Context

The Supreme Court will hear petitions for 100% cross-verification of VVPAT slips with EVM vote counts.

EVM Machine – Electronic Voting Machine

An EVM Machine is a portable instrument for the purpose of conducting elections to the parliament, legislature and local bodies like panchayats and municipalities.

• Design: 
  • An EVM Machine has three units – a ballot unit, a control unit for the officer-in-charge to ensure a voter is able to vote only once, and a voter-verifiable-paper-audit-trail (VVPAT) unit, which produces a paper slip that is visible to the voter via a transparent screen for about seven seconds before it gets stored in a sealed drop box.
  • The control unit of the EVM is kept with the presiding officer and the balloting unit is kept within the voting compartment for electors to cast their votes.

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• Legal Sanction: Section 61A was included in the Representation of the People Act 1951, empowering the ECI.
• Manufacturer:  Bharat Electronics Ltd. (BEL), Bangalore, a Defence Ministry PSU, was elected along with ECIL to manufacture the EVM Machine.

Brief History of EVM Machine

• Trial-Run: The EVM Machine was introduced on a trial basis in 1982 in the Assembly constituency of Paravur in Kerala. 
• Nationwide Deployment: They were deployed in all booths during the Assembly elections of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry and West Bengal in 2001. 
  • In the 2004 general elections to the Lok Sabha, EVMs were used in all 543 constituencies. 
  • The 2019 elections had EVMs backed with 100% VVPAT in all constituencies.
• Ruling by Supreme Court: The Supreme Court in various judgments has upheld the validity of using EVMs in elections.
  • In Subramanian Swamy versus Election Commission of India (2013), the Supreme Court ruled that a paper trail is an indispensable requirement for free and fair elections. 

Benefits of EVM Machine

• Eradication of Booth Capturing: The EVM Machine has virtually eradicated booth capturing by limiting the rate of vote casting to four votes a minute and thus significantly increasing the time required for stuffing false votes. 
• Elimination of Invalid Votes: Invalid votes that were a bane of paper ballots and also a bone of contention during the counting process have been eliminated through EVMs. 
• Eco-Friendly: Considering the size of our electorate which is close to one billion, the use of EVMs is eco-friendly as it reduces the consumption of paper. 
• Enhanced Efficiency: It provides administrative convenience for the polling officers on the day of the poll and has made the counting process faster and error-free. 

Concerns Raised Against EVM Machine

• Potential for Hacking: EVM Machine are susceptible to hacking as it is an electronic device. 
  • The ECI has clarified that it is a standalone device like a calculator with no connectivity to any external device and hence free from any kind of external hack. 
• Limitations of Current Sample Size: The sample size for matching of the EVM count with VVPAT slips at present is five per assembly constituency/segment. 
  • This is not based on any scientific criteria and may fail to detect defective EVMs during counting. 
• Identification of Booth-wise Polling Behaviour: The present process also allows for booth-wise polling behaviour to be identified by various parties that can result in profiling and intimidation.

Mechanisms to Uphold the Integrity of EVM Machine and VVPAT Process

• Random allocation of EVMs to booths before polls.
• Mock Polls: Conduct of a mock poll to display the correctness of EVMs and VVPAT before commencement of the actual poll.
• Transparency Measures: The serial number of EVMs along with total votes polled needs to be shared with agents of candidates to verify the same at the time of counting of votes.
• Scientific Approach to EVM-VVPAT Matching: 100% match of EVM count with VVPAT slips would be unscientific and cumbersome. 
  • The sample for matching of EVM count and VVPAT slips should be decided in a scientific manner by dividing each State into large regions as suggested by experts. 
• Enhancing Confidence in Counting Process: In case of even a single error, the VVPAT slips should be counted fully for the concerned region and form the basis for results. 
  • This would instill a statistically significant confidence in the counting process. 
• Introducing Totaliser Machines for Enhanced Voter Privacy and Security: In order to provide a degree of cover for voters at the booth level, ‘totaliser’ machines can be introduced that would aggregate votes in 15-20 EVMs before revealing the candidate-wise count.

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