Link to SRS: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gYbN96vcs3UZMZKSuCpEqW2v-FJG7cg30J7fT9gVnac
Use Case diagram for the E-Voting system: 
Brief Description: Secure Authentication is a use case where a voter can authenticate using a government-provided identity verification service. Multifactor authentication supports the security of the authentication mechanism by imposing a second layer authentication to authorize actions, such as an OTP (one-time password).
Brief Description: Ballot Casting Interface is a use case where a voter can see the candidates who take part in the elections, vote for them, and verify that their vote is included on the ledger.
Brief Description: Real-time Voting Status is a use case where a voter can see their vote in a particular election, how is it being validated, is it finalized, is it rejected, etc.
Brief Description: Voter History is a use case where a voter can view their past voting results.
NOTE: We will use the abbreviation EO to mean Election Official.
Brief Description: Election Setup is a use case where an EO can schedule voting periods, setup candidate profiles for the elections, and initialize (start) elections.
Brief Description: Voter Roll Management is a use case where an EO can manage voters in an ongoing election. This includes blacklisting, viewing voter lists, and other functionality.
Brief Description: Real-time Monitoring is a use case where an EO can see metrics for the ongoing elections, including the turnout, total votes gathered, and other business-defined valuable metrics. Real-time Monitoring includes generating reports from the gathered metrics and monitoring the voting process as a whole.
Brief Description: Election Result Compilation is a use case where an EO can view the calculated voting results, the winning candidate, announce election outcomes to all voters, and verify voting results to check for fraud, platform manipulation, and implement other election control mechanisms.
NOTE: We will use the abbreviation SA to mean System Administrator.
Brief Description: System Maintenance is a use case where an SA can perform runtime upgrades of the blockchain, configure logging/tracing/metrics reporting, update the software in case of identification of bugs, define backup policies, and perform health checks using the management dashboard.
Brief Description: Security Protocols is a use case where an SA can configure security protocols, such as configuring time limit & skew for time-based OTPs (TOTPs), configuring rate limiting to prevent DoS attacks, and impose other security restrictions on the system.
Brief Description: User Management is a use case where an SA can manage user profiles, defining RBAC for the Voter & EO roles, as well as permissions for the roles themselves.
Brief Description: Audit Trails is a use case where an SA can view detailed system logs and traces, collect valuable system metrics from the gathered data, and prevent security threats based on the collected information.
Election Process Initiation
Brief Description: The process begins with the initiation phase, where the foundational aspects of the election are confirmed. This involves validating the election schedule against established criteria to ensure compliance with legal and procedural requirements. If validated successfully, the process proceeds to establish the election framework, which includes setting protocols and finalizing the election schedule.
Voter List Preparation
Brief Description: Following the establishment of the election framework, system administrators undertake the task of preparing the voter list. This crucial phase involves compiling and verifying the list of eligible voters, ensuring the integrity of the election by allowing only authorized individuals to participate. This phase concludes with a scheduled waiting period, symbolized by an intermediate timer event, leading up to the start of the voting process.
Voting Process Execution
Brief Description: This central part of the E-Voting system is where eligible voters engage in the electoral process. Upon the commencement of the voting period, voters authenticate themselves within the system, browse candidate profiles, make their selections, and cast their votes. The system securely records these votes and, at the end of the voting period, enables voters to review their ballots and the overall voting results.
Concurrent System Monitoring and Auditing
Brief Description: In parallel with the voting process, system administrators carry out continuous monitoring and conduct comprehensive audits to ensure the security and proper functioning of the E-Voting system. These activities are crucial for safeguarding the process against any irregularities or security breaches, thereby upholding the reliability and trustworthiness of the election.
Post-Voting Analysis and Reporting
Brief Description: After voting concludes, the system administrators tally the votes and calculate the candidate ratings. The election's outcome is then subject to an audit, which serves as a decision point for the election's validity. If the audit is passed, the process moves into the analysis and reporting phase, where detailed insights into the election results are generated, concluding with the formal completion of the election process. In the event of an audit failure, the process transitions to a state of failure, indicating the need for further investigation or remedial action.
Describes the process of voting with appropriate Inputs, Controls, Outputs, and Mechanisms.
Brief Description: This stage is where the framework and schedule for upcoming elections are established, guided by legal and procedural protocols, and managed by election officials. It culminates in the designation of a fixed period during which the actual voting will take place.
Brief Description: In this phase, the system prepares for the voting period by securing and verifying the list of government-approved voters, ensuring that only eligible individuals participate. This involves system administrators setting up and validating the timeframe for the election, with secure authentication measures in place for voter access.
