As the general elections approaches, the Supreme Court is all set to hear the challenges against electronic voting machines (EVMs) and VVPATs. Several prominent organisations and individuals have approached the top court seeking directions to Centre and the Election Commission Of India (ECI) to mandatorily cross verify the count in EVMs with votes that have been verifiably ‘recorded as cast’ by the voter through the VVPATs by counting all VVPAT slips. Recently, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) , the ruling party in Tamil Nadu, filed a petition in the Madras High Court against the new designs of EVMs.
Here’s a breakdown of why is there so much doubt around EVMs and what these petitions seek:
How EVMs Work
Developed by the ECI in alliance with the Electronics Corporation of India (ECIL) and Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), an EVM is a portable instrument designed to conduct elections for Parliament, state legislatures and local bodies like panchayats and municipalities. It is a microcontroller-based instrument that is designed to modernise the electoral process in a way that there is no scope for invalid or wasted votes. It also ensures total secrecy of voting data. They were introduced in India for the first time in Goa State Assembly elections of 1999. The voting data recorded by EVMs can be retained for years and can also be extracted if required.
How VVPAT Works?
The Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) is a system for verifying votes without traditional paper ballots, directly linked with the EVMs. They were first introduced in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections in India.
Everytime a voter casts a vote, the VVPAT produces a paper slip that is only visible to the voter. This lets the voter confirm that their vote has been accurately casted through EVM anc contains the serial number and symbol of the candidate. This VVPAT slip displays the name and symbol of the party the voter voted for.
Under the VVPAT system the vote is recorded in the Control Unit, so that in case of any dispute, paper slip can be counted to verify the result being shown on the EVM. For this purpose, a printer is attached to the Balloting Unit.
The machine where this VVPAT slip goes has a transparent window through which the voter can observe the printed slip. The VVPAT slip is placed inside a sealed compartment of the machine. These slips can be accessed in case of any dispute surrounding the EVMs.
Controversy Around EVMs:
The recent petition filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms in 2023, stated that the current practice by the ECI to count the electronically recorded votes in all of the EVMs and cross-verify EVMs with the VVPATs in only 5 randomly selected polling booth per assembly constituency is not sufficient.
Petitions In Supreme Court
Next week, just a few days before Lok Sabha elections begin, the apex court will hear the writ petition moved under Article 32 for enforcing the fundamental rights guaranteed under Article 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution of India.
The petitioners seek the following directions to the ECI:
1) To mandatorily cross verify the count in EVMs with votes that have been verifiably ‘recorded as cast’ by the voter through the VVPATs by counting all VVPAT slips.
2) Quashing and setting aside of Guideline No. 14.7(h) of the Manual on Electronic Voting Machine and VVPAT dated August, 2023 as framed and issued by Election Commission of India in so far as it allows only sequential verification of VVPAT slips resulting in undue delay in counting of all VVPAT slips.
3) The petitioner is also seeking a direction that the voter should be allowed to physically drop VVPAT slip as generated by the VVPAT in a ballot box to ensure that the voter’s ballot has been ‘counted as recorded’.
4) A direction to the ECI to make the glass of the VVPAT machine transparent and duration of the light long enough for the voter to see the paper recording his vote cut and drop into the drop box so as to ensure greater satisfaction, which was the purport of earlier judgments by Supreme Court in 2013 in ‘Dr. Subramanian Swamy vs Election Commission of India’ and another in 2019 in N. Chandrababu Naidu case.