["Various courts have also heard petitions on this issue and univocally expressed faith in EVMs. But though voter confidence in EVMs is very high, the EC has taken further steps to enhance transparency by adding a Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT)."
These are rather cautious words. There is no backing for the commitment to make use of VVPAT mandatory for the coming general election. Not only that, that the Supreme Court has issued clear directive to use VVPAT (see: P 18/20 at <http://supremecourtofindia.nic.in/outtoday/9093.pdf>.) is carefully omitted. And also the commitment by the EC itself (see: <http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/2019-general-elections-to-have-paper-trail-evms-cec-116022300504_1.html>). Never mind. Voices must rise to demand mandatory use of the VVPAT during the next general election. (That victorious candidates do not complain is obviously just a silly argument. Why should they!?)] http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/toi-edit-page/evms-do-stellar-service-as-messengers-of-the-peoples-mandate-and-every-winning-candidate-loves-them/ EVMs do stellar service as messengers of the people’s mandate, and every winning candidate loves them March 21, 2017, 2:00 AM IST Rajat Moona in TOI Edit Page (The writer is director of IIT Bhilai and member of the Technical Expert Committee of EC on EVM) After election results are declared, losing candidates complain about unfair treatment from the electronic voting machine. They blame their loss on an inanimate object that cannot speak for itself. But although candidates like or dislike these machines depending on whether they win or lose, EVMs show the same behaviour day after day – unbiased and efficient. Since 1989 when these machines were approved for use, they have conducted more than 100 election. Over these many years, the same people have sometimes raised doubts on the credibility of EVMs and at other times ridiculed the idea of their being doubted. Some naysayers with no access to any EVM have published videos claiming to show how every EVM can be tampered with. But nobody has ever demonstrated the tamperability of a real EVM. Nor have winning candidates ever complained about EVM behaviour. There are many factors that make Indian EVMs robust. To begin with, there is no way to connect an EVM to the internet or to any wireless communication device like a mobile phone. This ensures that it cannot be controlled by some communication from outside. Malware cannot be inserted into EVMs as into PCs, which connect to the internet. To claim they can be infected is like saying that your AC remote control or digital clock can get malware – even though it is not connected to the internet. Some conspiracists suggest that certain hidden key strokes can alter the behaviour of EVMs. But if this were the case, it couldn’t have remained hidden after 20 years of continuous usage in more than 100 elections. Anyone who could manipulate EVMs like this would have been in great demand. These doubts are ridiculous. However, to address such doubts, the Election Commission has established various safeguards like conducting mock polls, sealing the machines and ensuring that only the machines certified by various political agents are used in elections. If the machines are tampered with, what were these agents doing while certifying the machines? If some kind of manipulating key existed, it would have to be deployed separately at millions of polling booths. It would require millions of trained fraudsters – one for each polling booth – to carry out such manipulation. It is just infeasible to do this secretly. EVMs undergo a variety of tests – during manufacturing, during subsequent evaluations and during the conduct of elections. These tests are carried out by independent, authorised and competent agencies. Imagine for example a monkey-on-a-keyboard test, hitting random key strokes to seek out any behaviour anomaly. No behavioural anomalies have yet been detected, so what the losing candidates attacking EVMs have to explain is how a secret known to millions of fraudsters remains undetected. During voting, the machine is enabled by the presiding officer and only one key can be pressed by a voter. Therefore, there is no possibility for a rogue voter to try out a sequence of keys. Furthermore EVMs are programmable only at the time of manufacturing their chip. Programs cannot be changed once the machines are in use. A program that biases one particular key is not possible since the keys for the parties and candidates are not known at the time of manufacturing and until the time of the election. ***Various courts have also heard petitions on this issue and univocally expressed faith in EVMs. But though voter confidence in EVMs is very high, the EC has taken further steps to enhance transparency by adding a Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT).*** [Emphasis added.] These are sealed printers with a viewing window and a sealed box underneath. When a voter casts the vote by press of a key, a printed slip is generated which can be seen in the viewing window and is thereafter cut and deposited in the sealed box. Each vote registered by the machine therefore has a corresponding print and the results on the machine can be verified by counting the slips. Many such VVPAT machines were used in the recently conducted elections. It is interesting to note that no candidate has asked for a counting of these slips as per established procedures of EC, reinforcing the credibility of EVMs as messengers of the people’s mandate. -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
