Students Invent Electronic Voting

The Association of Mathematics Education Students (AMES) of the University of Education, Winneba has introduced an electronic system of voting to elect new executives. Speaking to the Times, the Electoral Officer, Michael Batsa, said votes would no longer use the thumb, rather, they will use a secret access code to cast their ballots, on the computer.  

He said eligible voters click on the cast-your-vote button with a response 'thanks' which concludes the process of voting.

Mr Batsa said the Innovation was faster than the manual one and rule out multiple voting.

He said that with the voting only the Electoral Officer, is privy to information on the election and nobody can declare results earlier than the Electoral Commission.

In addition, results can be declared within an hour after voting.

The Head of Department of Mathematics Education, Dr. Christopher Adjei, Okpoti, said that the system was developed by a level 300 student, Banso Williams, with assistance from the AMES.

Dr Okpoti suggested to the National Electoral Commission to adopt the system for at the grass root level on a pilot basis to see how practical and viable it could be.

Dr Okpoti said the illiterate population could be trained to adjust to the system, adding “they do not need to become computer literates.”

In the case of the blind, he said they could be provided with software to vote without assistance, explaining that instead of pictures, they would be brail codes to identify the candidates.