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Google Android Platform for an e-Voting System:

Some Experiments with Support of Social


Networking Tools

César R. K. Stradiotto, Ângela I. Zotti, Cláudia O. Tânia C. D. Bueno, Thiago P. S. Oliveira


Bueno, Sonali P. M. Bedin, Hugo C. Hoeschl Instituto de e-Gov, Inteligências e Sistemas – i3G
Programa de Pós-Graduação em Engenharia e Gestão do Florianópolis – Brasil
Conhecimento - PPGEGC {tania.bueno, vinicius.mirapalheta,
Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, UFSC thiago.paulo}@i3g.org.br
Florianópolis – Brasil
{cesar.stradiotto, iara.zotti, claudia.bueno, sonali.bedin,
hch}@i3g.org.br
Vinícius O. Mirapalheta
Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências da Computação –
Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, UFSC
Florianópolis – Brasil
vinicius.mirapalheta@i3g.org.br

Abstract— In this paper are shown two experiences about an There are three main motivations for choosing Google
electronic voting process. The first one is the use of tools for social Android for the experimental system: The first is because it´s
networking, to take advantage for its viral property for taking a rise on its worldwide resellers: In [22] is shown that
communication about an international voting process, called Web Android platform already takes 28% of its customers in U.S. on
X strategy. The second experience is a prototype for an electronic the first quarter of 2010. In [23], is reported that according to
voting system, which make available a dynamic web page to allow IDC´s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, Android
and to account voting activities from Google Android mobile platform will take a rise over 50% of market sales until 2014,
devices. on the global smart phone market. The second reason is because
many companies are joining alliances for the development of
Keywords- e-Voting Process, Google Android 1.0, Web
Applications, ID2E, International Direct Digital Election
open source technological solutions for this platform, like in
[24]. The third reason is the ease to programming applications
for this platform, considering complexity of use and availability
I. INTRODUCTION of its production tools. Since Android programming is based on
With the appearance of cell phones with free programmable Sun´s Java Language, the tools for development of Android
platform, it is possible the development of application for applications are free for download and use ([25] and [26]) with
worldwide popular participation, by the digital vote using many samples, discussion lists and tutorials over the web.
mobiles. According to [1], the ITU - International
This paper is divided into eight sections: This first section
Telecommunication Union estimates that in the world there
describes the intention to create an electronic voting process
already exist approximately 4.9 billion cell phones in 2009,
using mobile telephony, given the emergent opportunity of
reaching 5 billion in 2010. In [2] it is revealed that there is a
programmable platform of Google Android smart phones.
raising interest for voting on SMS cell phones, and through
Section II describes previous jobs about e-Voting systems.
social networking tools like Facebook or Twitter. It´s believed
Section III describes the first part of the experience: The
that the voting process by cell and smart phones give some
International Direct Digital Elections (ID2E), with help of Web
decision power to the citizens, which can actuate directly on
2.0 tools to communicate the main theme for elections between
decisions of their concerns. The voting process also can give
voters and interested people. Section IV describes the second
ways for numerical information surveillance about social
part of the experience: The construction of a prototype system
phenomena. For this reason, the following research is being
for e-Voting and tallying. Section V presents the results from
developed with the intention to survey future scenarios which
the two experiences. Section VI presents the conclusions.
can occur during any international voting process by mobile
Section VII presents the intentions for future work. At the end it
devices. The experiment has two steps: The first step refers to
is presented the consulted web references.
the voting process with the SMS protocol, using Web 2.0 tools
