Electronic Voting Matchine

1. BJP demanded certain modifications in the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) to enable voters to get paper acknowledgments of their votes cast.
2. So EC has created expert commit. The committee is likely to be headed by former IIT Madras director Prof P V Indiresan.
   
3. All EVM should have paper trail and paper votes acknowledgement should be given to voter to put this in the in separate safe box. This way voter too is happy that his vote has gone to right person. This box should be also sealed like it was done in earlier days. Box should be opened only if one of the contestant challenged the result. This should be allowed on payment of fee, subtantial amount to deter frivolous challenge, which should be refunded if he is proved right. This way, we shall have the oonvenience of the EVM and proof that this was not tampered with.
   
4. Voter verified paper trail (VVPAT) refers to a system wherein a printer attached with the voting machine produces a paper printout of every vote cast just as an ATM produces a slip after every transaction. The voter verifies it for its accuracy and then deposits it into a ballot box.
5. The EVMs were devised and designed by Election Commission of India in collaboration with two Public Sector undertakings viz., Bharat Electronics Limited, Bangalore and Electronics Corporation of India Limited, Hyderabad.
6. First EVM was used in Kerala Election

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Against:

The Election Commission of India has decided to refer to a technical expert committee the suggestion of some political parties to have a voter verifiable paper trail for the EVM. Opposition parties had earlier expressed fears over the possible tamperability of EVMs after an Indian and two foreign technologists accessed it; though they found the software not hackable, they showed tamperability, but only after changing components. With the software found to be untamperable, the demand for jettisoning EVMs has now given way to its continued use, but with a suggestion to provide a paper trail. This is not a new innovation. But its introduction will have humongous implications. Hence, a careful appraisal of costs and benefits is required before the plunge. ECI and stakeholders will have to ponder over mind-boggling logistics of a million polling stations having EVM and paper ballots. Further, a physically accessible piece of paper can become a source for bribery and intimidation. Unless carefully watched, and that too without compromising the secrecy of a vote, voters can disappear with the receipt, causing confusion and disruption. Printers are mechanical devices prone to failures and there are consequent hold-ups. Design problems, like a powersource for the printer, safekeeping of printing paper and sealed storage bin for printed paper — and the need for all these to be light-weight and easy to carry over long distances — have to be addressed. Present EVMs can only print a candidate’s number, but the receipt without a party symbol will be meaningless to a majority of voters. So, while paper trail seems to be an attractive step, it will be an arduous trek. If there are lingering doubts about EVM software, it can be tested. But if a paper trail is just to clear political parties' doubts over software or validate failure-prone opinion and exit polls, it is an absurd and avoidable exercise. Better then to go back to ballots instead of the duality of paper and machine, which is sure to cause confusion and disputes at the counting table. Let attention not be diverted from the far more serious issues confronting the poll scenario like criminals in politics, money power and paid news, lest it becomes a case of missing the wood for the trees.

For:
Our EVMs function as ‘black boxes’ and have rendered the entire voting process non-transparent, unverifiable and unauditable. Consequently, this has led to nagging doubts among voters and parties about their reliability. For the same limitations, after spending millions of euros, many European countries, including Germany, Netherlands, Ireland, etc., have banned electronic voting and returned to paper ballots. In the US, too, most states have now banned paperless voting systems. Admittedly, India has unique needs and situations. Thus, we need not follow western democracies. But we should not overlook the limitations of electronic voting setups either. Following concerns raised by many parties, the ECI has now agreed to review the possibility of providing paper trail for the EVMs. Voter verified paper trail (VVPAT) refers to a system wherein a printer attached with the voting machine produces a paper printout of every vote cast just as an ATM produces a slip after every transaction. The voter verifies it for its accuracy and then deposits it into a ballot box. There are many misconceptions about VVPAT regarding the secrecy of vote. You can address them by having a VVPAT solution in which the printed ballot becomes visible behind a glass screen and gets dropped into a ballot box after the voter verifies it for accuracy. Chandrababu Naidu made such a proposal and all parties backed it at the all-party meeting. The other reservations for adopting VVPAT are costs involved and the unreliability of printers. In my opinion, the cost involved is well worth it, given that there is nothing more valuable than a well-preserved democracy. Unreliability of printers would warrant more printers to be kept in reserve for replacement. VVPAT is what we need if we must continue with electronic voting. The only alternative to this is returning to paper ballots. Significantly, prominent EVM critics worldwide are top-ranked computer scientists, while most of those supporting the EVMs are people with no such expertise. Thus, the ECI’s decision to refer the matter to an experts committee is unexceptionable and indeed appreciable.