Fascinating thread.And since Eugen asked what booth-capturing, may I attempt a description of what it does, and why EVMs were thought of as a solution in the first place?
In many parts of India, primarily in the North, all political parties tried what's called booth-capturing. Armed thugs of parties would turn up at voting booths (typically schools, and at many places make-shift tents/huts) where people would have lined up, queuing to vote, rain or shine. They'd intimidate the voters (thus violating the law which says 48-hours before elections, and on the day of the election they mustn't canvas for votes). they'd be armed with lathis (big wooden staffs), or guns. They'd be on horses. Some voters would get afraid and flee; some would fold their hands and ask for instructions who to vote for. The police would flee. The other parties would send their drugs; sometimes there would be a mini-riot between thugs of different factions. The idea would be cast a pall of fear, intimidate voters who'd rush home and say - don't vote for X even if we want to, because Y's people are watching. Once the people, including pliant bureaucrats had fled, they'd take ballot papers by dozens, and stamp them all for their candidates. And stuff them in the ballot boxes. At times, during counting, a large bunch of votes cast for a single candidate would emerge, all folded together. Parties didn't always protest, because all parties had captured some booths. At other places, they'd make sure that particular communities didn't even turn up to vote - for examples, dalits would not be allowed near voting booths because if they did so, they were certain to vote, en masse, for some other candidate that this goon didn't want. All parties did it, so there was no one to blow the whistle. Only when the violations were particularly egregious, you'd have some inquiry and the odd election nullified. But you must remember, you are talking of states which send the bulk of parliamentarians, many of them with existing criminal record - so you had Uttar Pradesh sending 85 MPs, Bihar with 54, Madhya Pradesh with 40-odd, forming nearly 170-180 seats out of 547. Rig some one-third of these, in strategically-designed places, and you'd secure the majority you needed. Again, remember that all parties did it. (Another common tactic was that when dalits would turn up to vote, they'd be told, sorry, their names are not on the rolls at this booth, go to that booth. And that booth would be 15 miles away, and there would be no public transport. result: the community was effectively disenfranchised. Here's the story of one particularly egregious example, from Meham, in Haryana: http://www.indianexpress.com/oldStory/56249/ So when the good technically-minded bureaucrats decided to have EVMs in India, their idea was to prevent tamper-proofing - by allowing only a few votes registered per time-slot (to prevent multiple pressing of keys), and preventing any "human intervention" once the vote was cast. You are right; software dudes can electronically rig the system, but this is why India venerates its IIT grads and other neo-brahmins who are beyond reproach. Salil