to help on information exchange during the voting process, and
the second step is the construction of a prototype system which II. PREVIOUS WORK
allows users of Google Android platform smart phones send The first experience about electronic voting – which serves
their votes directly to dynamic web pages, for its computation. as a foundation for this research – is the construction of the
electronic ballot-box in Brazil, in 1996. According to [3], in III. E-VOTING METHODOLOGY
1985 an automated electoral register was installed by the The developed application described inside this paper was
Tribunal Superior Eleitoral (of Brazil). The electronic ballot based on an e-Voting methodology – developed by HOESCHL
was developed in 1995, and used by the first time on the [11, 12, 13] – done through the use of cell phones (Electronic
municipal elections of 1996, inside the country. In 1989, on city Direct Digital Elections – IDDE or ID2E), and supported by an
of Brusque, Santa Catarina, Brazil, it was realized the first organizational methodology (called Web X Strategy, [19]). This
voting experience with micro-computers. The electronic ballot- methodology try to evaluate the impact of Web 2.0 social
box, initially called electronic vote collector (EVC), had the networks on discussions about the voting main theme, as
objective of identifying the alternatives for automation of the explained in [19], evaluate the Web 2.0 social network behavior
voting process, and for defining the necessary measures to its on a decision making digital process [12], and evaluate the use
implantation, from the elections to be held in 1996, in more of mobile devices as tools for public decision making. The
than fifty Brazilian cities. In [4] is described the FREE e- project was executed by the Information Society Studies Group
DEMOCRACY Project, developed with open code, on Java – ISSG, in 2009, linked to the Universidade Federal de Santa
language, for the implementation of e-Voting systems. In [5] is Catarina – UFSC, and the e-Gov, Intelligence and Systems
presented a project of an e-Voting system to be accessed via Institute – i3G [20], both installed inside the city of
Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), Short Message Service Florianópolis – Santa Catarina – Brazil.
(SMS) and Hyper Text Transport Protocol (HTTP). In [6] is
described an e-Voting platform, specified with a Universal The first ID2E was realized between 6 and 20 of November,
Modeling Language variant: The Mobile-UML (M-UML), in the year of 2009 [14]. The voting process had as basic
from the same authors. This platform considers the question: Is the United Nations accomplishing its mission?
recommendations of Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents Allowing only positive or negative answers, sent through SMS
- FIPA [7], to allow interoperability between agents which protocol. Together with the answer, if the voter wanted, he/she
work on different platforms. In this platform, the voters deposit could send a picture of him/herself to post on Web 2.0 tools like
their votes on their own personal computers, while a mobile Picasa, Panoramio or Flickr, or even videos, as is the case for
device pass close those machines and collect their stored votes, You Tube.
under the coordination of a management software working in a
stationary server. In [8] is presented a taxonomy of e-Voting
systems, and like in [5], the authors present requirements for the
project and implementation of e-Voting systems. In [9] it is
described a local e-Voting system which eliminates physical
ballot-boxes, reducing costs and efforts, and consequently being
less time consuming. In [10] it is described an experimentation
about e-Voting by cell phones, by SMS protocol, for a focused
group of people, where it is shown the concerning about the fall
of Brazil inside e-Gov and Information Technology (IT)
international classifications, in 2008. The process was done
with five objectives: 1) diagnose the reasons for the fall; 2)
identify possible actions looking for better performance on the
next classifications; 3) detail on the discussion about Figure 1. Interface inside the server cell phone, responsible for the tally of
technological themes inside organizational environments; 4) positive (1-187), negative (2-188), or incorrect (3-1) votes. Copied from [15].
test the SMS devices with different regional telephonic codes in
