No one in India is talking about eliminating the Indian Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) as these are undoubtedly tamper-proof; none can hack them or influence them using human or artificial intelligence. The current election gave a resounding thumbs-up to the faith 1.4 billion Indian citizens have in India’s EVMs.

Today, Mr Elon Musk has stated that “we should eliminate electronic voting machines”. Maybe he is talking only about the American democratic process and US Electronic Voting Machines, which may be unsafe and could be hacked.

His statement cannot apply to Indian EVMs. As per the last count, nearly 400 crore votes have been cast on EVMs in India, and not a single case of hacking has ever been proven. In fact, this massive sample size of 400 crores is the single largest scientific experiment ever undertaken in the world, with no proof of cheating.

The Election Commission of India says no incident of EVM tampering has ever been found, and Chief Election Commissioner Rajeev Kumar said the EVMs just can’t be hacked. Even the Supreme Court has echoed the same.

An expert on EVMs, computer scientist Prof Rajat Moona, Director of IIT Gandhinagar, told NDTV, “India loves the tamper-proof domestically manufactured EVMs. The 2024 Festival of Democracy, where 642 million Indians voted digitally, shows that the unique EVMs are at the heart of free and fair voting in the world’s largest democracy, and no, they will not be eliminated from India anytime soon. 1.4 billion Indians trust the secure ecosystem that makes the swadeshi EVMs a clear winner.”

The world’s largest democracy started using EVMs in 1982, well before Mr Musk had even become a teenager; he was born in 1971. In this election, 5.5 million EVMs were deployed from the high Himalayas to the Great Nicobar Island, and the stunning results only made the Indian voter realise how reliable and robust the Indian election apparatus is, with the EVMs at the heart of the operation.

Problems due to “hanging chads” and networked EVMs made by the private sector being hacked are all stories that echo and emerge from US elections. None of this happened in the 2024 festival of democracy that India celebrated, choreographed by the very able and independent Election Commission of India.

Here are some of the reasons why Indian EVMs defy the logic Mr Musk propounds.

While pontificating and generalising about EVMs, Mr Musk says the “risk of being hacked by humans or AI, while small, is still too high”. Mr Musk, next time, please do not cancel your visit at the last moment; Indian election officials can easily show you how artificial intelligence and even human hacking of Indian EVMs is an impossibility.

Today, India uses the third generation of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) or the M3 EVM machines. They are tamper-proof, and if tampered with, they go into a ‘Safety Mode’ and become inoperable. Each is a standalone device almost akin to a basic calculator. Even the latest third-generation EVMs-the M3 machines that the ECI is using-are not connected to the internet and cannot connect to Bluetooth or WiFi, making them impenetrable through remote devices, a big bugbear for hackers as today most hacking is done via the internet in connected devices.

“Indian EVMs are different from other EVMs in the world. The M3 EVMs have no connection to any other device, not even mains power supply,” asserts Prof. Dinesh K. Sharma, a specialist in microelectronics and solid-state electronics at the Department of Electrical Engineering at IIT Bombay. “An EVM is a dedicated system designed for voting and not a general-purpose computing device with a loaded program for electronic voting,” Professor Sharma said. “Each EVM is a unique electronic island in itself, and this makes them super secure.”

Prof Moona, a well-known expert in computer science and cybersecurity, smart cards, and cyber-physical security, told NDTV that “No tampering has ever been recorded in Indian EVMs. They are an exceptional and user-friendly technology made by Indians for Indian people to suit the unique needs of Indian democracy.”

Prof Moona adds, “India invented the zero and in 1982, India became the world’s first country to use that ‘zero’ in electronic voting machines since electronics is all about zeroes and ones. In 2024, 642 million votes were cast on tamper-proof third-generation EVMs. So there should be no doubt that India, which is the mother of democracy and today an advanced digitally empowered democracy, was a pioneer in using electronic voting machines and remains the fountainhead of innovation for secure electoral voting.”

Even today, just about 25 countries in the world use digital voting. According to the Election Commission of India, the countries using EVMs are the USA, Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Italy, Switzerland, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Venezuela, Namibia, Nepal, Bhutan, Armenia, and Bangladesh, to name a few.

Globally, there are several types of digital voting. There is fully electronic voting like India has, and then there are some countries only the counting is electronic. There are some countries like Estonia that have started using internet-based remote voting, and some have internet-based voting at designated polling stations. Some use optical scanners, both networked and non-networked machines.

