Voting: an entry gate of Democracy
Electronic voting is the standard means of conducting elections using Electronic Voting Machines (EVM). Voting technologies have a long history. In the United States, mechanical lever voting machines were first used for elections in 1892 and were commonly used in U.S. elections until the 1990s. Electronic technologies began to appear in the 1960s with punch card counting machines. In the following decades, technologies such as DRE voting machines, ballot scanning machines and Internet voting began to appear.
Through the 1990s and the first decade of the new millennium, an increasing number of countries around the world also started to adopt these technologies. Several countries have tried electronic approaches and stopped because of difficulties or concerns about security and reliability.
Finland: Trialed in 2008; Review in 2016-17 concluded against internet voting – risks outweigh benefits, Germany: Trialed in 2005, but court found it unconstitutional in 2009, Netherlands: Discontinued 2007, Japan: No municipal governments use electronic voting – Last city stopped electronic voting in 2018. Other countries such as Australia, Spain, Sweden and the UK do not use electoral voting in political elections.
Also, electronic voting requires capital spending every few years to update equipment, as well as annual spending for maintenance, security, and supplies. If it works well, its speed can be an advantage where many contests are on each ballot. Hand-counting is more feasible in parliamentary systems where each level of government is elected at different times, and only one contest is on each ballot, for the national or regional member of parliament, or for a local council member.
EVM in India
In India the Electronic Voting system was developed and tested by the state-owned Electronics Corporation of India and Bharat Electronics in the 1990s. Prior to the introduction of electronic voting, India used paper ballots and manual counting. EVM in India was introduced in a phased manner between 1998 and 2001.
Given the total scale of the Indian elections with more than half a billion people eligible to vote, combined with election-related criminal activity, led Indian election authority and high courts to shift towards electronic voting and it started the journey of EVM in india.
EVM in India was marketed as; there are few embedded features in Electronic Voting Machines, such as electronically limiting the rate of casting votes to five per minute, a security lock-close feature, an electronic database of voting signatures, and thumb impressions to confirm the identity of the voter, conducting elections in phases over several weeks. While positioning an extensive security personnel at each booth to help reduce electoral fraud and abuse, and eliminate booth capturing and create more competitive and fair elections.
To promote EVM in India the Election Commission of India (ECI) stated that their machines, system checks, safeguard procedures, and election protocols are fully tamper-proof.
Benefits of EVM
The Election Commission states that along with VVPAT method, immediately prior to the election day, a sample number of votes for each political party nominee is entered into each machine, in the presence of polling agents. At the end of this sample trial run, the votes counted and matched with the entered sample votes, to ensure that the machine’s hardware has not been tampered with, it is operating reliably and that there were no hidden votes pre-recorded in each machine. Machines that yield a faulty result have been replaced to ensure a reliable electoral processor.
The Commission introduced other features such as Electronic Voting Machines initialization procedures just before the elections. Officials tested each machine prior to the start of voting to confirm its reliable operation in front of independent polling agents. They added a security lock “close” button which saved the votes already cast in the device’s permanent memory and disabled the device’s ability to accept additional votes in the case of any attempt to open the unit or tamper. The Commission decided to conduct the elections over several weeks in order to move and post a large number of security forces at each booth.
On the day of voting, the ballots were also locked and then saved in a secure location under the watch of state security and local volunteer citizens. Additionally, the Election Commission also created a database of thumb impressions and electronic voting signatures, open to inspection by polling agent volunteers and outside observers.
The EVMs-based system at each booth matches the voter with a registered card with this electronic database in order to ensure that a voter cannot cast a ballot more than once.
These efforts of the Election Commission of India are developed in consultations with the Indian courts, experts and volunteer feedback from different political parties have made the elections fairer and more competitive.
1. EVMs are easier to transport compared to ballot boxes as they are lighter, more portable, and come with polypropylene carrying cases.
2. Vote counting is faster.
3. In places where illiteracy is a factor, illiterate people find EVMs easier than the ballot paper system.
4. Bogus voting is greatly reduced as the vote is recorded only once.
5. The unit can store the result in its memory before it is erased manually.
6. The shelf life of Indian EVMs is estimated at 15 years.
7. The printed paper ballots were more expensive, requiring extensive post-voting resources to count hundreds of millions of individual ballots.
