‘No’ To EVM , Paper Ballot Only: After all,  EVMs are operated and supervised  by vulnerable and biased human beings

Democracy at Risk Can We Trust Our Electronic Voting Machines

Democracy at Risk!: Can We Trust Our Electronic Voting Machines? It is a book (2010, 246 pages) by G. V. L. Narasimha Rao, a senior central leader  of BJP and a Rajya Sabha Member (2018-2024 April).

 ‘Field based evidences” are many.

In the latest elections, this reporter was told by a couple of voters of Hyderabad how they, together with a few others, polled 3-4 votes each. A local leader of  NDA in Andhra Pradesh narrated a similar experience, and explained how it was indeed facilitated by biased polling officials in booths and places where the polling agents of the rival party were compromised, or “somehow managed.”  If one agent is stubborn, he graphically explained, there would always be opportunities when he goes out for a while and a pliable reliever arrives.

This article ends with extracts from an old Judgment on the subject by a court in Germany, of MARCH 2009.

No hacking by advanced  technology is needed, when men are ready to indulge in nefarious practices, like buying voters, cadres, leaders,using liquor liberally, and caste and community  factors were brazenly  at work. That is electoral democracy in India.

The manipulation of votes and EVMs need not be all over a constituency, and managing a few vulnerable booths is enough to tilt the scales, particularly where  the winning margins are not huge.

According to one analysis, BJP won by a narrow margin of less than 500 votes in 30 constituencies, and by less than 1000 votes in over 100 constituencies. 

Prof Sabyasachi Das (then of Ashoka University) had said and demonstrated (in 2019 polls) voting figures could be tampered particularly when such low margins are involved. 

Samjawadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, who  must be aware of ground reality, went on record saying (inparliament on July 2) he would oppose EVMs even if his party were  to win all the 80 seats in UP,where the INDIA alliance won the majority seats in 2024 June. 

Telangana CM Revant Reddy of Congress in a press meet in Delhi on July 4 graphically explained how it was possible to tamper with EVMs. He recalled aseminar a few years ago on the EVMs. Around 15 percent excess EVMs are kept aside officially, in distribution centres, as stand-by substitutes, and they can be mixed up with official collusion, and it is difficult to be caught in the act (Sakshi, July 5). He said no hitech is involved: it is possible to do that in a few booths, and manipulation of around 5000-10000  votes can be ‘managed’. Former MP  Undavilli Arun Kumar also raised this question. He said thousands of EVMs went missing, ie., not accounted for. He raised it with RTI and there was no reply. He raised it with EC which did not account for those EVMs.        

***                ***

NDA  leaders had complained against EVMs

Published by Citizens for Verifiability, Transparency & Accountability in Elections, the above book, a compilation of a series of media reports,and Rao’s own accounts, is the BJP’s take on the issue. While the book would be released on Friday by BJP president Nitin Gadkari, Rao has also invited a couple of computer experts from the USA to show “how the EVMs can be hacked,” reported Express News Service, February 12, 2010. BJP was then in Opposition, until 2014 elections.

The report added: Telugu Desam Party chief N Chandrababu Naidu has now joined the group of political leaders raising questions over the reliability of Electronic Voting Machines…BJP leader L K Advani had triggered a debate on the subject last year.”

Lot of discussion took place on the issue, again and again, and we will not go into that. 

The Supreme Court had asked the EC, “On what basis do you disclose the tentative voting percentage. Is it based on Form 17C? What is the difficulty of putting this on website?

The Supreme Court verdict ultimately satisfied only by a few.

We have a system, in these  times of hitech, wherein actual voting figures are not available, are not given by the EC.

 We may cite only one article in countercurrents.org.

The whole Loksabha election process was highly dubious, with EC’s credibility undermined, and it taints the results (12/06/2024)

It reads:

“By then fourth phase of the voting was over. Only then the EC released the final (provisional) figures for the four phases, for the first time, and that too only after the top court intervened.”

It has a section titled: Actual numbers of votes: the credibility of the election process and of the EC questioned.

Another section is captioned:

EC showed “an increase in 1.07 crore” voters across 379 constituencies, at an average rise of 28,000 votes per constituency! Does it keep its credibility intact?

https://countercurrents.org/2024/06/the-whole-loksabha-election-process-was-highly-dubious-with-ecs-credibility-undermined-and-it-taints-the-results/

E A S Sarma, Former Secretary to the Government of India, an upright bureaucrat, wrote a series of letters to the EC raising the question of its credibility.

https://countercurrents.org/2023/09/election-commissions-assurance-to-conduct-one-nation-one-election-casts-doubts-about-its-independence/

The blurb of the above book by GVL reads:

“ There is insufficient appreciation among the lay public of the facts and issues about electronic voting machines – largely due to the mystique concerning anything technological, and to the implicit faith in a constitutional body such as the Election Commission.This book has been written to fill this information and awareness gap and to trigger a national debate, leading to initiation of steps towards a reformed and truly transparent, verifiable and accountable voting system.

“The book covers highlights technical, procedural, administrative and legal problems concerning electronic voting machines. The book marshals arguments on compelling facts and field based evidences, media reports, published materials, RTI replies and other ECI communications and statements, international experiences etc.

