The residents of Surabaya, especially those in RT 04 RW 10, Medokan Ayu Subdistrict, Rungkut Surabaya District, have used the ease of access to technology to determine the head of the RT (Rukun Tetangga). A total of 120 local residents voted for the Head of the RT with the Electronic Voting (E-Voting) system on Wednesday night, October 23, 2019.

This system is claimed to be a contemporary innovation for Surabaya residents in educating people to be democratic. So far, elections that appear to be manual with ballots can be replaced with a system that is relatively sophisticated, effective, safe, and easily accessible with Android or gagdet.

Hariadi Yutanto, S.Kom., M.Kom., As the developer of the E-Voting system as well as a resident of RT 04 RW 10, admits that this method makes it easier for residents to voice their aspirations in choosing the Head of the RT. In practice, voters are determined based on the number of residential blocks. "Actually, there are 139 house blocks, but only 120 residents, the DPT (Permanent Voters List) is determined according to the house blocks that are occupied," he explained.

He continued, before the election was held, every voter was given guidance on the procedure for E-Voting. To do this, every local resident is asked to access the website page http://siwarga.gpaykp.info. Then, residents can log in with the house block number username and password that was shared prior to the selection process.

After that, residents can choose one of the previously determined candidates for the Head of the RT. "The results are real-time and immediately seen by residents when the election takes place," he explained.

It should be noted, this program is a form of Community Service Activities by a number of STIE Perbanas Surabaya lecturers, namely: Hariadi Yutanto, Romi Ilham, and Rohmad Fuad Armansyah, as well as STIE Perbanas Surabaya ICT Team, Yusuf Efendi. One of the programs is implementing the E-Voting system for RT 04 RW 10 in the Griya Pesona Asri YKP Housing area. In addition, Hariadi Yutanto and his team continue to develop an online payment system and online administration system, as well as a column for citizen aspirations, both criticism and suggestions for the advancement of the local RT environment. Later, everything will be integrated in one website page at http://siwarga.gpaykp.info.

One of the voters, Ratih Yustiani, admitted that this electoral system is faster and more practical. According to him, with a cellphone or Android as capital, each resident can determine his choice of the RT Head. "So this system is very helpful in the process of selecting the Head of the RT," he said after choosing via Mobile.

Taking place at the local RT yard, the election process began at 19.30 WIB until closed at 21.00 WIB. Finally, the chairman of RT 04 RW 10 for the period 2019-2022 was again held by Syaifudin Zuhri with 68 votes, while his rivals were only 16 votes. Judging from the enthusiasm of the residents, there were more RT elections than before. Evidently, 69.58% of the 120 DPT were willing to come to exercise their voting rights. (eco / public relations)