In most countries, electronic voting devices are made by private companies, which are considered less cyber secure compared to the government-owned facilities of India that manufacture the EVMs. The world’s most advanced country, the USA, uses several different forms of electronic voting and has no country-wide standard.

Many foreign experts have often complained that India’s EVMs are antiquated and need to be modernised. Experts at the ECI say sometimes being obsolete gives electronic technology that level of extra security since if one has to hack EVMs, then 5.5 million individual EVMs will have to be hacked, which is a near impossibility, and subsequently, the randomisation provides that additional security.

In addition, India’s elections today are the most secure and advanced since the same departments that helped make India’s atom bombs make the Electronic Voting Machines.

“The beauty of India’s EVMs is that they are under-designed for a 21st-century electronic gadget, and hence this makes them tamper-proof and hacking-resistant,” explains Prof Moona, who assisted the ECI in designing the EVMs.

No one in India is asking for the elimination of EVMs; the mute machines gave a clean and eco-friendly election of the kind the world has never seen before.

Prof Moona says, “The USA can learn the art and science of conducting free, fair, and insurrection-free elections from India!”

(Pallava Bagla is the Science Editor of NDTV)

Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author
 

New Delhi:

Former Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on Sunday that Elon Musk’s take on eliminating electronic voting machines (EVMs) from voting is a “huge sweeping generalisation” which holds no truth, inviting the Tesla CEO to come and learn some lessons in India.

Responding to the tech billionaire’s post on X, which alleged that electronic voting machines should be eliminated as the “risk of being hacked by humans or AI, while small, is still too high,” Mr Chandrasekhar said this is not the case at all.

READ | “We Should Eliminate EVMs”: Elon Musk Flags Risk Of Poll Rigging

“This is a huge sweeping generalisation statement that implies no one can build secure digital hardware. Wrong,” replied the former minister.

This is a huge sweeping generalization statement that implies no one can build secure digital hardware. Wrong. @elonmusk ‘s view may apply to US n other places – where they use regular compute platforms to build Internet connected Voting machines.

But Indian EVMs are custom… https://t.co/GiaCqU1n7O

— Rajeev Chandrasekhar (@RajeevRC_X) June 16, 2024

According to Mr Chandrasekhar, Mr Musk’s view may apply to the US and other places where they use regular computing platforms to build “Internet-connected Voting machines.”

Mr Musk had reacted to Puerto Rico’s primary elections which allegedly experienced voting irregularities.

Mr Chandrasekhar further rejected Mr Musk’s statement, saying that Indian EVMs are custom-designed, secure and isolated from any network or media.

“No connectivity, no bluetooth, wifi, Internet; there is no way in. Factory-programmed controllers that cannot be reprogrammed,” informed the former minister.

“Electronic voting machines can be architected and built right as India has done. We would be happy to run a tutorial, Elon,” Mr Chandrasekhar added.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Hyderabad:

A video titled “Congress MLA breaks voting machine due to fear of an impending defeat” (translated from Malayalam) has gone viral on social media showing several men smashing an EVM (electronic voting machine) inside a polling booth in Andhra Pradesh.

The 32-second clip posted by an X user featured the logo of the mainstream Malayalam news channel Asianet News from May 22, 2024. (Archive)

The post was captioned “Footage of MLA breaking EVM at a polling booth in Andhra Pradesh.”

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the claim is misleading. The video shows YSRCP legislator P Ramakrishna Reddy vandalising an EVM in the Macharla constituency of the Palnadu district in Andhra Pradesh.

A reverse image search of the video’s keyframes has revealed that several mainstream news portals as well as local news channels in Andhra Pradesh have also reported the incident. NDTV covered the incident under the title ‘On Camera, Andhra MLA Flings VVPAT To Ground In Polling Booth,’ where they reported that the Election Commission (ECI) stated that the MLA was captured vandalising EVMs in seven polling centres.

In the CCTV footage, Reddy is seen forcefully entering a polling station, seizing control of the voting device, and throwing it on the ground. A local Telugu news portal reported that the incident occurred on May 13 of this year during the polling for both Assembly and Lok Sabha seats in Andhra Pradesh.

The same video featuring the Asianet’s logo is available on their YouTube channel with the title ‘After the footage went viral, the Election Commission announced an inquiry against the YSRCP MLA’.

While the Election Commission (EC) has instructed the Andhra Pradesh chief electoral officer Mukesh Kumar Meena to pursue criminal action against him, Reddy has reportedly gone into hiding since the video went viral. According to reports from The Indian Express, sources indicate that the MLA has crossed over into Telangana to evade police action.