Risks of EVM
On the other hand, the use of Electronic Voting Machines has been always in the news, the claims of it being tampered with for political gains have always been raised. Recently, The Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (I.N.D.I.A.), an opposition front announced by the leaders of 28 parties to contest the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, have submitted a detailed memorandum to the Election Commission of India (ECI) with several specific questions on the design and operation of the EVMs. As per NDTV report (20th Dec 23) the alliance said that there are many doubts about the integrity of the functioning of electronic voting machines and suggested that VVPAT slips be handed over to voters and its 100 percent counting done later.
1. With the use of Electronic Voting Machines, the voting process for a common voter is not transparent, as the voter cannot see the process after casting a vote. There is no transparency in this process.
2. There is no backup plan in case of the malfunction of the machine. Also, it is impossible to opt for both the options financially, having both options such as Electronic Voting Machines and ballot, given the number of the voters in the Indian context, the elections would be highly expensive for a country like India.
3. A team led by Vemuri Hari Prasad of NetIndia Private Limited has shown that if criminals get physical possession of the EVMs before the voting, they can change the hardware inside and thus manipulate the results.
4. The expensive EVM needs to be replaced after every 10 years
5. The training of the staff is needed to handle the Electronic Voting Machines.
6. For EVM as well paper chits are required, that is an additional expense.
7. It is easier to spot fraud in the ballot system than the EVM.
8. The ECI claims in its FAQs ‘no technical knowledge is required for casting vote on the Electronic Voting Machines and ordinary citizens can easily cast their votes on ECI EVMs’. The public education campaigns the ECI launches prior to every general or bye-election are limited to such demonstrations only. We are expected to take the reliability of EVMs as an article of faith based on what the ECI shows and tells us.
Both the system has its own plus and minus sides to it, but in the Electronic Voting Machines system controversy suggests otherwise, as it can be easily tampered to gain votes in favor of a particular party or candidate. We also need to compare these two systems to understand how the voting system works.
Electronic Voting Machines and Ballot paper voting- comparison
In a paper-based system, the ECI through its appointed functionaries gets a ballot paper printed with the names of all independent and political party-ticketed candidates along with their allotted symbols. All that the registered voter-literate and unlettered, both-had to do was to take a ballot paper and a rubber stamp from the Presiding Officer, go to the polling booth, stamp the cross mark against the preferred candidate and drop it in the ballot box oneself.
The ballot paper was even pre-folded while being handed over to the voter. The voter was able to see every step of this action sequence with one’s own eyes or with the help of an assistant if the person was blind. On the counting day, the counting agents of candidates could see every ballot paper-both valid and invalid-while it was being counted before the results were announced. Nothing was hidden from the people as everything except the recording of the voter’s choice on the ballot was clearly visible.
With the Electronic Voting Machines there is a ballot Unit with the names of candidates displayed on a printed label affixed on top of it. The voter presses the button next to the name and symbol of the preferred candidate in the polling booth and after it beeps something happens. Then the VVPAT unit gets into action and prints out a slip which is visible to the voter for seven seconds through an illuminated window. This slip contains the name, serial number and symbol of the candidate in favor of whom the voter pressed the button. Then it automatically gets cut and falls down into the VVPAT’s drop box and the light is turned off. Next, a loud beep is heard, which according to the ECI, completes the action sequence of voting from casting to its registration in the EVM-VVPAT combo. Only one stage of this process is visible to the voter, namely, the VVPAT printed slip, to satisfy oneself that the vote has been printed as per one’s choice. What gets recorded on the Control Unit (CU) is not visible at all, the voter has to be satisfied by the mere sound of beep.
On counting day, only the CUs are brought to the counting hall and the tally of votes is calculated by pressing the relevant button in the presence of candidates. Only serial numbers, not the names of the candidates are visible on the CU.
Voting is an entry gate of democracy. It is a basic right voters have to elect their leader.
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