EVM - Electronic Voting Machine

EVM(Electronic Voting Machine)

The party who loses starts shouting that the machine is hacked.

No party has said a bad word about EVM after winning.

You will press the button one time and two votes will go to the party. Once there are 1 lakh votes, all the votes will go to one party only.

Every political party was challenged. The people who are saying that it can be hacked should call the experts around the world and hack the machine.

Some irresponsible people who are eligible but then also haven't seen the face of the polling station.

 

There are 911 million registered voters in India. When they cast vote through ballot paper, crores of ballot papers are required. Millions of trees are cut and thousands of people are required to count these votes and in India where elections take place now and then, it becomes very complicated.

 

To solve this problem, EVM machines were introduced.

Some voices have been raised even while using it that it is not complete, it has some shortcomings. During the election of 2014, VVPAT was also added along with the EVM machine.

 

What is VVPAT?

When you were not using VVPAT, before that we used to press the button and the light would come on and you used to believe that the vote has been cast to whom you want to give the vote.

After adding VVPAT, VVPAT is kept beside the same machine and when you press the button you see a slip. The name of the one that you have given the vote is mentioned in that slip. You cannot take that slip but it is just to show you that the vote has been cast for whom you pressed the button. After this, those slip goes back to the box. You get transparency by the VVPAT and double verification is also done. You can count the votes of both the machines and you can check if the same votes have been cast.

There are a total of 3 machines after the addition of VVPAT.

The first is a Ballot Unit.

It is a unit where you select your favourite candidate after pressing the button.

The second is the VVPAT. Where you verify your vote.

The third unit is the Control Unit.

This unit lies with the officers. It has the programming and data of all the machines.

When someone comes to cast a vote then the officer presses the button of this unit.

A green light gets lit up in your machine and you can cast a vote.

One more benefit of this is that the voter cannot vote for their favourite party 10 to 12 times.

All of the three machines are connected. Nothing can be connected other than this. This is also called a Stand Alone Independent Machine.

There is no internet, Wi-Fi, or frequency receiver in this. So that nobody can make changes to it.

This machine is made by Bharat Electronics Limited & Electronic Corporation Of India Limited. This is an Indian-developed product.

It has a self-diagnostic system and a tempered deduction program. This means if anybody plays around with this at any stage then he'll be caught.

 

What process is followed in this election?

Bharat Electronics has the control of EVM machine. But as soon as the election dates come, Bharat Electronics distributes it in all over India. The places where elections are to be held, the machine is sent to the strong room of the district headquarters.

The strong room is a very secure room with a live camera and the presence of special security forces.

The distribution takes place through EVM randomization. This means that the machine is allotted a serial number. Nobody knows which machine will go to which booth. The computer randomly selects the serial number and decides which machine will go to which place. The machine is kept in a strong room. During that time, the particular parties like BJP, Congress, Etc., Every party sends its representatives. The election commission officers keep this machine in the presence of everyone. Once the machine is kept in the strong room and gets locked. After that, nobody can open it. It is necessary to be present for the representatives of all the political parties during the whole process. The continuous live recording is done in the strong room.

Any political party can check the recording. After that, they wait for the election date. As soon as the election date comes closer, again it is delivered to the strong room of different constituencies where voting is done and when these machines reach there the same process is followed that was followed before.

There are 7 constituencies in Delhi, first it will reach the strong room of Delhi. After that, it will reach those 7 constituencies it is to be delivered to the polling station.

Polling station means the place where you cast your vote. It is delivered to the polling station with the same level of security. There is one more thing in this; these machines contain a unique id. This unique ID is assigned to particular polling. When this machine reaches there, then all the executives and political parties match it.

Political parties and executives are made to note that if there is a mismatch anywhere then the whole process is stopped there.

The political party representatives play a very important role. When you go to cast your vote, they usually sit outside in the tents or bench. You give your voting slip to them. They check your name in the list and tell you on which booth you have to go.

If someone goes to cast a vote on your behalf, there is already a tick before your name there. So you can take help from them in such cases. With that, they ensure that there is no loss in their party's voting.

Once the machine is set up, it is tested before the voting gets started. All the representatives of the political party are called and made to cast the vote before the name of every candidate. It is validated by the VVPAT. If any entry gets false, then the process is stopped there.

When the people of all the parties and election executives approve this, all of their signatures are done. After that, the voting starts.

Those who oppose say that you test for 1000 to 2000; the machine is programmed in such a way that nothing will happen up to 1 lakh. When 1 lakh votes are cast after that, all the votes will go to one party.

The first thing for doing this is that the party that is doing this has to steal the machine in the middle of the process by cracking the live camera, security, strong room, tamper security system, change the programming and then keep the machine back.

