One of the major reasons for political instability in Sub-Saharan Africa originates from the way elections are conducted. Most African countries have quite a handful of electoral malpractices which lead to political instability, civil wars and low economic growth.  Electronic voting might be a solution to the election problems and thus bring in a stable political atmosphere which attracts investors. This thesis looks at the prospects and challenges of implementing e-voting in Ghana and Sub-Saharan Africa as a solution to the current manual paper-based system and proposes a framework and requirements which can be used as guidelines for its adoption and implementation. The thesis has been conducted by studying literature on electronic voting and Diffusion of Innovations Theory. Furthermore, a case study has been conducted on the Ghanaian electoral process, by conducting interviews with the Danquah Institute of Ghana and through questionnaires to some Ghanaian citizens in both the rural and urban areas of Ghana. The main results from the thesis show that the adoption and subsequent implementation of e-voting in SSA countries, can only be possible if the governments show strong committment and support by securing funds through donor organizations, and providing the necessary IT infrastructure and other resources needed to support the project. Voter education too is an absolute necessity. The adoption of e-voting is mainly based on how the innovation will be diffused and the perceived benefits that will be derived from the investment. Hence, particular attention should be paid to the various communication channels, especially the media, through which messages are passed across to the citizens.

The Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) was a response to the controversial presidential election of 2000. In accordance with HAVA requirements for federal elections, states were mandated to replace punch card voting systems and mechanical lever voting machines with more up-to-date systems that use current technology. As replacements, states selected optical scan (OS) and direct record electronic (DRE) voting systems. Computer scientists questioned the security of OS and DRE voting systems, and politicians questioned their accuracy. Thus, the goals of this research were to analyze the accuracy of election outcomes generated by electronic voting (e-voting) systems and to document whether e-voting machines were trustworthy (i.e., accurately recorded the voters' intent) and secure (i.e., votes were not altered). To achieve these goals, the author developed an embedded case study and incorporated ethnographic and quantitative techniques. The author observed election officials in two Missouri jurisdictions perform pre-election, Election Day, and post-election tasks. Specifically, the author observed election officials in Cape Girardeau County perform pre-election tasks, such as logic and accuracy (L&A) testing. In the state of Missouri, pre-election L&A testing involved loading the ballot and was considered finished when the e-voting system was ready for voters. The author identified pre-election adversarial strategies and then used a six-step risk analysis process to identify the most important risks. After following the steps, the author identified 11 e-voting components as high-level security risks. Additionally, the author observed election officials in St. Louis County, Missouri conduct the 2010 midterm election and post-election activities, which included the manual tabulation of ballots. Election Day culminated with unofficial outcomes generated from the e-voting systems, while the post-election activities yielded official outcomes. To analyze the accuracy of e-voting systems, the author computed confidence intervals for the differences between unofficial and official 2010 midterm election outcomes from statewide races in St. Louis County. Based on these confidence intervals, the author concluded that the e-voting systems used in the state of Missouri were between 99.768% and 99.774% accurate.

