Issues With EVM, VVPAT & Challenges In Courts — All You Need To Know
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As the general elections approaches, the Supreme Court is all set to hear the challenges against electronic voting machines (EVMs) and VVPATs. Several prominent organisations and individuals have approached the top court seeking directions to Centre and the Election Commission Of India (ECI) to mandatorily cross verify the count in EVMs with votes that have been verifiably ‘recorded as cast’ by the voter through the VVPATs by counting all VVPAT slips. Recently, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) , the ruling party in Tamil Nadu, filed a petition in the Madras High Court against the new designs of EVMs.
Here’s a breakdown of why is there so much doubt around EVMs and what these petitions seek:
How EVMs Work
Developed by the ECI in alliance with the Electronics Corporation of India (ECIL) and Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), an EVM is a portable instrument designed to conduct elections for Parliament, state legislatures and local bodies like panchayats and municipalities. It is a microcontroller-based instrument that is designed to modernise the electoral process in a way that there is no scope for invalid or wasted votes. It also ensures total secrecy of voting data. They were introduced in India for the first time in Goa State Assembly elections of 1999. The voting data recorded by EVMs can be retained for years and can also be extracted if required.
How VVPAT Works?
The Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) is a system for verifying votes without traditional paper ballots, directly linked with the EVMs. They were first introduced in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections in India.
Everytime a voter casts a vote, the VVPAT produces a paper slip that is only visible to the voter. This lets the voter confirm that their vote has been accurately casted through EVM anc contains the serial number and symbol of the candidate. This VVPAT slip displays the name and symbol of the party the voter voted for.
Under the VVPAT system the vote is recorded in the Control Unit, so that in case of any dispute, paper slip can be counted to verify the result being shown on the EVM. For this purpose, a printer is attached to the Balloting Unit.
The machine where this VVPAT slip goes has a transparent window through which the voter can observe the printed slip. The VVPAT slip is placed inside a sealed compartment of the machine. These slips can be accessed in case of any dispute surrounding the EVMs.
Controversy Around EVMs:
The DMK has approached the Madras High Court against the design of the third generation M3 Electronic Voting Machines. The state of Tamil Nadu is due to go in Assembly elections this year. DMK has alleged that under the current model in which the VVPAT printer is placed between the Balloting Unit and the Control Unit can cause discrepancies and corrupt practices in the election. The petition further says that fixing the Symbol Loading Unit (SLU) in the VVPAT violates Election Rules.
DMK contends that according to rules, the Balloting Unit and the Control Unit of the EVM have to be placed in direct contact with each other. A VVPAT printer in the middle will send the data to the Control Unit and thus the recording of the vote will be dependent on the printing unit and there would be no guarantee that the input signal received by the printer from the balloting unit would be maintained which could lead to corruption of data.
The DMK further contends that the ECI is mandated to issue guidelines for application to count the printed paper slips, and no such guidelines have been issued so far giving untrammeled discretion to the returning officer to decide such applications arbitrarily.
Allegations of Tampering:
Many allegations have been made by political parties on the reliability of EVMs. Everytime elections are around the corner, some or the other party allege tampering through EVMs and demand the ballot paper system be restored.
In 2009, when Congress was winning, the BJP raised concerns over the reliability of the machines. The Election Commission has time and again said that according to technical experts EVMs cannot be hacked, rejecting the demand.
In 2020, when BJP was on a winning spree in power, this time allegations on EVM came from Congress, Aam Aadmi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party. In November 2020, in the Uttar Pradesh local elections reports emerged about some voting machines recording votes only for the BJP, irrespective of the buttons pressed. Later, the EC officials replaced the EVM machines as faulty and malfunctioning. The non-BJP parties alleged the machines had been tampered with.
Issues With EVMs And VVPAT:
The recent petition filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms in 2023, stated that the current practice by the ECI to count the electronically recorded votes in all of the EVMs and cross-verify EVMs with the VVPATs in only 5 randomly selected polling booth per assembly constituency is not sufficient.
Petitions In Supreme Court
Next week, just a few days before Lok Sabha elections begin, the apex court will hear the writ petition moved under Article 32 for enforcing the fundamental rights guaranteed under Article 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution of India.
The petitioners seek the following directions to the ECI:
1) To mandatorily cross verify the count in EVMs with votes that have been verifiably ‘recorded as cast’ by the voter through the VVPATs by counting all VVPAT slips.
2) Quashing and setting aside of Guideline No. 14.7(h) of the Manual on Electronic Voting Machine and VVPAT dated August, 2023 as framed and issued by Election Commission of India in so far as it allows only sequential verification of VVPAT slips resulting in undue delay in counting of all VVPAT slips.
3) The petitioner is also seeking a direction that the voter should be allowed to physically drop VVPAT slip as generated by the VVPAT in a ballot box to ensure that the voter’s ballot has been ‘counted as recorded’.
4) A direction to the ECI to make the glass of the VVPAT machine transparent and duration of the light long enough for the voter to see the paper recording his vote cut and drop into the drop box so as to ensure greater satisfaction, which was the purport of earlier judgments by Supreme Court in 2013 in ‘Dr. Subramanian Swamy vs Election Commission of India’ and another in 2019 in N. Chandrababu Naidu case.
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