But then also, how many machines will you steal?

After that also, how will you get to know that the machine that you've cracked will go to your constituency?

This can happen only if the person who has built the machine has set up the programming while he was building it.

But in that case also a random the machine was picked and checked by casting 1 lakh votes. Second thing, the person who has built the machine should know the party to whom all the votes are to be transferred, what is the allotted machine serial number of that party?

It's very difficult to know that, because it is generated at the end.

One more thing is said, you will press the button once from here and vote will be cast two times for the party.

If there is a Ballot unit and you will press the button one time, the vote will appear two times in VVPAT. The counting will be mismatched. The voting will be dismissed there only.

It is said that once the voting is done after that, votes increased.

Once the voting gets completed, then the in-charge of the polling booth seals the machine in front of all the parties. All the representatives ensure if it has been sealed properly or not.

Second thing, all the political members note that how many votes are cast on which machine. Assume 1150 votes are cast on one machine, then it is noted that these many votes are cast on the ID of this machine. After verifying this, all the members sign. The list is sent to the candidates. The Presiding officer of the booth pressed the start button of that machine, the voting gets started. The officer notes that time.

When the voting gets completed after that, the close button is pressed and the time is noted. So that after this time, if anybody tries to tamper with the machine, they will know this by that time. When everybody's present there says okay then the machine is sealed. After that, there is a unique slip. One is given to the representative of the political party. The second slip is kept by the officer. Now this machine will be open only when the codes of both the parties are together.

Like when earlier booth capturing was done, there is no chance for that.

Nobody can steal this. Because it is useless for them. With the full security it is kept in the strong room again with the same process as it was brought

And in the presence of everyone, it is locked.

The cameras are on 24/7 and its footage is played in the LED.

All the representatives of the political parties monitor it.

On the day when the counting is to be done. The lock of the strong room is opened in front of all the political parties and executives. The seal of every machine is checked. If the seal of even one machine is broken then the process is stopped there. When all the present people agree to open the machine, the machine is opened. After opening the machine the total number of votes of machine ID is matched with the given list. The counting is started when the parties say so.

The Presiding officer shows the result after pressing the machine's button. The result is verified with the random VVPAT machine.

Assume the EVM is showing that BJP got 100 votes and Congress got 90 votes.

So the VVPAT number should also show the same number. And it is checked randomly. As the calculation is done media starts showing that by these many votes, a party is behind or ahead and the results are announced at last.

What happens in this is the party that loses starts shouting that the machine is hacked. The same party that has won from any place stays silent. There is no party that hasn't criticized EVM. No party has said a bad word about EVM after winning.

Millions of people have said about EVM machines that it has been hacked. You may have seen the statements, debate and videos. But I will discuss the case which is mostly discussed in the country.

A member of the party had set up a machine in the Delhi assembly and demonstrated in front of the whole country that an EVM machine can be hacked in this way.

But the demonstration that was shown, it was not the original EVM. It was shown on the copy of the EVM.

If the internet banking of HDFC and ICICI is bad, I have to prove this, how to hack the internet banking of HDFC. Then only people will trust. Because it was done on such a big level and the whole country has seen it.

The election commission challenged every political party on 3 June 2017 that the people who are saying that it can be hacked, they can call any expert from around the world and hack the machine.

No party went.

 

Why didn't these parties go?

There is a reason behind this.

Because if any party had gone and would not able to hack. Then the party wouldz be disgraced, its image would get spoiled.

It would have been mocked for many years and it may face the loss of the votes.

Many people argue that if the foreign countries are not using it, they are rejecting it. Then why are we using it?

31 countries have used EVM. Even though their process is totally different from India. Out of that, there are 4 countries that use this, 11 countries use it partially and the countries which have banned these, if you read their court orders then they have said that people don't know programming languages.

The system should be like people should know when they have cast a vote, how and where their the vote has been forwarded. There is nothing above the supreme-court in this country.

Many political parties have filed a PIL against this. The supreme-court rejected it.

In fact, the court praised EVM.

 

Its chip and circuits are available on Amazon. Anyone takes them and makes prototypes and uploads the video. See it's hacked.

The conspiracy theories attract people very fast. But it is very harmful to trust without facts. The results of elections are to be announced again and all those things will start again.

The losing parties will try to convince you that they've lost due to EVM.

But you don't have to put doubts in your mind until there is any proof.

The people who are saying that EVM can be hacked, so you have to say that let's go to the election commission, hack the machine in front of everyone and become the hero of the nation.

If somebody's saying that EVM can be hacked or not. Then ask questions in both cases and try to find the truth before agreeing to something.