Abstract According to the Company Act, to convene a regular shareholder¡¦s meeting, a majority of the shareholders who represent more than 50% of the total number of the company¡¦s outstanding shares shall be present. It is also regulated that a shareholder may stipulate the scope of authority in the proxy issued by the company and appoint a proxy to attend the shareholder¡¦s meeting on his behalf. Due to the dispersion trend of ownership structure of domestic listed companies, where some mid/large-size companies with long histories have, in average, less than 20% of shareholding of board of directors, it seems reasonable for companies to rely on proxy solicitation in order to convene a shareholder¡¦s meeting, have all proposals resolved, and elect board members. The operation of a business entity and its corporate governance are closely tied to the effectiveness of its top management. However, domestic listed companies in general are unable to separate the ownership and management, and therefore those who obtain the management become the management team of a company. As a result of relatively low shareholding held by major shareholders of domestic listed companies, lower cost of proxy solicitation than buying shares from the market, and less care about proxy rights from individual investors, major shareholders in listed companies intend to win more seats in the board via proxy solicitation in order to obtain management. For the above reasons, proxy solicitation becomes an important tool in determing management of listed companies, their operation and corporate governance. Proxy makes it possible to obtain the management of a corporate with relatively low shareholdings, resulting in asymmetry in cost and management obtained, and this might pose risks on company¡¦s corporate governance. However, on the other hand, proxy assists convening a shareholder¡¦s meeting, and therefore become an indispensable tool in defending the management of a corporate with honesty and integrity. With all the advantages and disadvantages, proxy is of great importance for individual corporate and overall operation of economy. The research conducts a case study on C Company with references on other listed companies to explore the impacts of proxy on management and operation of a company and its corporate governance. Pros and cons for proxy solicitation are summarized while solutions are proposed. The result of the research shows that listed companies demonstrate deep reliance on proxy. Whether or not a listed company conducts business with honesty and good faith, its major shareholder is likely to exploit the advantages to obtain unsymmetrical positions in the board in contrasts with its low shareholding. However, the performance of corporate governance afterward depends on the integrity and conscience of the management team, and actually has no direct link to proxy solicitation. Also, with the ¡§winning betting¡¨ nature to achieve management leverage, proxy solicitation could be a possible factor for corporate mis-governance. To avoid the unfairness caused by proxy solicitation and enhance corporate governance, competent authorities must consider revising the Company Act and related laws instead of revising regulations governing proxy solicitation alone. Suggestions in this research include the following: (1) To abrogate rules in the Company Act providing that ¡§to convene a regular shareholder¡¦s meeting, a majority of the shareholders who represent more than 50% of the total number of the company¡¦s outstanding shares shall be present¡¨. (2) The number of shares present via proxy solicitation, voting right and election right shall be discounted. (3) To promote electronic voting, split of voting rights of institutional shareholders, and adoption of nomination system for the director election. (4) To change the election method of independent directors, where the new method elects the independent director based on the number of voting individual shareholders, rather than the cumulative voting shares. The suggestions are proposed to provide a reference for competent authorities. Key words: proxy, corporate governance, board election, management, electronic voting, board election nomination system

Direct Recording Electronic Voting Systems (DRE) are some of the most popular forms of electronic voting and yet they are riddled with problems. Current voting systems are poorly designed and migration to newer software can be costly. Inadequate software solutions in voting systems have led to security flaws, bad tabulation, and partisan software design. As government proceeds into an increasingly sophisticated era of voting technology, it needs to consider a better platform. This thesis explores the government procurement strategy associated with modern Direct Recording Electronic Voting Systems. The thesis argues that governments should adopt an open source solution (OSS) for future IT acquisition of voting systems. Adopting an open source solution not only provides practical advantages such as better software design, cheaper implementation, and avoidance of vendor lock-in, but also proposes that OSS provides a strong foundation for future IT policy. Open source’s strength in transparency provides a key factor in voting system design. The thesis recommends that governments adopt a four part strategy for future OSS adoption with voting system. 1) Approve an independent, pro-OSS certification organization that works closely with the U.S Election Assistance Commission, National Institute of Standards and Technology, and other system organizations to create the optimal voting systems guidelines. 2) Update FAR requirements to greater accommodate open source procurement policy. 3) Assist local and state jurisdictions to acquire OSS for DRE machines. 4) Promote open source business strategy by hiring vendors for system integration and analysis This thesis contends that these four policies will improve the electronic voting experience and allow for better future innovation and adoption IT strategies.

Univ., Diss.--Münster, 2003.

