1.
Col. H.S. Shankar, VSM (Retd), who is
now Chairman & Managing Director, Alpha Design Technologies, Bangalore, was
the Director (R&D) BEL till March 2003 and was the Head of Manufacturing
Division of BEL which manufactured and supplied 1.5 Lakhs EVMs during 1990.
2.
Even during that period, EVMs faced
lot of criticisms from politicians - quite a few who were not in favour of such
changes. Col. Shankar had to issue
clarifications and along with his colleagues fight for its acceptance.
3.
It is a pity that unnecessary
controversies have been raised on 11 March 2017 by Madam Mayavathi attributing
defeat of her party in UP Elections to tampering of EVMs.
4.
EVMs
are the pride of our Country and have served Indian electorate in large number
of elections. These cannot be tampered with.
5.
The evolution of EVMs and why they
cannot be Tampered with are given in succeeding paras.
BASIC
UNITS OF EVMs:
6.
Electronic Voting Machine (EVM)
consists mainly of two interconnected units – the BALLOT UNIT & CONTROL
UNIT.
7.
Ballot Unit is from where the Voter
casts his vote by pressing a button alongside the name of the Candidate and
symbol of the Party (or Independent) whom the person chooses to vote.
8.
The Control Unit which will be in
front of the Polling Official and enables Ballot Unit for the Voter to cast his
vote by the Polling Officer pressing the Ballot Button on the Control Unit. The Control Unit has all data like number of
votes polled for each candidate, total number of votes cast, etc.
VOTING PROCESS USING
EVMs:
9.
The voting sequence using EVM (diagram
shown below) has been kept as close to traditional ballot box voting process as
possible.
10.
Before start of day’s voting process
using EVM, the Polling Officer calls all the Candidates / Party Poll Reps and demonstrates
the following:
a.
That there are no votes stored inside
the memory of Control Unit.
b. Carries
out random voting for various candidates by physically pressing the Ballot Unit
switches few times for few dummy candidates.
c.
Later closes the operation.
d. Shows
the results by pressing “Result” button on Control Unit.
e.
Reads out (and shows) to Reps of Candidates
/ Parties the number of votes recorded for each dummy candidates for which the
buttons were pressed earlier for demo.
f.
The reps of Candidates / Parties check
and confirm that the number of votes shown as a result of this demo poll
exactly matches what had been done in their presence for respective candidates.
g.
After this, the Polling Officer
presses “CLEAR” button on Control Unit, which erases all earlier results
stored.
h.
This cleared results (i.e., there is
nothing loaded / stored in the memory) are again demonstrated to Parties reps
by pressing the “Result” button which again shows “0” result for each Candidate. This is also cross-checked by reps of
Candidates / Parties reps.
i.
The Reps of Candidates / Parties sign
a form on the above demo that it is “OK”.
j.
After above demo, the inner and outer
locks are closed (locked), sealed (all done by Polling Officer) in the presence
of Reps of Candidates / Parties.
k.
The EVM (i.e,. Control Unit &
Ballot Unit interconnected) are now ready for Polls.
PROCESS / PROCEDURE
FOR ACTUAL VOTING:
11.
Once the validity of the voter has
been demonstrated by Polling Officer and checked by the reps of Candidates /
Parties and ensured (and voter signs on the back side of the voter list),
following process is followed for conduct of actual voting: -
a.
Polling Officer enables the Ballot
Unit.
b. Voter
is asked to go to the scheduled area where the Ballot Unit is placed.
c.
The voter scrutinizes the names of the
candidates / parties displayed on the Ballot Unit.
d. The
voter casts his vote by pressing the blue button on the Ballot Unit beside the
chosen candidate’s name / symbol.
e.
The corresponding LED on the Ballot
Unit next to the chosen candidate’s name / symbol is lit and an audible beep is
heard confirming the registration of vote in the system.
f.
If the voter presses the blue button
again, either on the same button next to candidate’s name / symbol or any other
button next to any other name / symbol will not be considered (and no LED
lighting or Beep sound is heard) and hence, other than the first record (sub
para (e) above) nothing more is recorded. Hence,
DOUBLE / MULTIPLE VOTING from same voter cannot be recorded.
g.
Process (a) to (e) is repeated for the
next and subsequent voters.
12.
At the end of polling, the process is
completed by the Polling Official (in front of Reps of Candidates / Parties)
pressing the “CLOSE” button on the Control Unit.
13.
The Control Unit’s sealed locks are
checked by Reps of Candidates / Parties.
14.
The Control Unit is placed in the separate
Box provided and the Box is again locked and sealed in front of Reps of Candidates
/ Parties and kept secure for further transportation by Security Personnel
(Armed escorts) to secure storage areas for safe custody. This storage area is again kept secure under
Government authorized security personnel.
TAMPER RESISTANCE:
15.
Following are the safety features
in-built to ensure Tamper Resistance of EVMs: -
a.
As per Para 10 above, before start of
voting process, a demo is conducted by the Polling Officer to all reps of Candidates
/ Parties by conduct of dummy voting and later by clearing the results and by
demonstrating “0” results polled / stored for each candidate – duly certified
by all reps of Candidates / Parties.
b. The
above demo clearly shows to reps of Parties following: -
i. That
when Ballot Unit is pressed for particular candidate/symbol, it is actually
added to the particular candidate / symbol and not to any other.
ii. When
it is shown as “Cleared” all candidates / symbols have “0” vote in their name.
c. As described at Para 11 (f)
above, after casting the Ballot to a particular candidate / symbol, the voter,
even if presses same or any other button on Ballot Unit, it will not be
recorded. This prevents double / multiple voting by the same voter, as the
Ballot Unit is disabled automatically, once the Button is pressed for the first
time.
d. Ballot
Unit has the names of candidates printed in Alphabetical order (in front of
which are the symbols of Parties).
e.
For each constituency this Alphabetical
order of names perforce and automatically will be different as in each
Constituency the names of Candidates will be different and hence occur in
different Alphabetical order.
f.
Hence, even if it is desired, it is
not possible to have a standard software program loaded for various Constituencies
with the software program having any method of transfer of votes from one
candidates names / symbol to any other candidates / symbol, as the candidates
will be different in different constituencies and their names will be different
(and hence, in different Alphabetical order).
g.
The Program (software) is embedded /
fused into a highly secure Integrated Circuit (IC) and is UNALTERABLE. These
ICs are themselves hard wired and hence cannot be easily accessed or replaced.
h.
A unique serial number of the EVM is
validated automatically before the commencement of operations. Any mismatches detected, being evidence of
tampering, renders the system unusable.
i.
The Ballot Unit has to be enabled by
the Polling Official, using the Control Unit.
Casting of vote is prevented if Ballot Unit is not enabled / activated
by the Polling Official.
j.
The operation of “CLOSE” button by the
Polling Official ends the poll after which the system does not accept any more
votes.
16.
An expert Committees with Shri. L.K.
Advani, Dr. P.V. Indersan (Director – IIT, Delhi), Prof. S. Sampath and Dr.
C.Rao Kasarabada carried out detailed analysis and evaluation during 2000 and
declared the EVMs as completely Tamper-Proof.
17.
In this connection, an article appearing
in Business Standard dated 07 Aug 2009 is of interest.
CHARGES MADE BY MISS
MAYAVATHI ON 11 MARCH 2017:
18. Miss Mayavathi has blamed that
EVMs have been tampered due to which votes polled for her Party have been
transferred to Candidates of BJP. As
proved above, EVMs are completely “TAMPER-PROOF”! Hence, there is absolutely, no such
possibility.
