Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'What’s wrong with EVM?' that was published in Newsband

What’s wrong with EVM?

The representatives of a large section of the mainstream Opposition parties met the Election Commission (ECI) to demand changes to the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail counting process during the general elections. The Electronic Voting Machine process is a major improvement over paper-based voting. There has been no evidence of EVM-tampering as claimed by some parties. Still the ECI had fast-tracked the implementation of the VVPAT, an adjunct to the EVM that allows for a paper trail for voting and later verification of the electronically registered mandate in the ballot unit of the EVM.

The Opposition demand for a count of 50% of the VVPAT slips, VVPAT recounts could eliminate any remaining doubt about possible “insider fraud” by errant officials or manufacturers.

The main allegation on EVM/ VVPAT machines is the EC is hand in glove with some political parties and reset the results in the machines in favor of certain political parties. So it will be better once the polling is over to handover the machines to some neutral bodies which is headed by retired Judicial Dept. people and having members of the political parties in the fray. Till counting and all related issues are over those machines should be taken away from that neutral body.

Checking EVM votes against VVPAT strengthens democracy and faith in democracy. If it is time consuming for humans, VVPAT and EVM matching can be done with AI. People should not have blind faith in ECI /EVM, they should be made to stand for verification, eventually, 100% EVM should connect to VVPAT and all can be verified using Artificial intelligence.

EVMs are here to stay. VVPAT sampling of 2 large booths in each constituency should also serve the purpose. We had seen in M.P., election results took a longer time because of this parallel exercise. EC should stand firm and should desist any attempt to to do away with EVM.

The current level of matching VVPAT and EVM is a statistical approach validated by hypotheses testing. The EVM based election has thrown results fast enough, rigging is not possible, as booth capturing mass voting will require a lot of time using EVM. How to disrupt the current electoral system if it is not conducive to winning - Make unjustified demands on VVPAT or ask for a retrograde step of going back to paper ballots. Next demand would be to cast doubts on the voter list and the step would be to find a way to delete names of voters who will not vote for you.

The issue of matching EVM with VVPAT came up because during the recent Assembly elections in Telangana, it was observed not only a mismatch but also the voter turnout was declared after 30 hours of closing of polling while in other states it was declared within 3 hours.

Backtrack by Mahagathbandhan on EVM issue exposed its character. It is well against the EVM and went to SC for paper ballot. Even some media supported the Mahagathbandhan. Even in Kolkota rally, it opposed it tooth & nail. Now their change of colour on EVM cast doubt on their integrity.

Does the vote go for the candidate voted for? That is the question. It is the duty of ECI to ensure this 100% and devise a system accordingly. All other explanations are unnecessary.

Any sampling method is having its own deficiency as sampling error is not uncommon, check up with any statistical expert. No statistical method is as dependable as the census method, and that is why the elections are conducted despite 130 crore population in India. If EVMs are to stay, it is better to count the printed counterfoils of EVMs in case of any challenge of the results by a political party. If the aggrieved political party is ready to bear the cost of counting the counterfoils, it can be done to obliterate and dispel any doubt in the mind of the candidates.

Responsible opposition parties are making this demand because they have genuine apprehensions; they have nothing improper to gain if a higher percentage of votes are verified against the paper trail. It is also a fact that they are not accepting everything that the ECI tells them as the gospel truth. That calls for some introspection.