Hence, the claim that a Congress MLA vandalised a voting machine is false.

(This story was originally published by NewsMeter, and republished by NDTV as part of the Shakti Collective.)

New Delhi:

A viral post on social media has claimed that electronic voting machines (EVMs) were used for the first time in the country in 2009 under the Congress-led government.

Vishvas News in its investigation found this claim to be misleading. EVMs were used in all 543 Lok Sabha seats across the country in 2004 and before that they were used during several assembly elections. In 2001, EVMs were deployed in all seats during the Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry and West Bengal assembly elections. Furthermore, EVMs were introduced in a phased manner during the assembly elections of different states, commencing in 1998 with the elections for 16 assembly seats of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Delhi.

What Is Viral?

Social media user ‘rbsonu_sr’, while sharing the viral post (archive link), wrote, “EVM came in 2009 and was installed by the Congress government, if EVMs were hacked then Congress would have done it first… and BJP would have done it. Never lets you come to power… Understand that EVMs are not hacked..!”

Investigation:

To verify the viral claim made regarding the use of EVMs, we checked the documents available on the Election Commission’s website. In our investigation, we found a copy of the Status Paper on EVM (Edition – 3), which provides step-by-step information about the use of EVM.

According to available information, following a consensus reached in 1998 to conduct elections using EVM, they were used in the elections for 16 assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Delhi.

Later in 1999, EVMs were used on 46 parliamentary seats and during the Haryana Assembly elections, voting was done through EVMs on 45 seats.

In 2001, the assembly elections in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry, and West Bengal were entirely conducted using EVMs and it continued to be used in other subsequent assembly elections as well.

2004 Lok Sabha elections

In the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, EVMs were used for voting on all 543 seats. According to this document released in 2018, “Since 2000, EVMs have been used during voting in a total of 113 state assembly elections and three general elections (2004, 2009 and 2014) in India.”

The 2019 Lok Sabha elections were also conducted entirely through EVMs. Therefore, the claim made in the viral post that the use of EVMs began in 2009 is false.

It is noteworthy that on May 19, 1982, the ECI issued guidelines under Article 324 of the Indian Constitution and used EVMs in 50 polling stations in the 70-Paravur assembly constituency of Kerala. After this, EVMs were also used in 10 by-elections in 1982-83. However, due to the lack of specific law, these elections were challenged in the Supreme Court (Election Petition 01 of 1982 filed by AC Jose) and on March 5, 1984, the Supreme Court ruled that without a specific legal provision, EVMs cannot be used in elections.

Following this, in December 1988, the Parliament amended the law and added Section 61A to the Representation of the People Act 1951, granting permission to the ECI to use EVMs. This amendment came into effect on March 15, 1989. Subsequently, the Supreme Court declared Section 61A constitutionally valid in the case of AIDMK vs Chief Election Commissioner and others (2002 UJ (1) 387).

Details of legal interference and lawsuits regarding EVMs can be seen in the following chart.

Regarding the viral post, Vishvas News contacted the spokesperson of the Central Election Commission, who confirmed that in the 2004 general elections, voting was done through EVMs across all the Lok Sabha seats and EVMs had been used in previous assembly elections as well.

It is noteworthy that in 2018, the Supreme Court dismissed a petition filed in the country demanding elections to be conducted through ballot papers instead of EVMs.

According to the news published in Economic Times on November 22, 2018 , “The Supreme Court rejected the petition to use ballot paper in place of EVMs in the upcoming assembly elections and Lok Sabha elections. The court said that no system is perfect. This PIL was filed in the court by A Subba Rao on behalf of NGO Nyaya Bhoomi. He had said that EVMs can be misused and hence should not be used during elections.”

Following the Supreme Court’s ruling, the 2019 general elections were conducted using EVMs only. Fact check reports of other viral claims related to EVMs can be read here.

The user who shared the viral post has approximately five thousand followers on Instagram. According to the Election Commission’s notification (archive link), four phases of voting have already occurred in the Lok Sabha elections and the fifth phase is scheduled on May 20, which will encompass voting on a total of 49 seats in eight states and union territories.

Conclusion: The claim that EVMs have come into existence since 2009 is false. In 2004, elections were conducted with the help of EVMs in all 543 Lok Sabha seats nationwide and before that they were used in many assembly elections. In 2001, EVMs were used in all seats during the Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry, and West Bengal assembly elections. Furthermore, EVMs were introduced in a phased manner during the assembly elections of different states, beginning in 1998 with elections for 16 assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Delhi. The general elections of 2004, 2009, 2014 and 2019 were also conducted using EVMs and the ongoing 2024 Lok Sabha elections are also being conducted using EVMs.