Voting enables certain formal decisions to be made through the participation of a given population; and it is the vital part of a democratic process. The method of voting used in South Africa (SA) today is derived from the Australian ballot system. This paper-based voting system, however, is slow, convoluted and inaccurate because of human errors; it is costly and largely inefficient. In the early 1900s, election officials overwhelmingly decided to use electronic voting (E-voting) systems to solve some of the problematic issues of paper-based voting systems. Mobile voting (M-voting) is a subset of E-voting; and it allows citizens to use their mobile phones to cast their votes. Very few countries have endeavoured to implement M-voting, in order to improve mobility and simplify the election procedures. Despite several M-voting initiatives reported worldwide; insufficient attention has been devoted to understanding the factors that influence the success or failure of M-voting implementation. It is also important to note that the implementation of M-voting may be very difficult; if the different modalities that aid successful M-voting implementation are not in place. This study seeks to develop a framework that has the potential to enable the successful implementation of M-voting in SA. The proposed framework is an IT artefact that endeavors to improve human experiences for voting. This study followed a Design-Science approach; and it made use of a case study to collect the data via a literature review, observations, questionnaires, focus groups and expert reviews. The study revealed that there is no institutional, legal and regulatory framework for the proliferation of M-voting in SA. Successful M-voting implementation depends on a compendium of factors, which may be unique in the local context where it is implemented. The framework that resulted from the above was assessed for validity and applicability; after which a modified framework was presented. The research concludes with specific implementation guidelines, as well as areas for future research.

The Master's Thesis deals with a potential impact of an introduction of the electronic voting on voter turnout of university students. First section focuses on theoretical foundation and academic debate of this subject. Additionally the current level of implementation of the electronic voting in the Czech Republic, Estonia and worldwide is explored. The hypothesis is formulated as a question whether the introduction of the electronic voting could potentially influence voter turnout of university students. The study is based on a questionnaire survey.

The main subject of this work is the assessment of electronic voting systems with regard to their required and achieved properties. The goal of this project is designing an electronic voting protocol that satisfies the requirements for privacy protection while also being scalable and fault-tolerant. Existing protocols are examined and compared according to their properties. The design proposed in this work uses smart contracts on blockchain and combines the approaches from the examined solutions. Scalability is achieved by dividing the process of voting between several smart contracts. Each of these contracts carries out the voting in small scale with only a subset of voters and the partial results are then aggregated. The problem of finding a suitable platform for implementation of the proposed protocol is also addressed in this work.

abstract: Many researchers have seen the value blockchain can add to the field of voting and many protocols have been proposed to allow voting to be conducted in a way that takes advantage of blockchains distributed and immutable structure. While blockchains immutable structure can take the place of paper records in preventing tampering it by itself is insufficient to construct a trustworthy voting system with eligibility, privacy, verifiability, and fairness requirements. Many of the protocols which strive to keep voters votes confidential, but also allow for verifiability and eligibility requirements rely on either a blind signature provided by a central authority to provide compliance with these requirements or ring signatures to prove membership in the set of voters. A blind signature issued by a central authority introduces a potential vulnerability as it allows a corrupt central authority to pass a large number of forged ballots into the mix without any detection. Ring signatures on the other hand tend to be overly resource intensive to allow for practical usage in large voting sets. The research in this thesis focuses on improving the trustworthiness of electronic voting systems by providing possible ways of avoiding or detecting corrupt central authorities while still relying upon the benefits of efficiency the blind signature provides. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Computer Science 2020

A Research Report submitted at the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment for the degree of Master Arts in International Relations Johannesburg, 2019 / Existing frameworks that seek to respond to the challenge of preventing and managing electoral violence often omit technology as a relevant factor. Yet there is resounding proof that technology has wielded a sizeable amount of influence in shaping voter behaviour and perceptions, mobilising support, lobbying and ultimately influencing electoral outcomes. The utilisation of technology is evidenced by many examples; such as the use of biometrics to register and identify voters, the establishment of situation rooms and drones that collect data in real time, campaigns messages that are sent via text messages, video footage, radio, internet and bots that are used to collect and transmit information. The main problem that this study seeks to interrogate is the bi-directional outcomes generated by the use of ICTs in elections. There are cases where ICTs have been deployed to ferment violence, whilst ICTs have also proven to be useful in preventing electoral violence. Therefore, there is a need for research that assesses how ICTs can be better harnessed as a tool for the prevention and reduction of electoral violence in Africa. Notably, by exploring the use of ICTs by actors in Kenya’s 2007, 2013 and 2017 elections, the study posits that collaboration and responsible use are key in the prevention of electoral violence. Moreover, the study highlights that the use of new ICTs in elections is important in the growing discourse about defining the parameters of electoral integrity. / NG (2020)