Comparative Analysis of Students’ Perception of E-Voting and Paper Ballot Voting Systems During SUG Elections in Federal University Otuoke, Bayelsa State, Nigeria

Abstract

This paper examines students’ perception of Students’ Union Government elections at the Federal University Otuoke, drawing comparisons between paper ballot voting and electronic voting (e-voting) systems. Two research questions guided the study and one null hypothesis was tested at 0.05 level of significance. Descriptive survey research design was employed for the study. The population for this study comprised of all 7,907 students across the five faculties of the University. A total of 893 (11.3%) students were sampled using the stratified random sampling technique. The instruments for data collection was a questionnaire titled, “Students Percentage Preference of e-voting over Paper Balloting System (SPPEPBS).” A total of 893 questionnaires were administered to students across the five (5) faculties (Education, Engineering, Humanities, Management Science, and Science) of the institution. Of the 893 administered questionnaires, there was 1 representing 0.1% non-return, 11 representing 1.2%, were undecided while, 881 representing 98.7% returned and statistically analyzed. Frequency counts and simple percentage were used to analyze data related to research question 1 and 2 while Chi-square and t-Test statistics were used to test the null hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. Results showed that 121 students representing 13.7% of the returned and analyzed questionnaires favoured Paper Ballot voting system over e-voting system, while 760 students representing 86.3% favoured e-voting system over Paper Ballot voting system. Results also showed that the number of students who favoured e-voting was statistically and significantly higher than those who favoured Paper Ballot voting system at the 95% significance level (? = 0.05). The study concluded that students of Federal University Otuoke (FUO) preferred e-voting to paper balloting system during SUG elections adding that e-voting is transparent, the electoral process is easy to manage, it is cost eff

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