many geographic regions; 5) evaluate performance and efficacy In [12] has also a voting surveillance by geographic region.
of different telephonic operators over this task. The tally of votes was done inside an application working on
Dot Net platform (Figure 1), inside a server cell phone. The
About the use of Web 2.0 tools to help on supporting the experimentation is a pilot for future e-Voting system projects.
voting process, HURME [17] – talk about the three main In [21] it was proposed some initial researches to create e-
properties of Web 2.0 to help on diffusion of information on Voting mobile applications for Google Android platform.
Barack Obama campaign: viral marketing, user-generated
content, and online-social network. In [18] is presented an About the solution on sharing information inside Web 2.0
initiative to create a list of Web 2.0 applications on e- environments, about the voted theme, there was selected the
Government. In [22] it is shown results on the gathering process following pages: 1) Delicious (delicious.com/) to publish links
of 18-35 aged voters, using a national campaign on the Web 2.0 related to the experiment; 2) iPetitions (www.ipetitions.com/),
social networks, in Australia, in 2007. to advice people about the voting process; 3) Twitter
(twitter.com/), and Blogger (siweb20.blogspot.com/start) for
The research written inside this document was developed the public to post comments about the main question; 4) GMail
based on the experimental research on [10], with some (https://www.google.com/), and Metajur Discussion List
arguments based on [17, 18], and will be shown on the next (br.groups.yahoo.com/group/metajur/) to privately post
sections. comments about the same subject; 5) Wikipedia
(pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Página_principal), Slideshare
(www.slideshare.net/) and Scribd (www.scribd.com/siweb20/),
to publish reports or presentations resulting from the
discussions about the theme; 6) Skoob (www.skoob.com.br/) to keeping the following elements: The vote ID for each record;
share books which maybe can give some historical base to the The defined language for the mobile device when the vote was
voting process, and help on argumentation about the question done; the smart phone number; The geographic position of the
about United Nations; 7) Picasa (picasa.google.com.br/), Flickr smart phone GPS (latitude and longitude) when the vote was
(www.flickr.com/), and Panoramio (www.panoramio.com/) to done; The vote answer (for this experimental case: Yes or No);
post pictures (with geographic position for these two last and the date and time when the user made his vote; 2) e-Vote
pages) referred to votes assumed by the voters; 8) YouTube collector web server These services are dynamic pages which
(www.youtube.com/) to post videos related to the voters, receives parameters via Web Browser. Such parameters feed
assuming its votes; 9) Orkut (https://www.google.com/), and the voting data base (the eVDB, on Fig. 2). Initially, due to the
FaceBook (www.facebook.com/) for the possible formation of availability of the two technologies, such services are being
social networks about the specified theme; and 10) Second Life implemented together on PHP (PHP eV Collector) and Java
(secondlife.com/) to simulate the voting process inside virtual Servlet (J2EE Servlet eV Collector) languages. The services are
environments. not complementary: They do exactly the same thing: collect e-
Voting data, sent to the dynamic web pages through given
The selection of such pages was done – first – with the parameters, and write it into a database;
intention to verify, by natural selection, what pages became the
preferred ones for the communication about the voting process,
among users. The second reason for the selection of these pages
was the intention to generate content for ideas about its usage
inside the system, or its usage inside the voting process. The
group was divided in two teams: One of them would raise
arguments confirming the accomplishment of the role given to
UN, and the second team would raise arguments denying the
accomplishment of its role. The participation of people was
direct, needing only the text messages sent by cell phones,
corresponding to people´s vote. The tallying was made in real
time. The result was communicated immediately after the final
time, on 2009, November 20, at 17:00h GMT.

