Election Management System

Overview

This project is a simple election management system designed for use in a school or college environment. It allows students to vote for candidates and provides administrators with tools to manage the election process.

Features

• Student Panel: Allows students to cast their votes for candidates.
• Admin Panel: Enables administrators to:
  • Start a new election.
  • Continue a previous election.
  • Delete illegal votes.
  • Ban specific user IDs.
  • View election results.

Structure

The project consists of three main files:

1. main.c: The entry point of the program.
2. election.h: The header file containing structure definitions, global variables, and function prototypes.
3. election.c: The implementation of all functions declared in election.h.

How to Use

1. Compile the Program:

   gcc main.c election.c -o election

2. Run the Program:

   ./election

3. Follow the Menu:

   • Student Panel: Enter user ID and cast your vote.
   • Admin Panel: Authenticate as admin and manage the election.

Functions

Main Functions

• main(): Displays the main menu and directs to the student or admin panel based on user input.

Utility Functions

• extractYear(char userID[15]): Extracts the year from the user ID.
• extractRollNo(char userID[15]): Extracts the roll number from the user ID.
• checkBranchCode(char userID[15]): Checks if the branch code in the user ID matches the current valid branch.

Admin Functions

• authenticateAdmin(): Authenticates the admin using a username and password.
• banID(): Bans user IDs and stores them in Banned.txt.
• createCandidateFiles(): Creates files for each candidate to store their votes and names.
• deleteIllegalVote(char userID[15]): Deletes an illegal vote.
• getWinner(): Determines the winner of the election.
• initiateNewElection(): Initiates a new election.
• saveElectionInfoInFile(): Saves the current election information to ElectionInfo.txt.
• loadElectionInfoFromFile(): Loads election information from ElectionInfo.txt.

Vote Management Functions

• isValid(char userID[15]): Checks if a user ID is valid for the current election.
• isVoted(char userID[15]): Checks if a user ID has already voted.
• isBanned(char userID[15]): Checks if a user ID is banned.
• saveVote(char userID[15], char voteInput): Saves a vote to the appropriate candidate's file.

Panel Functions

• adminPanel(): Handles admin actions such as starting a new election, continuing a previous election, deleting illegal votes, banning user IDs, and viewing results.
• studentPanel(): Handles the student voting process, including checking user ID validity, displaying candidates, and saving votes.

Files

• main.c: Contains the main function and the program loop.
• election.h: Header file with structure definitions, global variables, and function prototypes.
• election.c: Implementation of all the functions declared in election.h.
• ElectionInfo.txt: Stores the current election information.
• Banned.txt: Stores the banned user IDs.
• candidateX.txt: Stores the vote count and name for each candidate, where X is the candidate ID.

Notes

• Ensure that ElectionInfo.txt and Banned.txt are present in the working directory when running the program to avoid errors.
• The admin username is Admin and the password is admiN.

License

This project is open-source and free to use under the MIT License.