Electronic voting in India

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VVPAT used with electronic voting machines in Indian elections

Electronic voting is the standard means of conducting elections using Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in India. The system was developed for the Election Commission of India by state-owned Electronics Corporation of India and Bharat Electronics. Starting in the late 1990s, they were introduced in Indian elections in a phased manner.

Prior to the introduction of electronic voting, paper ballots were used and manual counting was done. The printed paper ballots were expensive, required substantial post-voting resources and time to count individual ballots and were prone to fraudulent voting with pre-filled fake ballots. Introduction of EVMs have brought down the costs significantly, reduces the time of counting to enable faster announcement of results and eliminated fraudulent practices due to safety features such as security locking, limits to rate of voting per minute and verification of thumb impressions. EVMs are stand-alone machines built with Write once read many memory. They are self-contained, battery-powered and do not need any networking capability. They do not have any wireless or wired internet components and interface.

Various opposition parties at times have alleged faulty EVMs after they failed to defeat the incumbent. In 2011, the Supreme Court of India directed the Election Commission to include a paper trail to help confirm the reliable operation of EVMs. The Election Commission developed EVMs with voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) which was trialed in the 2014 Indian general election. After the 2019 ruling by the Supreme Court, EVMs with accompanying VVPAT are used in all the elections with a small percentage (2%) of the VVPATs verified to ensure the reliability before certifying the final results.

The Election Commission of India had also stated that the machines, system checks, safeguard procedures, and election protocols are fully tamper-proof. To mitigate any doubts regarding the hardware, 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 and 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.

Background[edit]

Paper ballots were exclusively used during elections till the 1990s.[1] The printed paper ballots were expensive and required substantial resources for transporting, safely storing them and physically counting individual ballots.[2] Paper ballots were prone to fraudulent voting and booth capturing, where party loyalists captured booths and stuffed them with pre-filled fake ballots.[3] Since the late 1950s, there were multiple documented cases of such activities being reported.[4] The problem grew between the 1950s and 1980s and became a serious and large scale problem in certain states and regions often accompanied with violence.[5] In the late 1970s, Election Commission of India sought a solution for the issues which resulted in the development of Electronic voting machines (EVM).[3][6]

History[edit]

Design and introduction[edit]

The Electronic Voting Machine was proposed in 1977 and Electronics Corporation of India (ECIL) was tasked with the development of the same. In 1979, a working model was evolved and was showcased to various political parties on 6 August 1980.[7] Bharat Electronics (BEL) and ECIL were tasked with manufacturing EVMs.[8] The EVMs were first trialed in 1982 in the by-election to Paravur assembly constituency in Kerala in a limited number of polling stations.[9] In a ruling on a case filed against the usage of EVMs in the by-election, the Supreme Court of India ruled that the sections 59–61 of the Representation of People Act 1951 specified paper ballots and it, therefore, forbade the use of any other technology including electronic voting. The court stated that the use of an alternate technology would require the Indian parliament to amend the law.[10]

Wider adoption[edit]

Post the court ruling, as there was no existing law permitting the usage of EVMs, it could not be deployed immediately. In 1989, the Representation of the People Act, 1951 was amended by the Parliament of India to permit the usage of electronic voting. But the deployment was further delayed as general consensus could not be reached with the political parties and other stakeholders on the usage of EVMs.[7] In 1998, the machines were used on an experimental basis across 25 state assembly constituencies during the assembly elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi. In May 2001, EVMs were used in all constituencies for the state assembly elections in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry and West Bengal. In 2004, in the General Election, the EVMs were used in all 543 Parliamentary Constituencies for the first time. Since the time, all state assembly and parliamentary elections are held using the EVMs.[7]

Further improvements[edit]

As the candidate can know how many people from a polling station exactly voted for him/her, the winning candidate might show favoritism or hold a grudge on specific areas that did not vote for the candidate. In order to mitigate the issue, a totaliser unit was developed in 2008, which can be connected to several control units and would display only the overall results instead of votes from individual machines.[11][12]