(This story was originally published by Vishvas News, and republished by NDTV as part of the Shakti Collective)

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:
The Supreme Court today rejected petitions seeking complete verification of votes cast through Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT).

Here are the Supreme Court’s top quotes:

New Delhi:

The Supreme Court will today pronounce its verdict on a batch of petitions seeking directions to tally Voter-Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips with votes cast through Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) during the elections. 

A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta had reserved the judgment on the petitions on April 18 after two days of hearing.

During the hearing, which spanned over nearly two days, the bench had extensively interacted with an official from the Election Commission of India (ECI) to understand the functioning of EVMs.

Senior advocate Maninder Singh, appearing for the poll panel, had told the court that EVMs are standalone machines and cannot be tampered with, but the possibility of human error cannot be ruled out.

Underscoring that the electoral process has to have sanctity, Justice Datta told Mr Singh, “You have to allay the apprehensions, both in the court and outside the court. Let nobody have the apprehension that something which is expected is not being done.”

Following the Election Commission’s submissions, the Supreme Court told the petitioners that over suspicion of everything is a problem.

“Everything cannot be suspected. You cannot be critical of everything. If they (the ECI) have done something good, you have to appreciate it. You don’t have to be critical of everything,” the bench told the counsel of one of the petitioners.

In an earlier hearing on April 16, The bench expressed reservations about the manual counting process, saying the electoral process in India is a “humongous task” and attempts should not be made to “bring down the system”.

The VVPAT – Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail – enables a voter to see if the vote was cast properly and went to the candidate he/she supports. The VVPAT generates a paper slip that is kept in a sealed cover and can be opened if there is a dispute.

Currently, VVPAT slips of five randomly selected EVMs in every Assembly segment are verified.

Amid the Opposition’s questions and apprehensions regarding the EVM system of voting, the petitions call for cross-verification of every vote.

The petitions have been filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and activist Arun Kumar Agarwal. Mr Agarwal has sought the counting of all VVPAT slips. The ADR’s petition seeks the court’s direction to the Election Commission and the Centre to ensure that voters are able to verify through VVPATs that their vote has been “counted as recorded”.

Union Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports Anurag Singh Thakur
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New Delhi:

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain a PIL seeking an independent audit of source code of the electronic voting machines (EVMs) used by the Election Commission, saying no “actionable material” was placed to indicate that the poll panel was in breach of its “constitutional mandate”. Observing that it will not venture into the “policy issue”, the Supreme Court dismissed the PIL which had also sought a direction to the poll panel to put in the public domain the audit report, if any, of EVM’s source code.

“The Election Commission of India (ECI) is entrusted constitutionally with superintendence and control over the conduct of elections. Presently, the petitioner has placed no actionable material on the record in this court to indicate that the ECI is actually in breach of its constitutional mandate,” a bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said in its order.

The bench said the manner in which the source code should be audited and whether the audit report should be placed in public domain falls within the domain of the poll panel.

“On such a policy issue, we are not inclined to issue a direction of this sort which has been sought by the petitioner. There is no material before this court at this stage to indicate that the Election Commission is not taking suitable steps to fulfil its mandate,” the bench said while dismissing the PIL filed by an individual named Sunil Ahya.

The source code is a set of instructions and statements of a programmer using a computer programming language.

The ‘Hash functions’ are used to digest or condense a message down to a fixed size which can then be signed in a way that makes finding other messages with the same hash extremely difficult.

During the brief hearing, the bench referred to certain things related to the functioning of the Supreme Court and said it recently allowed electronic passes for entering into the Supreme Court. “If I start putting out what is source code in public, you know, who will be able to hack that,” the CJI said.

Before filing the petition, PIL petitioner Ahya had made representations to the Election Commission seeking an independent audit of the source code of the EVMs.

“The source code is the brain behind the EVM and it is about survival of democracy,” Ahya said.

Ahya had earlier moved the petition before the general elections in 2019. The court had then said in view of the announcement of the general elections it was not possible to go into the issues raised in the PIL.

It had, however, granted Ahya the liberty to file a fresh plea if a new cause of action arises.

After that, another fresh PIL was instituted and the bench had permitted Ahya to make a representation to the EC.

In the third plea, the PIL petitioner said he also made some representations to the poll panel and was still in the dark on what steps have been taken on the issue.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)