IV. PROPOSAL OF AN E-VOTING SYSTEM ON GOOGLE


ANDROID

A. Some definitions about system clients


To explain the system proposed for the methodology in
[19], two types of user were defined: The voting citizens (voter
[8], active electorate [9], legit voters [16]), which use the
application available on the smart phones to vote, and the
consultant users (authority [8], passive electorate [9], election
authority [16]), which use the Web, or smart phone
applications, looking for the tallying of votes. For the
implementation of the application on the smart phones, it was
assumed that every device is associated to its owner. By this Figure 2. Proposed e-Voting and tallying system, via Android smart phone
applications, web services and dynamic web pages
way, given that a smart phone – used to vote – has its
identification number, and given that there are accredited
3) e-Voting application on Android smart phones To be
databases informing that determined number is associated to a
possible to an Android smart phone user to vote, an application
given client, it is for sure that, if the voting system receives a
with an interface for consultation to a dynamic web page
vote by a smart phone, it is assumed that the system receives
(Figure 2) offers the main question to be answered (voted), and
the vote from the client owner of the identified mobile device.
together to this page are available the buttons to send the votes:
Yes or No, initially available on three languages (Portuguese,
B. Experimental work Spanish and English). When the vote has succeeded and is kept
For the accomplishment of the e-Voting methodology, on the remote data base, the same application confirms the
supported by Web 2.0 tools, explained on Section III above, it reception of this vote, presenting the data – on the language
was constructed a system skeleton (Figure 2) for the e-Voting chosen by the user inside the Android application – related to
module. This module is composed by six sub-modules: the vote just sent. The vote related data are the following: Users
Database; Vote collecting web service; e-Voting Android vote; date and time of vote; and in cases where the smart phone
application; Web service for tally consultation; Web application has a GPS, the geographic position of the device when the vote
for tally consultation; and Android application for tally was just sent; 4) e-Vote tallying web services These are
consultation: 1) e-Voting database (eVDB) It is the heart of services also equivalent, made on PHP (PHP eV Consultant)
the system, having de voting data collected during the public and Java Servlet (J2EE Servlet eV Consultant) languages,
voting process. Initially it is composed only by a data-table which receive the parameters to present the web page with the
voting tally to the interested people (election authority). Like States of America, Argentina, Chile, Peru, England, Denmark,
the case above, these services also do exactly the same thing; 5) Netherlands, Poland, Italy, Spain, Kenya, Egypt and Australia.
e-Vote tallying web application These are applications which
read dynamic web pages, to inform to the interested people B. Use of Web 2.0 tools
(election authority) about the situation – final, or in progress – About the use of Web 2.0 tools – to help on organization
of the voting process. The information can be available to the and conclusion of the public discussion directed to the main
consultants – initially – in three languages; 6) e-Vote tallying question and the voting process – at the end of the
Android smart phone application These are applications experimentation it was observed that few tools were used.
which access dynamic web pages, via Android smart phones Among them, the page Delicious received special attention
(Fig. 2), to inform to the interested people (election authority) because it had the links to the other used pages on the process,
about the situation – final, or in progress – of the voting serving as a starting point. Blogger was used because it has
process. Like in the web applications, these information can sequential and easy inclusion of information, having linear
also be available to the consultants – initially – in three reading. Flickr gave fast results on insertion of geo-referred
languages. pictures. iPetitions had sequential inclusion of information, and
linear reading, and beyond that it was a page where people
V. RESULTS identified the original country of vote. The Metajur discussion
Here the results are presented in three parts, which will be list (see Section III), to be historically used by the ISSG
joined in a close future, inside the same system, operated with students who made the experimentation. The Slideshare was
Android platform smart phones: The results for the e-Voting used to post the presentations during the classes, and finally the
experimental method; The initial and still unmeasured results 3D application Second Life, used to simulate an e-Voting
for the Web 2.0 tools usage for the voting process; and the virtual process with the positioning of avatars on some pre-
initial implemented prototype for the e-Voting system. determined virtual places inside a given environment.

A. About the e-Voting method C. About the e-Voting Module


As an initial result of the prototype system, one application
TABLE I. VOTING TALLY: “IS THE UN ACCOMPLISHING ITS MISSION?” was created on Android platform (Figure 3): The e-Voting
application with the interface to send votes, and presenting the
SMS Text Answer Quantity Percentage main question for the voting process: Is The UN
001 YES 211 46.68% accomplishing its mission?, and the final interface presented to
002 NO 240 53.10% the user with the data sent, after voting.
Null (avoided) votes 1 0.22%
Total Votes 452 100.0%

TABLE II. VOTING CORRECTNESS (OR CONFORMANCE) TALLY: “IS THE


UN ACCOMPLISHING ITS MISSION?”
Vote conformance Quantity Percentage
Correct votes 434 96.02%
Incorrect votes
By syntax error 9 1,99%
By unnecessary international code (+55) 9 1,99%
inside country
Total Votes 452 100.0%

Tables 1 and 2 show the results surveyed after the e-Voting


process experimentation with short messages: From the 452
votes sent to the server cell phone, 434 had a correct format and Figure 3. Interface of e-Voting application on Android smart phone simulator
were computed by this server; 18 votes were received via SMS, (in Spanish language), which access dynamic web pages.
but weren´t computed; and just one vote were avoided. From
the 18 votes received via SMS, but not computed, 9 were not
because the voters included the International Code (+55) inside VI. CONCLUSIONS
the country (Brazil), attached to the server cell phone number, About the client interface, the vote sending through buttons
what invalidated the vote, and 9 had a syntax error on the – compared to vote sending through keyed short messages –
redaction of the string to identify the choose of the vote (the reduces the number of errors on sending the vote. In case of
two correct answers should be “001” or “002”, and not “1” or SMS, depending on the type of message to be sent, the
“2”, or even “oo1” or “oo2”, and so on). characters can be confused, generating invalid answers / votes.
The 18 wrong messages shown on the survey, on Table II, just
About the expected international participation for the
present an initial scenario which can be sensible to the good or
process, through the voluntary geographic identification, it was
bad instruction about the process, to the invited public.
verified the participation of citizens from 13 countries: United
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