] Y. D. Wagner, M. Bishop, T. Baker, B. D. Medeiros, G. Tyson, M. Shamos, and M. Burmester, â₠¬Å"Software Review and Security Analysis of the ES I Votronic 8. 0. 1. 2 Voting Machine Firmware,† Technical report, Security and Assurance in Information Technology Laboratory, 2007. [4] T. Kohno, A. Stubblefield, A. Rubin, and D. Wallach, â€Å"Analysis of an Electronic Voting System,† in Proc. of IEEE Symp. Security and Privacy, pp. 27-40, 2004. [5] E. Proebstel, S. Riddle, F. Hsu, J.Cummins, F. Oakley, T. Stanionis, and M. Bishop, â€Å"An Analysis of the Hart Intercivic DAU eSlate,† in Proc. of Usenix/Accurate Electronic Voting Technology Workshop, 2007. [6] D. Molnar, T. Kohno, N. Sastry, and D. Wagner, â€Å"Tamper-Evident, History Independent, Subliminal-Free Data Structures on PROM Storage-or-How to Store Ballots on a Voting Machine (Extended Abstract),† in Proc. of IEEE Symp. Security and Privacy, pp. 365-370, 2006. [7] J. Bethencourt, D. Boneh, and B. Waters, â€Å"Cryptographic Methods for Storing Ballots on a Voting Machine,† in Proc. o f Network and Distributed System Security Symp, 2007. 8] S. Garera and A. Rubin, â€Å"An Independent Audit Framework for Software Dependent Voting Systems,† in Proc. of ACM conf. Computer and Comm. Security, pp. 256-265, 2007. [9] J. Hall, â€Å"Improving the Security, Transparency and Efficiency of California’s 1 Percent Manual Tally Procedures,† in Proc. of Usenix/ Accurate Electronic Voting Technology Workshop, 2008. [10] K. Weldemariam and A. Villafiorita, â€Å"Modeling and Analysis of Procedural Security in (e) Voting: The Trentino’s Approach and Experiences,† in Proc. of Usenix/Accurate Electronic Voting Technology Workshop, 2008. [11] R.Hite, â€Å"All Levels of Government are needed to Address Electronic Voting System Challenges,† Technical report, GAO, 2007. [1] Fig. 8. Flowchart of program IV. RESULTS AND ANALYSIS This work contributed to three very basic research questions arising: in the context of verifiable elections. First, we discussed the problem of keeping ballot secrecy to a certain extent in the case of a corrupted doting machine or voting authority. Our contribution to this is an approach where all secret information is encapsulated in the voting machine. Second, we considered the attack of receipt stealing and manipulation of the corresponding votes.Here we proposed a novel approach of linking all receipts by a hash chain such that each single receipt guards the integrity of all receipts issued previously. Together with a display in the polling place this approach shortens the time window in which an adversary can perform the ballot stealing attack without almost zero risk. Third, we discussed in detail the possibility of contesting an election based on the evidence provided by the verifiable election scheme. We compared the situation for Bingo Voting to the evidence provided by paper based schemes.We shortly sketched an approach to prove an error or a manipulation in the voting booth without vi olating ballot secrecy. However, this was only a proof of concept and for a practical application the usability of this approach needs to be further improved. V. CONCLUSION As part of these exercises, we devised a testing methodology, developed new tools that are specifically tailored to the security analysis of these systems, and learned a number of lessons, all of which should be of use to other 189 International Journal of Information and Electronics Engineering, Vol. 3, No. 2, March 2013 [12] M. Gondree, P. Wheeler, and D. D.Figueiredo, â€Å"A Critique of the 2002 FEC VSPT E-Voting Standards,† Technical report, Univ. of California, 2005. [13] R. Mercuri. Voting System Guidelines Comments. [Online]. Available: http:// www. wheresthepaper. org/VVSGComment. pdf, 2005. [Online]. Available: [14] Atmel. http://www. atmel. com/Images/doc2466. pdf Mr. Diponkar Paul is currently working as Assistant Professor in the department of Electrical and Electronic engineering at World Uni versity of Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh (www. wub. edu. bd ). After passing his master degree from March 2008 he was serving as Assistant Professor, EEE at Bangladesh University upto July 2010.He is having qualifications: B. Sc. Engg. , DISM (software engineering), M. Sc. Engg. His research interests are in the area of energy conversions, power system modeling and advanced control theories covering the application of IT. From 0ct 2004 to July 2006, he was working as Lecturer in department of computer science and engineering at Pundra University of science & technology, Bogra. In Singapore during his