Brief Description: The core of the E-Voting system is the voting process itself, where voters log in to the system, view candidates, cast their votes, and then, after the voting period concludes, review the results and their own voting history. The system administers the tallying of votes, calculates candidate ratings, and generates a detailed analysis of the voting outcomes.
Brief Description: To maintain the integrity of the e-voting process, system administrators and election officials actively monitor the system's activity, backed by stringent security protocols. This ensures transparency and accuracy through regular audits, reinforcing trust in the electronic democracy system.
Describes the data flows between the Elections Blockchain & the Government DB, the entities involved
and the processes.
Brief Description: This process taps into the Government System database to authenticate and enroll voters, ensuring that the electoral database reflects accurate and officially verified voter information.
Brief Description: Voter authentication is a critical step that uses the Government System database to verify the identities of individuals before granting access to the voting platform, upholding the election's security and integrity.
Brief Description: In this preparatory phase, authenticated voters receive a public address generated from their government-verified identities, linking them to the centralized DLT while maintaining their anonymity for the voting process.
Brief Description: The voting process records each transaction on the centralized Election Blockchain (DLT), ensuring that every vote is securely logged and that the integrity of the vote is maintained within the controlled ledger environment.
Brief Description: Election officials utilize the centralized Election Blockchain (DLT) to securely record candidate information, establishing a transparent and secure database of candidates that is resistant to unauthorized alterations.
In this data flow diagram, the distinction between the Government System database and the centralized Election Blockchain (DLT) highlights the dual approach to security and integrity within the E-Voting system. The Government System database provides a reliable source for voter verification, while the centralized Election Blockchain (DLT) ensures that the voting process and candidate information are securely and accurately recorded, benefiting from the distributed ledger's attributes while being managed in a centralized manner for added control and oversight.
Describes user classes & type definitions.
Brief Description: The Role class is a critical component of the E-Voting system's architecture, defining the specific functions and permissions assigned to various users within the system. With attributes like name and a list of permissions, this class serves as a foundation for role-based access control, ensuring that users can only perform actions that are within their allowed capabilities, such as managing roles, scheduling voting, or managing candidate information.
Brief DescriptionL: The abstract User class forms the core identity of all system participants, encapsulating essential attributes like name, address, publicKey, and roleName. This class enforces a secure and consistent identification mechanism, which is the backbone for authentication and authorization processes in the system.
Brief Description: Derived from the User class, the ExternalUser is also abstract and introduces an identity token, which implies a secondary level of authentication, for users interfacing with the system from external points: Voters and Election Officials. System Administrators do not need an identity token since they are not a direct participant in the election process.
Brief Description: The SystemAdministrator class is central to the management and maintenance of the E-Voting system. It does not inherit from the ExternalUser since system administrators are not participants in the election process and do not require an identity token for system interactions. Their methods focus on the high-level oversight of the system, including granting roles, setting permissions, and managing the system infrastructure. This class ensures that administrators have the necessary tools to manage the system effectively, maintain its integrity, and enforce the security protocols.
Brief Description: The Voter class encapsulates the functionalities available to voters, such as casting votes (vote) and viewing the votes they have cast (viewCurrentVote).
Brief Description: This class reflects the responsibilities of election officials, with methods for adding candidates (addCandidate), scheduling the voting (scheduleVoting), and retrieving election data.
Brief Description: Representing the results of voting transactions, the VoteResult class contains attributes to detail the election (electionId), the candidate (candidateId), and whether the results are finalized (finalized). This class is crucial, providing a clear and immutable record of each vote's outcome.
Describes sample user voting flow.
The process is triggered when a user, whose credentials have been verified, starts the voting procedure.
The system displays the candidates, enabling the user to review their options before casting a vote.
At this juncture, the system determines whether the user has already voted. If the user has not cast a vote, the process advances to the voting action.
The user selects a candidate and submits their vote. This action is formalized as a blockchain transaction, recording the vote securely on the blockchain.
Following the vote submission, the system concurrently:
Secures the vote on the blockchain, guaranteeing the permanence and integrity of the vote.
Gathers analytics data, which could serve various purposes such as assessing voter engagement or system performance.
Dispatches in-app notifications to provide immediate feedback to the user about their voting action.
The system logs the voting results and conveys the user's vote and its current status back to the user, ensuring the user is informed of the successful submission and the ongoing state of the election.