The book nails the repeated lies being bandied about by official agencies to perpetrate the electronic voting machines even in the face of a united, strong and principled opposition to their continued use without applying the necessary correctives and safeguards.”

***                     ***

Judgment of the Second Senate of the Federal Republic of Germany at Berlin Tuesday, 3 MARCH 2009, on EVMs

[Not only Germany, but US, UK, EU countries, etc. almost 120 or more countries in the world to this day are using paper ballots only. We publish below some excerpts from the German Constitutional Court decision. This is taken from Frontier weekly Jul 21 – 27, 2024.]    

RULING:

“1. The Ordinance on the Deployment of Voting Machines in Elections to the German Bundestag and of the Members of the European Parliament from the Federal Republic of Germany is not compatible with Article 38 in conjunction with Articles 20.1 and 20.2 of the Basic Law insofar as it does not ensure monitoring that complies with the constitutional principle of the public nature of elections.

2.   The use of the electronic voting machines of N V Nederlandsche Apparatenfabriek (Nedap) {Dutch Apparatus Factory} of type ESD1, hardware versions 01.02, 01.03 and 01.04, as well as of type ESD2, hardware version 01.01, in the elections to the 16th German Bundestag was not compatible with Article 38 in conjunction with Article 20.1 and 20.2 of the Basic Law”.

“Manipulations were said to be possible both by politically or financially motivated “insiders”, in particular employees of the manufacturer, and by external third parties who gained access to the computers used by the manufacturer… no suitable regulations in force that were able to guarantee protected storage of the voting machines…

“…interests of the manufacturer in protecting its business secrets should be subordinate to the principle of democracy. … non-publication of the control reports and documents and the source code was …said to constitute an electoral error.

“…not … compatible with the “principle of the official nature of the elections” that the functionality of the voting machines could only be examined by the manufacturer…

“…tests carried out by the district returning officer in the context of preparation for the election and by the returning committee in the polling station were said not to be suited to recognise any manipulations….”

“…voting machines were said not to be compatible with the “Guidelines for the Construction of Voting Machines” (Annex 1 to § 2 of the Federal Voting Machine Ordinance). They neither complied with the general state-of-the-art, nor were they constructed in compliance with the rules of technology for systems with grievous consequences in case of misconduct… software used was said not to be clearly identifiable…”

“…objectionable that § 35 of the Federal Electoral Act only calls for the ballot to be held in secret, but not for adherence to the other electoral principles…”

“In a republic, elections are a matter for the entire people and a joint concern of all citizens. Consequently, the monitoring of the election procedure must also be a matter for and a task of the citizen. Each citizen must be able to comprehend and verify the central steps in the elections reliably and without any special prior technical knowledge. … An election procedure in which the voter cannot reliably comprehend whether his or her vote is unfalsifiable recorded and included in the ascertainment of the election result, and how the total votes cast are assigned and counted, excludes central elements of the election procedure from public monitoring, and hence does not comply with the constitutional requirements…”

“…voter himself or herself must be able to verify–also without a more detailed knowledge of computers–whether his or her vote as cast is recorded truthfully as a basis for counting…”

“… the principle of secrecy of elections is not to restrict the principle of the public nature of elections for the ballot act. It also does not justify a restriction of public monitoring in the casting of the–previously secretly marked–vote carrier or in the ascertainment of the results…”

“…Federal Voting Device Ordinance is unconstitutional on grounds of a violation of the principle of the public nature of elections from Article 38 in conjunction with Article 20.1 and 20.2 of the Basic Law…”

“…Federal Voting Machine Ordinance violates the principle of the public nature of elections under Article 38 in conjunction with Article 20.1 and 20.2 of the Basic Law because in the use of computer-controlled voting machines it guarantees neither effective monitoring of the election act nor the reliable verifiability of the election result. This shortcoming cannot be remedied by means of an interpretation in conformity with the constitution…”

“…voting machines did not provide a possibility to record the votes independently of the electronic record on the vote storage module enabling the respective voter to check his or her ballot.


“The essential steps in the ascertainment of the results by the voting machines also could not be verified by the public. Since the ascertainment of the results exclusively formed the object of a data processing procedure running inside the voting machines, it was possible for neither the election bodies nor the citizens participating in the ascertainment of the results to verify whether the valid votes cast were correctly allotted to the electoral proposals and the votes accounted for by the individual electoral proposals in total were correctly ascertained. It was not sufficient that the result of the computing process implemented in the voting machine could be taken note of using a summary paper printout or an electronic display. A public examination by means of which the citizen could have reliably verified the ascertainment of the election results himself or herself without prior special technical knowledge was hence ruled out.”

“…complainants rightly complain of the unconstitutionality of the use of computer-controlled voting machines, the necessary expenses which they have incurred are to be refunded to them according to §§ 18 and 19 of the Law on the Scrutiny of Elections in conjunction with § 34a.3 of the Federal Constitutional Court Act in this respect. Accordingly, the complainant re 1. is to be refunded the necessary expenses in full, and the complainant re 2., whose complaints are partly unfounded, is to be refunded three-quarters of the necessary expenditure.”

(Courtesy: Frontier, Kolkata ,Vol 57, No. 4, Jul 21 – 27, 2024)

(MA Krishna is a media person  who contributed to countercurrents.org)

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