master dgree at Nanyang technological university, he was involved in financial service operation integrated to IT system administration jobs from Dec 2006 to February 2008.Mr. Sobuj Kumar Ray was born in 1987, Bogra, Bangladesh. Mr. Ray received his Bachelor degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the Rajshahi University of Engineering and Technology (RUET), Rajshahi, Bangl adesh in April 2010. He is now Assistant Manager (Technical) in DESCO. Mr. Ray worked at Internal University of Business Agriculture and Technology in the department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Dhaka, Bangladesh (www. iubat. edu) from 12th July 2010 to 1st October, 2012. He is enthusiastic on researcher on control system and Power System. 190 Electronic Voting Machine Project Outline In general the EVM consists of two units that can be inter linked. A ballot unit, which a voter uses to exercise his vote. And the other, a control unit used by the polling officials. But the EVM prepared by us is totally automated. MCU is acting as the Polling Officer in this EVM. Ballot Unit It consists of a 16Ãâ€"2 LCD and IR LEDs. LCD displays the name of the post and candidate for which voting is going on IR LEDs are used as touch switches. For anything which you have to select, put your figure just above the option where it is being displayed on the LCD. Control UnitIt consists of a MCU and a 7 keys keypad. MCU stores the program, run it and also stores the data given by voters. We have made keypad, which can be used to input the name of Posts and the Candidates. By using this we will not have to program the machine each time before any election. One can enter the name of posts and candidates just before the election. This can also prevent programming the EVM t o favour any particular candidate. 1. 1 The Electronic Voting Mach ine – An Electronic Marvel. Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) retains all the characteristics of voting by ballot papers, while making polling a lot more expedient.Being fast and absolutely reliable, the EVM saves considerable time, money and manpower. And, of course, helps maintain total voting secrecy without the use of ballot papers. The EVM is 100 per cent tamper proof. And, at the end of the polling, just press a button and there you have the results. 1. 2Description: Electronic voting machine has now days become an effective tool for voting. It ensures flawless voting and thus has become more widespread. It ensures people about their vote being secured. It avoids any kind of malpractice and invalid votes.Also such kind of system becomes more economical as consequent expenditure incurred on manpower is saved. It is also convenient on the part of voter, as he has to just press one key whichever belongsto his candidates. Voting machinesare the total combination ofmechanical,electromechanical, or electronic equipment (includingsoftware,firmware, and documentation required to program control, and supportequipment), that is used to define ballots; to cast and count votes; to report or display election results; and to maintain and produce any audit trail information.The first voting machines were mechanical but it is increasingly more common to use electronic voting machines. A voting system includes the practices and associated documentation used to identify system components and versions of such components; to test the system during its development and maintenance; to maintain records of system errors or defects; to determine specific changes made after initial certification; and to make available any materials to the voter (such as notices, instructions, forms, or paper ballots).Traditionally, a voting machine has been defined by the mechanism the system uses to cast votes and further ca tegorized by the location where the system tabulates the votes. Voting machines have different levels of usability, security,efficiency and accuracy. Certain systems may be more or less accessible to all voters, or not accessible to those voters with certain types of disabilities. They can also have an effect on the public's ability to oversee elections. SUMMARY Electronic voting machine has now replaced the traditional mechanism of voting due to several advantages like security, automatic counting etc.This project presents a way to develop an electronic voting machine which displays the count of votes on a 16Ãâ€"2 LCD interface. A user can get his/her vote register through a set of switches (one for each candidate). After every cast of vote, the subsequent count can be seen on LCD. The circuit uses AT89C51 