The process reaches its endpoint once all activities have been executed, marking the completion of the user's voting experience.
Describes the whole election setup, voting, and result & audit compilation flow.
- The Government provides the election schedule to the Election Official.
- The Election Official then coordinates with the System Admin to set up the voting period.
- The System Admin configures the system by setting up logging, reporting services, and audit rules.
- The Voter, upon passing authentication, requests the candidate list, selects a candidate, and submits their vote.
- The System monitors the voting process, while the Blockchain component records the vote.
- An Audit may be conducted simultaneously, with the Reports component generating relevant summaries.
- After the voting period concludes, the System calculates the voting results.
- The Voter can request past and current vote information.
- The Government requests election reports and audit summaries to review the election's integrity.
The sequence ends with the production of an election report and an audit summary that is provided to the Election Official and Government, ensuring transparency and accountability in the election process.
Describes the state of the system with the full flow of elections process.
The state chart begins with the elections in an uninitialized state, indicating that no configurations or scheduling have been set up.
Transitioning from uninitialized, the system enters a setup phase where the election timeline is established and essential services are configured to facilitate the election.
The system achieves a state where the election dates are known and have been defined within the E-Voting blockchain, ensuring a transparent and immutable schedule.
Concurrently, the system ensures that the infrastructure for monitoring the election and reporting data is active and ready to function throughout the election process.
This state is the culmination of having both the election period and monitoring systems set up, indicating full preparedness for the election.
In this state, the E-Voting system is now ready to accept voters, and the elections can officially start.
The election process has begun, marking the start of the voting period where voters can submit their ballots.
With the elections underway, this state reflects the active participation of voters and the ongoing collection of votes.
The final state is achieved when the election process concludes, determined either by the collection of a sufficient number of votes or by the end of the voting period.
Describes provided & required interfaces of the blockchain components with an inner component.
The blockchain component houses three ports, with two of them providing interfaces, and one of them requiring an interface. The component requires a Genesis interface, which is an interface that can read an "initial state" JSON file and transform it into the starting state of the blockchain storage. It is used to later provide initial permissions.
The two provided interfaces are the Voting interface and the Permission Management interface. They allow users of the component to start/end elections, vote, view current voting status, as well as manage permissions of the users in the E-Voting System.
The State Orchestrator component requires the Genesis outer interface, and transforms it into a meaningful initial state with permissions defined for a limited set of users, providing the Initial Permissions interface to the Permissions Module component
The Permissions Module component requires the Initial Permissions interface from the State Orchestrator, and allows users (specifically, System Administrators) to manage users' permissions. It also provides a View Permissions interface to the Voting Module, which users RBAC to decide on the validity of its received transactions.
The Voting Module component requires the View Permissions interface to decide on the validity of its received transactions. By checking permissions, the Voting Module is able to provide and interface of Voting and Elections Management.
Describes the system from the business level, the application level, and the technology level.
Election Management System Integration
Brief Description: This component serves as the central hub for integrating various election-related modules. It oversees the orchestration of voter profiles, election data, and vote records, ensuring cohesive operation between the voting application component and the authentication service component. It acts as the backbone that enables a seamless interface for both voters and administrators.
Voting Application and Authentication Components
Brief Description: The voting application component is where voters interact with the system to cast their votes. It integrates closely with the authentication service component, which verifies voter identities to prevent unauthorized access and ensures the legitimacy of each vote. This system is crucial for maintaining the security and integrity of the e-voting process.
User Role Management and Workflow
Brief Description: Within the system, distinct roles such as Voter, Candidate, Voting Administrator, and System Administrator are defined. Each role has specific workflows: Voters cast votes, Candidates participate in elections, Voting Administrators manage the voting process, and System Administrators oversee the entire electronic system's integrity and functionality.
Election Process Execution
Brief Description: This involves several key stages, including Vote Casting, Election Setup, Result Compilation, and Voter Verification. These stages ensure a structured election process, from setting up election parameters to casting and compiling votes, and finally, verifying voter eligibility and authenticating results.
System Services and Administration
Brief Description: The system provides specialized services such as E-Voting, Voter Registration, and Election Reporting. These are managed by the Voting Administration, User Management, and Security Management modules, respectively, to facilitate a secure and user-friendly e-voting experience.
Infrastructure Foundation
Brief Description: At the foundational level, the system's infrastructure consists of an Application Gateway, which serves as the entry point for all traffic, directing it to the appropriate network nodes and software systems, thus ensuring a streamlined flow of data and maintaining the system's robust architecture.