After a ruling by the Supreme Court, the Election Commission appointed an expert technical committee in 2011 to study the feasibility of a Voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) in EVMs to counter the charges of tampering.[13] The committee was tasked to examine the possibility of showing a printed paper to a voter with the symbol of the party to which the vote was cast.[14] On the recommendation of the committee, a VVPAT system was developed and was put on field trials.[15][16] In July 2011, field trials of the system were conducted at Ladakh, Thiruvananthapuram, Cherrapunjee, East Delhi and Jaisalmer to test the performance under various weather conditions.[17][18]

Voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) was introduced on a trail basis in a by-poll in September 2013 in Noksen (Assembly Constituency) in Nagaland.[19] It was later used in various Legislative elections and in eight Lok Sabha constituencies in 2014 Indian general election.[20][21][22] Following the judgement of the Supreme Court on 8 October 2013, the Election Commission of India introduced VVPATs along with EVMs in a phased manner.[23][24] In 2019, the Supreme Court directed that a small percentage (2%) of the VVPATs shall be verified to ensure the reliability before certifying the final results.[25][26][27]

Design and technology[edit]

Ballot unit (left) and Control unit (right)

The EVM was designed by a team led by A.G. Rao and Ravi Poovaiah, professors at IIT Bombay.[28] An EVM consists of two units, a control unit, and the ballot unit which are joined by a cable.[29] The ballot unit consists of labeled buttons which facilitates voting by a voter with the control unit responsible for the operational control of the ballot units, storing of vote counts and display of results on LED displays. The control unit is pre-programmed at the time of manufacturing and cannot be altered later.[29]

The machines are powered by a six volt alkaline battery which enables the use of EVMs without a secondary power source.[30] The designers intentionally opted for battery power, to prevent the possibility of power cables interfering with the functioning and to enable the EVMs to function where a secondary power source is not available.[31] The two units work in tandem and cannot work independently.[29] The EVMs do not have any communication components or internet interface.[31] The ballot unit has an internal clock and a pre-programmed protocol by which it records every input-output event with a timestamp provided it is powered.[31]

An EVM was designed to record a maximum of 3840 votes. A single ballot unit can list 16 candidates and as a part of the initial design, up to four ballot units could be connected in parallel to a single control unit to cater to a maximum of 64 candidates.[29] After an upgrade in 2013, 24 ballot units can now be connected to a single unit so that it can cater to a maximum of 384 candidates.[32] These devices were designed to prevent fraud by limiting the number of new votes can be entered into the machine in a given time frame. In a minute, the EVMs can register a maximum of five votes.[1][3] The later version of the EVMs are all equipped with VVPAT capability.[33] VVPAT system which was an upgrade of the EVMs had modified software that allowed a printer to be attached to the machine.[34] In June 2018, built-in-hood was added to protect the printer and other devices from excess light and heat in VVPAT systems.[35]

Usage[edit]

Sketch of the Ballot unit of the EVM used to cast votes

The EVMs are inventoried and stored at secure locations by the Election Commission.[36] 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 and 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 and to prove that it is operating reliably and that there were no hidden votes pre-recorded in each machine.[37]

On an election day, the control unit is operated by the polling booth officer, while the ballot unit is operated by the voter in privacy. The officer confirms the voter's identification before electronically activating the ballot unit to accept a new vote. Once the voter enters the vote, the ballot unit displays the vote to the voter and records it in its memory. Post the voting, the control unit registers the vote on the "close" command of the polling officer post which the process can be repeated.[29] Once a “close” command is issued, the votes already cast in the device's permanent memory cannot be deleted and the device's ability to accept additional votes is disabled mitigating any attempts to open or tamper with the unit.[3] With the VVPAT system, when a vote is cast, it is recorded in its memory and simultaneously a serial number and vote data is printed out for the voter to verify the same.[38] The Election Commission also maintains a database of thumb impressions and electronic voting signatures, open to inspection by polling agent volunteers and outside observers. The 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.[3]

