Functional requirements of Online Voting System for College Elections with non-functional

Functional Requirements

1. User Registration and Authentication:
   • Allow students and election officials to create and manage accounts.
   • Implement secure authentication methods, such as username/password or multi-factor authentication.
2. Voter Eligibility Verification:
   • Verify voter eligibility based on criteria such as student enrollment status, year, and department.
   • Provide mechanisms for voters to confirm and update their eligibility information.
3. Election Setup and Management:
   • Enable election officials to set up and manage elections, including defining positions, candidates, and election dates.
   • Provide tools for configuring voting rules, such as the number of candidates to be elected or ranked voting options.
4. Ballot Creation and Management:
   • Allow election officials to create and manage digital ballots, including listing candidates and positions.
   • Support various voting methods, such as single-choice, multiple-choice, or ranked-choice voting.
5. Voting Process:
   • Provide a user-friendly interface for voters to view ballots, select candidates, and submit their votes.
   • Ensure that voters can review their selections before finalizing their votes.
6. Vote Casting and Submission:
   • Securely capture and submit votes, ensuring that each voter can cast only one vote per position.
   • Implement measures to prevent vote tampering or duplication.
7. Vote Privacy and Confidentiality:
   • Ensure that votes are cast and recorded confidentially, protecting voter anonymity.
   • Implement encryption and secure data storage to protect vote data from unauthorized access.
8. Real-Time Vote Counting and Reporting:
   • Automatically count votes and generate real-time election results.
   • Provide dashboards and reports for election officials to view and analyze results.
9. Election Results Announcement:
   • Publish election results to authorized users, such as election officials and candidates.
   • Provide mechanisms for announcing results to the college community in a transparent manner.
10. Audit and Verification:
    • Support auditing and verification processes to ensure the accuracy and integrity of election results.
    • Provide tools for tracking and reviewing voting activity and system logs.
11. User Support and Help Resources:
    • Offer help resources, including FAQs, user guides, and support contact options.
    • Provide customer support through various channels, such as email, live chat, or phone.
12. Accessibility and Compliance:
    • Ensure the system is accessible to all eligible voters, including those with disabilities.
    • Comply with relevant regulations and standards, such as data protection laws and election regulations.

Non-Functional Requirements

1. Scalability:
   • The system should handle increasing numbers of voters, elections, and data without performance issues.
   • Support for scaling infrastructure to accommodate growth and peak usage periods, such as during election days.
2. Performance:
   • Ensure fast and responsive interactions, with quick ballot loading, vote submission, and result processing.
   • Optimize performance to handle large volumes of concurrent users and votes efficiently.
3. Reliability and Availability:
   • Ensure high availability with minimal downtime, supported by redundancy, load balancing, and failover mechanisms.
   • Implement regular backups and disaster recovery procedures to maintain service continuity.
4. Usability:
   • The user interface should be intuitive and user-friendly, accommodating users with varying levels of technical expertise.
   • Provide a consistent and seamless experience across different devices and platforms.
5. Interoperability:
   • The system should integrate seamlessly with student databases, identity management systems, and other relevant systems.
   • Support standard APIs and data formats for interoperability and data exchange.
6. Maintainability:
   • Ensure the system is easy to maintain, with clear documentation, modular design, and support for regular updates and bug fixes.
   • Implement automated monitoring and logging to identify and address issues promptly.
7. Compliance:
   • Ensure the system complies with relevant regulations and standards, such as data protection laws (e.g., GDPR, CCPA) and electoral regulations.
   • Provide features to support auditing, data retention, and regulatory reporting requirements.
8. Data Integrity and Accuracy:
   • Ensure that all data collected and processed by the system is accurate, consistent, and up-to-date.
   • Implement validation checks and data integrity mechanisms to prevent errors and data corruption.
9. Localization and Internationalization:
   • Support multiple languages and regional settings to cater to a diverse student body.
   • Allow easy adaptation of the system to meet local regulations and cultural practices.
10. Accessibility:
    • Ensure that the system is accessible to users with disabilities, following web accessibility standards (e.g., WCAG).
    • Provide features such as screen reader compatibility, keyboard navigation, and adjustable text sizes.
11. Privacy and Data Ownership:
    • Ensure that users retain ownership of their data and can easily control, access, and delete their information.
    • Provide transparency regarding data usage, sharing, and storage practices, with clear consent mechanisms.