I have been an observer of the electoral system in the country for over two decades.
I have attended meetings in the office of the Election Commission of India (ECI) as a member of civil society in the early days when electronic voting machines (EVMs) were first used on a large scale. Many then pointed out to the ECI that while the machines were fine as they were, the issue of major concern was the voter-machine interaction.
Back then it was a challenge to get voters who were not tech savvy – and there are still many – to use the EVMs properly.
A lot of water has flown down the Ganga since then and now EVMs are here to stay. There are however ever-increasing doubts about the reliability and dependability of the electronic voting system.
A lot has been written and said about this issue. Having followed that, I had decided quite some time ago that there is nothing new that can be said, so I refrained from commenting on it.
However, I have recently come across a few prominent comments which prompt me to comment on it.
EVS vs EVM
The first issue is of terminology and it is not a matter of simply using one word or expression in place of another. In this case it reflects a mindset. When the EVMs were first introduced, the most important feature was claimed to be that these were what was referred to as “stand-alone” machines which could not be connected with or contacted by any external source or device. And indeed, they are.
Now, ever since the introduction of the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT), it is no longer a stand-alone EVM but a group of three machines comprising of an EVM, a VVPAT machine, and a Control Unit. These three machines thus constitute a system which correctly should be referred to as an Electronic Voting System (EVS).
This EVS is no longer stand-alone because the VVPAT machines have to be provided additional information by connecting these to external devices (laptops) which are not part of the EVS.
Focusing the entire discussion using the term EVMs to actually refer to a group of three machines tends to confuse a lot of lay voters who still think that the Electronic Voting Machine is being discussed. The only people who possibly like this confusion are those who may benefit from it and let the status quo continue.
More technology versus simplicity
A plethora of solutions and resolutions of the issue have been suggested over the years. A common feature of almost all suggested solutions is more and more dependence on technology. As a matter of fact, this piece has been prompted by the interview of a technical expert that I saw recently.
Technology focused solutions follow the general belief that all problems can be solved with increasing use of more sophisticated technology. This is indeed true in a lot of situations but not necessarily true in all situations. The situation of electronic voting in India seems to be one such.
Suggested solution
Given that a significant, if not large, proportion of voters in India are not fully literate and not very tech savvy (it needs to be pointed out that using a simple or ‘smart’ cell phone does not make one necessarily tech-savvy), I propose that we use the simplest technology possible for this purpose.
The proposal is outlined below:
- Since the EVMs have been in use for quite some time and voters in general are familiar with their use, EVMs should be retained.
- The VVPATs and Control Units should be removed, and replaced by a simple printer capable of printing a slip showing (a) the name and party symbol of the candidate that the voter voted for and (b) a bar code which enables machine counting of the slips.
- The paper on which the above information is printed should be of good and durable quality capable of retaining the printed information for seven years (as opposed to the current paper from which the printed matter reportedly disappears after a rather short time).
- The voter should be able to collect the slip from the printer directly (without any election official having to intervene or assist the voter in any way), and place the slip directly in a common ballot box.
- All the slips in the common ballot box should be machine-counted based on the bar code printed on each slip. This counting process using counting machines based on the bar code should not take many days as apprehended by the ECI whenever a demand for a hundred percent counting of VVPAT slips is made, and in which even the Supreme Court has had to intervene in the past.
This proposal bypasses all complications and suspicions that have arisen about the VVPATs. I don’t feel the need to restate them here because they have been stated repeatedly. The only additional requirements are good quality paper and ink so that the printing lasts for seven years, and a barcode-based counting machine.
The proposed system will need some fine tuning and there are many experts to do that.
I am sure a country which has landed a vehicle on the moon can produce that.
Jagdeep S. Chhokar is a concerned citizen.