microcontroller and the code for the project has been written in C. DESCRIPTION This LCD based electronic voting machine is designed for four candidates. The input part consists of a set of six tactile switches. The switches and 16Ãâ€"2 LCD are interfaced to microcontroller AT89C51 for various operations and displays.The provision of casting votes for the candidates has been provided through four of these switches. These switches are made active high and connected to pins 2-5 (P1^1 – P1^4) of the controller. The remaining two switches (both active low) are to start and stop the voting procedure. They are connected to pins 1 and 6 (P1^0 and P1^5) respectively. The Init (start) switch initializes the voting system when pressed, while the Stop switch ends the voting and displays the poll results on LCD screen. For more details on working with LCD, refer LCD interfacing with 8051.The data pins of the LCD (pins 7-14) are connected to the output port P2 of the microcontroller. The control pins (RS, R/W and EN) are connected to port P3 pins P3^0, P3^1 ; P3^6 respectively. Working: The voting is started by pressing the Init switch after which the user is p rompted to vote. The count of votes is stored in four different variables. As soon as the user votes for a candidate by pressing one of the switches, the value of the corresponding variable is increased by one. After this a Thank you message is displayed on LCD to acknowledge the registration of user’s vote.The message stays on the screen until the next user either presses the Init button to cast another vote or Stop switch is pressed get the poll results. When the stop button is pressed, the names of the candidates are displayed along with their vote counts. After some delay, the result is displayed which could be either declaration of the winner candidate or the candidates with a clash of their number of votes. PRESET | | A preset is a three legged electronic component which can be made to offer varying resistance in a circuit.The resistance is varied by adjusting the rotary control over it. The adjustment can be done by using a small screw driver or a similar tool. The res istance does not vary linearly but rather varies in exponential or logarithmic manner. Such variable resistors are commonly used for adjusting sensitivity along with a sensor. The variable resistance is obtained across the single terminal at front and one of the two other terminals. The two legs at back offer fixed resistance which is divided by the front leg. So whenever only the back terminals are used, a preset acts as a fixed resistor.Presets are specified by their fixed value resistance. | | AT89C51 MCAT89C51 is an 8-bit microcontroller and belongs to Atmel's 8051 family. ATMEL 89C51 has 4KB of Flash programmable and erasable read only memory (PEROM) and 128 bytes of RAM. It can be erased and program to a maximum of 1000 times. In 40 pin AT89C51, there are four ports designated as P1, P2, P3 and P0. All these ports are 8-bit bi-directional ports, i. e. , they can be used as both input and output ports. Except P0 which needs external pull-ups, rest of the ports have internal pul l-ups.When 1s are written to these port pins, they are pulled high by the internal pull-ups and can be used as inputs. These ports are also bit addressable and so their bits can also be accessed individually. Port P0 and P2 are also used to provide low byte and high byte addresses, respectively, when connected to an external memory. Port 3 has multiplexed pins for special functions like serial communication, hardware interrupts, timer inputs and read/write operation from external memory. AT89C51 has an inbuilt UART for serial communication.It can be programmed to operate at different baud rates. Including two timers & hardware interrupts, it has a total of six interrupts. Pin Diagram:  Pin Description:     Pin No|   Function|   Name| 1| 8 bit input/output port (P1) pins| P1. 0| 2| | P1. 1| 3| | P1. 2| 4| | P1. 3| 5| | P1. 4| 6| | P1. 5| 7| | P1. 6| 8| | P1. 7| 9| Reset pin; Active high| Reset| 10| Input (receiver) for serial communication| RxD| 8 bit input/output port (P3) pins| P3. 0| 11| Output (transmitter) for serial communication| TxD| | P3. 1| 12| External interrupt 1| Int0| | P3. 2| 3| External interrupt 2| Int1| | P3. 3| 14| Timer1 external input| T0| | P3. 4| 15| Timer2 external input| T1| | P3. 5| 16| Write to external data memory| Write| | P3. 6| 17| Read from external data memory| Read| | P3. 7| 18| Quartz crystal oscillator (up to 24 MHz)| Crystal 2| 19| | Crystal 1| 20| Ground (0V)| Ground| 21| 8 bit input/output port (P2) pins/High-order address bits when interfacing with external memory  |   P2. 