Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) in India : How EVMs works

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      In this post I will discuss most talked about thing during elections in India. As the losing side always tries to find out culprits and EVMs are most innocent ones to blame. So let us analyse how whole system works and whether tempering is possible or not.



Electronic Voting:

     Electronic voting refers to a form of voting where casting and counting of votes are done by electronic means. It can be implemented as online using internet and servers or standalone offline device or anything in between. Particularly in India, electronic ballots are used for polling instead of paper ballots. For this an electronic machine is provided at every polling booth. 
     Electronic voting is pretty old concept and it debuted in 1960 as punched card. Their first widespread use was in 1964 presidential election in USA. 

Electronic Voting Machine in India

     Electronic Voting Machines are used to facilitate an election system. In layman's term, it can be understood as an improved version of calculator which calculates number of clicks performed on its buttons. 
     In India, electronic voting made a debut in late 1998 on experimental basis for the first time in 16 Assembly Constituencies in the States of Madhya Pradesh (5), Rajasthan (5) and NCT of Delhi (6). According to Election Commission of India:
An Electronic Voting Machine consists of two Units – a Control Unit and a Balloting Unit – joined by a five-meter cable. The Control Unit is with the Presiding Officer or a Polling Officer and the Balloting Unit is placed inside the voting compartment. Instead of issuing a ballot paper, the Polling Officer in-charge of the Control Unit will press the Ballot Button. This will enable the voter to cast his vote by pressing the blue button on the Balloting Unit against the candidate and symbol of his choice.
Use of EVMs lead to a simple vote casting and counting process compared to traditional paper ballots.

Features of EVMs used in India

Indian version of voting machines works offline and have following things:
  • It runs on 6 volt alkaline battery manufactured by BEL Bangalore and ECIL Hyderabad. So it does not require any external power source to operate. The 6 volt battery has no chance of any kind of electric shock to the user.
  • A standalone EVM can capture maximum 3840 votes. An EVM is used for maximum of 1500 electors. So the capacity is well enough.
  • EVMs can cater upto 64 candidates at a time. One balloting unit can accommodate 16 candidates and maximum 4 such balloting units can be used at a time in parallel based on requirements. So if any constituency have more than 64 candidates then EVMs can not be used.
  • If n EVM goes out of order at any polling booth, then polling officer of that booth can exchange that machine with spare machine provide to him. All the votes casted before will be secured in the old machine and there is no need to start the voting again.
  • EVMs are really easy to use. All it takes to press a button. So in India, its pretty much useful as the sizable population is still illiterate and its really convenient for them to use. 
  • The control unit can store the result in its memory for 10 or more years.
  • As soon as a particular button on the Balloting Unit is pressed, the vote is recorded for that particular candidate and the machine gets locked. Even if one presses that button further or any other button, no further vote will be recorded. This way the EVMs ensure the principle of "one man, one vote".
  • As soon as a button is pressed, the tiny light blinks and a beep sound is made by the unit. So both audio and visual means are there to confirm the vote.
  • Each Control Unit has a unique ID Number, which is painted on each unit with a permanent marker. This ID Number will be allowed to be noted by the Polling Agents and will also be recorded in a Register maintained for the purpose by the Returning Officer. The address tag attached to the Control Unit also will indicate this ID Number.
  • As soon as the last voter has voted, the Polling Officer in-charge of the Control Unit will press the ‘Close’ Button. Thereafter, the EVM will not accept any vote. Further, after the close of poll, the Balloting Unit is disconnected from the Control Unit and kept separately. Votes can be recorded only through the Balloting Unit. Again the Presiding officer, at the close of the poll, will hand over.

Voting Process

Following are typical steps followed for voting using EVMs:
  • The control unit is kept with the polling officer and the balloting unit is kept in voting hall.
  • The polling officer will press the control button to enable the balloting unit for taking vote.
  • The voter presses the blue button to cast the vote. As soon as the voter presses the blue button a red light blinks and a beep sound is made by the balloting unit.
  • As soon as the vote is recorded, the balloting unit gets locked and further pressing of any other button has no effect. again the polling officer needs to press the control button to enable the machine.

Possibility of fraud

Having all the information in mind, let's analyze the possibilities of any kind of possible fraud:
  1. Hacking: EVMs are standalone devices and there is no way that they are connected to any kind of network. This rules out any possibility of network hacking by any chance.
  1. EVMs Allotments: Election Commission of India is a fiercely independent body and political parties have no influence on ECI. All the allotments of EVM are done by ECI and political parties or anyone else has no idea about EVM Allotments. In order to decide which EVM will be allotted to which booth, first Lok Sabha area, then Vidhan Sabha area and finally, the booth is finalized. Polling party gets to know about the EVM it is getting at the time of dispatching only.
  1. Credibility of EVMs: EVM units are very much secure and credible. For any vote to be allotted both control unit and balloting unit need to be used. It makes it impossible to tempering. 
  1. Mock Polling: Before actual voting starts, a mock polling is conducted at every booth in the presence of representatives of political parties. Once they are sure that the machine is working fine then the actual voting starts.
So it is practically impossible to temper the machines used n India. For any kind of fraud, physical access of a large number of machines is required which is again impossible considering the security measures. 

Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT):

     Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) is a method of providing feedback to voters. It’s completely an independent verification system. VVPAT is a printer-like machine attached to every EVM that allows voters to verify that their vote has been cast correctly. Once a voter presses button of his choice in the EVM, a printed paper appears containing the name of the candidate and poll symbol so that he can verify it. After the voter views the receipt it goes inside a container linked to the EVM, which can be accessed only by the polling officers. This latest system is one step further towards prevention of electoral fraud. ECI is planning to implement the VVPAT system to a larger extent to rule out any kind of fraud in voting process.

     So the voting process and voting machines are very much safe in India. We as the citizen of India should respect the same and do not get trapped by the allegations from various political organisations. We should always check by our self from a proper source.

JAI HIND 


[Reference : Election Commision of India]




Comments

  1. AnonymousApril 11, 2017 at 2:53 PM

    Nice article. Got to know many things about voting machines. For machine tempering, physical access is required which is same as ballot papers. So no point of moving back to ballot paper.

    Thanks for the info.

    ReplyDelete

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