FHS ASB Vote 2010

This year Foothill's ASB decided to use my program again for the election for next year's ASB members. I started developing the program 2-3 years ago after I voted on Garret Buell's voting program which he allegedly developed in about a day. It used radio buttons on a web page, displayed in portable edition of Mozilla Firefox, for students to select the candidate they wanted to vote for. If you didn't want for vote for anyone, you could not select anyone and just hit 'next'. When I accidentally chose a candidate and I didn't want to vote for anyone, I was unable to deselect him. This flaw enraged me. Also, votes had to be manually collected from each computer which allowed for error. There also existed security vulnerabilities whose details shall remain undisclosed.

I wished to make an improved version with better graphics, security and functionality. It took me at least 40 hours to develop FHS ASB Vote 2009. I simply renamed it to 2010 for this year. Students came to Lab 401 (computer lab) during their English classes to vote on my program. First they lined up outside and were told that they could only vote if they had their ID card and were given directions. Two people had role sheets and checked off students as they went in. Inside they picked up a paper ballot and were assigned to a computer. (All the computers were numbered.) Students voted on the computer, and when they got to the confirmation page they were told to copy their answers onto the paper ballot. Then they walk out the back door and turn in their paper ballot.

There was much inefficiency in the process. First, taking role outside was unnecessary - my program ensures that nobody votes twice. Students must use their last name and ID number to log in. Also, after students voted on the computer, they often skipped past the screen that told them who they voted for and directed them to transfer their votes onto the computer. They hit 'submit', then looked down at their paper ballot and realized they didn't remember who they voted for. Moreover, the pencils provided around the room for people to fill out paper ballots were getting stolen and lost. Additionally, the process required someone in the back of the room to collect paper ballots. And not to mention the onerous chore of counting all the votes on the paper ballots.

Why do we need paper ballots? It is written in Foothill High's Constitution that voting must be done on PAPER ballots. This confirms the votes on the computer. While my program is 100% accurate and does not miscount votes, there were discrepancies about how votes were counted on the computers in the past. I do not know any more details than that. The only way we'll be able to forgo paper ballots would be for there to be an amendment to the Foothill constitution. I don't know anything about the amendment process, but it needs to happen!

So on Wednesday and Thursday this week I was excused from all my classes and spent the day in the computer lab. I had to come to school at 6:30 to set up and Mrs. Boudreaux radioed for a janitor to unlock the lab for me. It was weird being at school when it was still dark and not having to worry about cars when crossing over Newport on my bike. Biking warms me up so I'm never cold in the morning at school.

I was unfortunately not allowed to have my name or my company name written anywhere on the program. I was quite disappointed to hear this. The reason I made the program wasn't really for the money and I was actually surprised to hear I was getting paid this year. The two biggest reasons I made it were that I wanted to use my computer skills to make the voting process more efficient (I am a teenager and I want change for the better!!) and the other is that I want to be famous! How cool is it that all the freshmen, juniors and seniors are coming to vote on my program? But our principal is trying to 'protect' me from people creating rumors that I rigged the election. (Like that would ever happen.) Everyone in ASB was gushing about me anyways and saying how robust my program was and everyone I care about figured it out that I created it so I'm happy. Yeah I know I shouldn't care but I fail at modesty when it comes to computers.

FHS ASB Vote 2009 (and 2010...same thing) consists of 4 different programs. It is pretty complex but designed with a flexible architecture and is quite scalable. That's why it took so long to create it, anyways. Many people have suggested that I sell it. This year, unlike last year, I will supposedly be getting paid. I do not know how much, but the administration is going to see how much it can give me :). There are plenty of other schools that would potentially want to buy my program if I customized it for them (currently the name is "FHS ASB Vote" and all the colors are Foothill colors). I would also want to rewrite the program in C#.net instead of VB.net, and create an installer for easy deployment of the program. This would not be easy.