After a poll closes on an election day, the units are separated and the control units moved and stored separately in locked and guarded premises. The Presiding officer, at the close of the poll, will hand over to each polling agent present an account of votes recorded. The EVMs are tracked by the Election Commission of India on a real-time basis with a specialized EVM Tracking Software (ETS).[36] The embedded hardware and software enables only a particular control unit to work with a particular voting unit issued by the Election Commission, as another layer of tamper-proofing post the polls have been completed. The machines are also stored under several layers of seals to ensure security and safety.[39]

At the time of counting of votes, the results are displayed on the control unit on pressing the "Result" button. There are built-in safeguards to prevent the accidental pressing of this button before the counting of votes officially begins. This button cannot be pressed before the "Close" button is pressed by the polling officer-in-charge at the end of the voting process and the button is hidden and sealed which is usually exposed only at the counting center in the presence of the designated officer.[29] The total displayed will also be tallied with the count given on the polling day.

Cost and life span[edit]

The cost per EVM was ₹5,500 (equivalent to ₹59,000 or US$740 in 2023) at the time the first batch of machines were purchased in 1989–90. The cost was estimated to be ₹10,500 (equivalent to ₹17,000 or US$210 in 2023) per unit as per an additional order issued in 2014.[40] Though the design, production and procurement was capital intensive, it has helped reduce the cost incurred on the printing of ballot papers, their transportation and storage and the counting staff and the remuneration paid to them. EVMs are easier to transport compared to ballot boxes as they are lighter, more portable, and come with polypropylene carrying cases. The shelf life of an EVM is estimated to be 15 years.[41]

Reliability[edit]

Control unit in an EVM said to be tamper-proof by the Election Commission of India

The use of EVMs, their reliability and speculations about fraud through the use of EVMs have been the subject of many lawsuits before state high courts and the Supreme Court of India. These courts have either dismissed the cases as frivolous or ruled in the favor of the Election Commission and the Supreme Court has declared that the use of EVMs in elections was constitutionally valid.[42][43]

In February 2010, an international conference held under the chairmanship of Subramanian Swamy blamed the Election Commission for shirking its responsibility on proving the transparency in the working of the EVMs.[44] In April 2010, an independent security analysis was released by a research team led by Hari K. Prasad, Rop Gonggrijp, and Alex Halderman which suggested moving to a voting system that provides greater transparency, such as paper ballots, precinct count optical scan, or a voter verified paper audit trail, since, in any of these systems, skeptical voters could, in principle, observe the physical counting process to gain confidence that the outcome is fair.[45]

A PIL filed in the Supreme Court in 2011 for directing the Election Commission to modify the EVMs to give a slip printed with the symbol of the party in whose favor the voter cast.[46][47][48] On 17 January 2012, Delhi High Court in its ruling on Subramanian Swamy's Writ Petition challenging the use of EVMs in the present form asked the Election Commission to hold wider consultations with the executive, political parties and other stake holders on the matter.[49][50] Following further petitions in the Supreme Court and the subsequent ruling in 2013 led to the use of VVPATs.[51][52][53]

The possibility of EVM tampering have been rejected by the Election Commission.[54] The Election Commission and the manufacturers of the EVMs have maintained that the machines are tamper-proof as the programming is done at a secure manufacturing facility and the units have an anti-tamper mechanism by which they become non-operational if it is illegally opened. With no connecting or transmission devices and a real-time logging system, the anti-tamper mechanism in the machine can detect minor changes in time variations.[55][56][57]

Election Commission organized an open hackathon on 3 June 2017 encouraging people to attempt hacking of EVMs used by the commission in various Indian elections.[58] While none of them participated, functioning of the EVM and VVPAT machines were demonstrated in the event.[59]

Export to other countries[edit]

Nepal, Bhutan, Namibia and Kenya have acquired India-manufactured EVMs. In 2013, the Election Commission of Namibia acquired 1700 control units and 3500 ballot units from India's Bharat Electronics Limited; these units were used in the regional and presidential elections in 2014.[60] Several other Asian and African countries are reportedly interested in using them.[61]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

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  59. ^ Prabhu, Sunil (3 June 2017). Tikku, Aloke (ed.). "The EVM (Vote Machine) 'Hackathons' That Weren't: 10 Points". NDTV. Archived from the original on 25 December 2018. Retrieved 9 September 2017.
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