[The most compelling case challenging the EVM's reliability has, as yet, been, arguanly, posed by the AAP. It was demonstrated on the floor of the Delhi assembly. (Ref.: < https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/live-updates-arvind-kejriwal-evm-tampering-kapil-mishra-corruption-delhi-assembly-session-976046-2017-05-09 >.) It was shown how the EVM can be tampered with and preprogrammed to give output in a way as desired by the tamperer. For that the motherboard of an EVM is to be changed, which, allegedly, takes just 90 seconds. It calls for physical access to the machine.
Syed Shuja's claimed method of "hacking" is an entirely different cup of tea. It's by sending electronic signal, from a distance, to the machine. No physical access. The (technical) write-up, reproduced below, underlines the pitfalls of such a claim. Even otherwise, the sister of Gauri Lankesh has publicly trashed Shuja's claim (ref.: < https://www.timesnownews.com/india/article/gauri-lankeshs-sister-rubbishes-self-styled-cyber-experts-claim-linking-her-to-evms/352727?fbclid=IwAR1NEHyAnpbVTYJvurzJNt5DcwLuRyRbwDGG1H50h5oRQe16LYF32hmq55>) that the murder of Gauri has anything to do with her (alleged) knowledge of the "rigging" of the last parliamentary poll. Kavita, Gauri's sister, has aptly pinpointed the threat such outlandish claim poses to the, rather fruitful, ongoing investigations into the murder by the Karnataka police. Shuja's allegations, serious as these are, call for credible and thorough investigations. The claim by Shuja has, however, two other major dangerous implications. It may infuse uncalled for complacency and, also, despondency in those who're engaged in the battle to ensure unseating of the incumbent evil regime, via the forthcoming poll. As for complacency, if one assumes that Modi/BJP won the last election only by rigging it, the almost inevitable conclusion would be that it's not really necessary to strain too much trying to sway the voters, they're in any case no fans of Modi/BJP. Even much more dangerous is the inference that there's hardly any point trying to defeat Modi/BJP in the coming poll, they'd win it anyway - by "rigging". Be that as it may, the VVPATs were introduced, in stages, as a complement to the EVMs in order to ensure the integrity of the polling process, in the context of all the doubts raised. During the coming poll, all the EVMs will come duly accompanied with VVPATs. That being the case, there's hardly any alibi not to use the VVPATs to make these fully play their intended role. ***Tallying the results of the EVMs with those of the corresponding VVPATs of only one booth per constituency is just a sick joke, not even an eyewash. The VVPATs being in place, the results of the EVMs must be tallied with those of the VVPATs in sufficient number, as determined by an independent committe of qualified statisticians/experts. One'd guess that it can in no way be less than randomly chosen 10% of all the booths in an assembly constituency. This calls for no physical addition to the assets to be mobilised for the poll by the Election Commission of India. Hence, no, whatever, bonafide reason not to do it. Instead of unrealistic demands, public attention must focus on the above.*** <<If someone has such an amazing technology that could be used to hack lakhs of EVMs using an ultra-small transceiver circuit with an efficient antenna, which would remain invisible to the human eye, and be able to plug itself automatically to such EVMs, that person could revolutionise the current telecom industry and should be a suitable candidate for the Nobel Prize in Physics. ... One final note: paper-based voting is even more susceptible to being hacked through booth capturing, artificial manipulation of ballots, change of ballot paper, and many different ways. In the current age, where printers and computers are readily available, it would take a couple of hours to duplicate ballot papers, print them and dispatch them with miscreants to the specific voting booths. Western countries that have refused to opt for EVMs are small, have a small number of voters, and have strong policing systems that prevent manual hacking and manipulation of ballots.>> (Excerpted from: < https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/an-expert-explains-hack-evms-defy-science-5552983/?fbclid=IwAR2edE-z6a1D_ZzTGEtgUzlLduFAS7wZvUGsYQ6k6rE6Y6C_axwI9clcAco >.)] https://scroll.in/latest/910713/evm-hacking-charge-not-going-back-to-ballot-papers-says-election-commission?fbclid=IwAR3BnkuoN9jQaSUakNkMAOtfBaUihwMNHerA2_-64qEUkh3VdY8SsQF9IZk Yesterday · 06:21 pm Scroll Staff EVM ‘hacking’ charge: Not going back to ballot papers, says Election Commission Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora said the poll panel would not be ‘intimidated or bullied’ into giving up the use of electronic voting machines. EVM ‘hacking’ charge: Not going back to ballot papers, says Election Commission Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora | IANS Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora on Thursday reiterated that the country would not revert to using ballot papers for elections, PTI reported. He said the Election Commission would not be “intimidated or bullied” into abandoning the use of Electronic Voting Machines. “We are open to any criticism, any feedback, from any stakeholders, including political parties, because they are the biggest stakeholders,” said Arora. “But at the same time, we are not going to be intimidated or bullied or pressurised or coerced into giving up these [EVMs and voter verified paper trail machines] and starting the era of ballot boxes.” Arora’s comments came a few days after a United States-based “cyber expert” claimed that the 2014 General Elections had been rigged. Syed Shuja on Monday alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party had hacked EVMs using a modulator that transmits military-grade frequency. After the press conference, the Election Commission had refuted allegations of EVM manipulation. The poll panel on Tuesday had asked the Delhi Police to file a First Information Report against Shuja. Arora was speaking at an international conference in New Delhi on “Making our Elections Inclusive & Accessible” ahead of National Voters’ Day on Friday. “We are not going back to that era where we have ballot papers being lifted, musclemen being employed besides the delay in the counting and also too much harassment of polling staff on the ground,” he said. Arora also asked why EVMs were being used as a “football” in a “motivated slugfest”. Following Shuja’s claims, several Opposition parties have asked for ballot papers to be used in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Arora said the 2014 General elections and the Delhi state elections held four months later had thrown up totally different results. “Since then, we have had elections in Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Tripura, Nagaland , Mizoram, and now Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Rajasthan... the results have been completely different in different times,” he said “My simple question is that if the result is X, the EVM is right and if the result turns out to be Y, the EVM is faulted.” Arora said EVMs and paper trail machines are manufactured by Bharat Electronics Limited and Electronics Corporation of India Limited under extremely secure conditions. He added that six incidents of EVM malfunctions were reported during the recent Assembly elections in five states and the Election Commission had taken swift action. “However, we are not happy even with those six incidents,” Arora said. “In elections, we should have zero tolerance for any incident of such nature.” -- 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 greenyouth+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send an email to greenyouth@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