0/ A8| 22| |   P2. 1/ A9| 23| |   P2. 2/ A10| 24| |   P2. 3/ A11| 25| |   P2. 4/ A12| 26| |   P2. 5/ A13| 27| |   P2. 6/ A14| 28| |   P2. 7/ A15| 9| Program store enable;  Read from external program memory| PSEN| 30| Address Latch Enable | ALE| | Program pulse input during Flash programming| Prog| 31| External Access Enable;   Vcc for internal program executions| EA| | Programming enable voltage; 12V (during Flash program ming)| Vpp| 32| 8 bit input/output port (P0) pins  Low-order address bits when interfacing with external memory  |   P0. 7/ AD7| 33| |   P0. 6/ AD6| 34| |   P0. 5/ AD5| 35| |   P0. 4/ AD4| 36| |   P0. 3/ AD3| 37| |   P0. 2/ AD2| 38| |   P0. 1/ AD1| 39| |   P0. 0/ AD0| 40| Supply voltage; 5V (up to 6. V)| Vcc| | | LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) screen is an electronic display module and find a wide range of applications. A 16Ãâ€"2 LCD display is very basic module and is very commonly used in various devices and circuits. These modules are preferred over seven segments and other multi segment LEDs. The reasons being: LCDs are economical; easily programmable; have no limitation of displaying special & even custom characters (unlike in seven segments), animations and so on. A 16Ãâ€"2 LCD means it can display 16 characters per line and there are 2 such lines.In this LCD each character is displayed in 5Ãâ€"7 pixel matrix. This LCD has two registers, namely, Command an d Data. The command register stores the command instructions given to the LCD. A command is an instruction given to LCD to do a predefined task like initializing it, clearing its screen, setting the cursor position, controlling display etc. The data register stores the data to be displayed on the LCD. The data is the ASCII value of the character to be displayed on the LCD. Click to learn more about internal structure of a LCD.Pin Diagram:  Pin Description:     Pin No|   Function|   Name| 1| Ground (0V)| Ground| 2| Supply voltage; 5V (4. 7V – 5. 3V)|   Vcc| 3| Contrast adjustment; through a variable resistor|   VEE| 4| Selects command register when low; and data register when high| Register Select| 5| Low to write to the register; High to read from the register| Read/write| 6| Sends data to data pins when a high to low pulse is given| Enable| 7| 8-bit data pins| DB0| 8| | DB1| 9| | DB2| 10| | DB3| 11| | DB4| 12| | DB5| 13| | DB6| 14| | DB7| 15| Backlight VCC (5V) | Led+| 6| Backlight Ground (0V)| Led-| | | APPLICATIONS & ADVANTAGES Fast track voting which could be used in small scale elections, like resident welfare association, panchayat level election and other society level elections. It could also be used to conduct opinion polls during annual share holders meeting. It could also be used to conduct general assembly elections where number of candidates are less than or equal to eight in the current situation. It could be used at places where there is no electricity as the thing is operational with the help of a simple 5 volt battery.It could well become a fine example of using environment friendly resources as there is no need for having lakhs of ballot papers as was used in older system of voting. It involves very less time for a voter to actually cast its vote unlike conventional method where it becomes very cumbersome to handle ballot papers. It is more fast and reliable. FUTURE SCOPE Number of candidates could be increased by using ot her microcontroller or an 8255 IC. It could be interfaced with printer to get the hard copy of the result almost instantly from the machine itself.It could also be interfaced with the personal computer and result could be stored in the central server and its backup could be taken on the other backend servers. Again, once the result is on the server it could be relayed on the network to various offices of the election conducting authority. Thus our project could make the result available any corner of the world in a matter of seconds In days of using nonpolluting and environment friendly resources of energy,it could pose a very good example.REFRENCES AND BIBLOGRAPHY 1. Muhammad Ali Mazidi , Janice Gillispie Mazidi, Rolin D. Mckinlay. Second edition, THE 8051 MICROCONTROLLER AND EMBEDDED SYSTEM 2. K. J. Ayala. Third edition, The 8051 MICROCONTROLLER 3. Millman & Halkias. INTEGRATED ELECTRONICS. 4. http://www. wikipedia. com 5. http://www. 8051microcontrollerprojects. com 6. www. datas heet4u. com 7. www. rickeya„? sworld. com Reference: http://seminarprojects. com/Thread-electronic-voting-machine-project-full-report#ixzz2RD8Xd1cO