| Column | Type | Description | |--------------|--------------|-------------| | id | INT (PK, AI) | Candidate ID | | election_id | INT (FK) | References elections(id) | | fullname | VARCHAR(100) | Candidate name | | party_affiliation | VARCHAR(100) | Optional | | symbol_url | VARCHAR(255) | Path to image (portable) | | votes_count | INT DEFAULT 0 | Denormalized for speed |
A portable online voting system requires a well-normalized database. Below is the core structure: Conclusion
This project is designed with two primary user roles: and Voter . // Mark voter as voted mysqli_query($conn
if($voter['has_voted'] == 0) // Update candidate votes mysqli_query($conn, "UPDATE candidates SET votes = votes + 1 WHERE id=$candidate_id"); // Mark voter as voted mysqli_query($conn, "UPDATE voters SET has_voted=1 WHERE voter_id='$voter_id'"); "UPDATE voters SET has_voted=1 WHERE voter_id='$voter_id'")
From a security standpoint, the project must implement (using password_hash() in PHP) and Prepared Statements to protect against SQL Injection—the most common vulnerability in PHP-based systems. Conclusion