Microcontroller Based EVM-Electronic Voting Machine

Electronic Voting Machine

India is the largest democratic country in the world. Active involvement of the public in the formation of the government is an essential aspect of a democratic government. This is confirmed by an election. Conducting elections in a populated country like India is a difficult task. It’s a test to conduct elections for collection of candidates to signify the people of the country at different levels. Even more important is the timely announcement of results. This is required to bring steadiness in the governance and stable financial growth of the nation. To overcome this problem, An EVM (electronic voting machine) is an answer to all these complications. In the worldwide, several countries have shown their interest in learning the mechanism behind this powerful machine. It’s got a very simple interface, its tamper proof, avoids the fake voting and it has helped in receiving rid of the time consuming duty of counting.

What is an Electronic Voting Machine?

The term EVM or electronic voting machine was designed by the election commission of India in association with two public sector undertakings BEL, Banglore and ECIL, Hyderabad. In the year 1982 these devices were first used in the by-election to the Assembly Constituency of Prarur, Kerala for fifty polling stations. EVM’s make polling much faster and also more reliable than ballot papers, by avoiding bogus voting to a great range. The electronic voting machine saves time, money and manpower. It helps in keeping the secrecy of voting data. At the end of the elections, you can check the result by pressing a button.

EVM-Electronic Voting Machine Project

The Project Electronic Voting System is an interesting project which uses 8051 microcontroller as its brain. The project is designed for Eight contestants. Voters can poll their vote to any one of the contestant. In this project one port is dedicated for push button switches for eight contestants, master switch for polling officer.

The “Electronic Voting Machine” project is built with transformer (230 – 12V AC), voltage regulator (LM 7805), rectifier, filter, microcontroller (at89s52/at89c51), led, push buttons, buzzers, BC547, 1n4007, resistor and capacitor.

Electronic Voting Machine Block Diagram

Power Supply

The 230V AC power supply is the first step down to 12V AC using a step-down transformer. This is then converted to the DC using a bridge rectifier.The AC ripples are filtered out by using a capacitor and given to the input pin of the voltage regulator 7805.At the output pin of this regulator, we get a constant 5V DC which is used for MC and other ICs in this project.

Microcontroller

It is a smaller computer and it has on-chip RAM, ROM, I/O ports Features of AT89S51/52 includes the following.

Microcontroller AT89S51

• Compatible with MCS®-51 Products
• 8K Bytes of In-System Programmable (ISP) Flash Memory
• Endurance: 10,000 Write/Erase Cycles
• 4.0V to 5.5V Operating Range
• Fully Static Operation: 0 Hz to 33 MHz
• 256 x 8-bit Internal RAM
• 32 Programmable I/O Lines
• Three 16-bit Timer/Counters
• Eight Interrupt Sources
• Full Duplex UART Serial Channel
• Interrupt Recovery from Power-down Mode
• Watchdog Timer
• Dual Data Pointer

LEDS

LEDs are semiconductor devices are made out of silicon,When current passes through the LED, it emits photons as a byproduct. Normal light bulbs produce light by heating a metal filament until its white hot. LEDs present many advantages over traditional light sources, including lower energy consumption, longer lifetime, improved robustness, smaller size and faster switching.

LEDs

Piezo Buzzer

This buzzer is a piece type audio signaling device, which has a piece element and a oscillating circuit inside which oscillates the piezo brass base plate, which when given voltage difference produces the sound of a predefined frequency.

Piezo Buzzer

Features

• These high reliability piezo buzzers are applicable to general electronics equipment.
  Compact, pin terminal type Piezo buzzer with 4 KHz output.
• Pin type terminal construction enables direct mounting onto printed circuit boards.

BC547 Transistor

The BC547 transistor is an NPN Epitaxial Silicon Transistor. The BC547 transistor is a general-purpose transistor in small plastic packages. It is used in general-purpose switching and amplification BC847/BC547 series 45 V, 100 mA NPN general-purpose transistors. Whenever base is high, then current starts flowing through the base and emitter and after that only current will pass from collector to emitter.

BC547 Transistor

Software Requirements

Keil an ARM Company makes C compilers, macro assemblers, real-time kernels, debuggers, simulators, integrated environments, evaluation boards, and emulators for ARM7/ARM9/Cortex-M3, XC16x/C16x/ST10, 251, and 8051 MCU families.

Compilers are programs used to convert a High Level Language to object code. Desktop compilers produce an output object code for the underlying microprocessor, but not for other microprocessors. i.e., the programs written in one of the HLL like ‘C’ will compile the code to run on the system for a particular processor like x86 (underlying microprocessor in the computer). For example, compilers for DOS platform is different from the Compilers for Unix platform So if one wants to define a compiler then compiler is a program that translates source code into object code.

EEPROM Memory

EEPROM memory is used to store the voting sum. The advantage of this memory is that it stores data in memory even after power is turned off. The interfacing of the I2C bus protocol is used for communication with EEPROM.

EEPROM Memory

Working of Electronic Voting Machine

This is an interesting project designed with a 8051 microcontroller which works as a brain. This project is designed for 8-contestants. Electorates can poll their vote to any one of the competitors. In this proposed system, one port is devoted to 8-push button switches for 8-contestants, and a master switch for voting officer.

The simple programming of this project can be written in assembly language, and it is dumped into the microcontroller to accept votes and, to keep calculating the total votes polled. A Polling-officer switch is provided to avoid numerous polling by only voter. Every voter gets support from the voting officer. If the officer issues sanction with his control switch, then only the elector can poll his vote.

Electronic Voting Machine Project Kit

This polling of approval is specified by a long buzzing sound. The elector count is stored in EEPROM. An LCD display is offered to display the total votes count polled, and separate contestant -vise votes polled.

A Remove button is also offered in order to make sure the insides of the EEPROM is zeroed before the polling process starts. A beeper is offered for audio effect of the switch bounce. When a switch is bounced, the system recognizes the bounce by a small beep sound. If an elector tries to vote several times a lengthy beep sound is produced.

The project can be enhanced by adding a GSM or WIFI module which facilities the voting operation by sending a simple SMS over the network or access through a Web page over the internet network.

Advantages and Applications

The advantages and application of electronic voting machine include the following.

• It is inexpensive
• It requires less manpower
• Time conscious, as less time necessary for polling and counting
• Avoids illegal voting
• Saves the cost of transportation due to its compact size
• Suitable on the voter’s part.
• This project could be used for the purpose of voting in any necessary place

Thus, this is all about EVM-electronic voting machine and its applications. We hope that you have got a better understanding of this concept. Furthermore, any doubts regarding this concept or to implement electrical projects, please give your feedback by commenting in the comment section below. Here is a question for you, What are the advantages of EVM?