VVPAT Enhanced Credibility Of EVMs

Jagdish Bali

(The writer is based at Kumarsain, Shimla)

Working as public relations officer in the recently concluded Himachal Vidhan Sabha polls, I observed a smile expressive of satisfaction on the faces of many voters who came out after pressing the blue button on the ballot unit in the voting compartment. They passed by me leaving behind the beautiful smile spreading on their faces that nudged me to ask at least one about the secret of his smile. He smilingly said, “sir, is baar meine dekhaa ki mera vote usi ko gaya hai, jiska button meine dabaya. This was the environment in which the polls were held in Himachal and this is how the introduction of VVPAT has enhanced the credibility of the EVM’s. After thumping win of the BJP in UP elections and AAP’s loss in Punjab, various questions were raised about the veracity of the EVM’s. Now with the arrest of an IAS aspirant from Pune by HP police for sending SMS’s to the candidates claiming that he could hack EVM’s for their advantage, the question has again become alive.

All this clamour and claims, notwithstanding, with the introduction of VVPAT in polling such questions do not hold much water. If one happens to follow the preparation of EVM’s with the VVPAT for the actual day of poll, he will have every reason to affirm that voting through EVM’s is as good and valid as the voting through paper ballots. The process of randomization of EVM’s at different levels leaves almost nothing to doubt about its working. Rigging this whole process doesn’t seem to be a possible possibility. Whatever little bit of doubt is left for the poll day is eliminated by the mock poll that is carried out in the presence of polling agents. Not one, two or three but fifty votes are cast to the different candidates including NOTA. The votes thus polled are then tallied with the data recorded in the control unit (CU) of the EVM which in turn is matched with the voter’s slips printed out by the VVPAT. Thus every bit of doubt vanishes. Even if after this long process of cleansing and recleansing, should someone have some doubts, he may ask for the counting and matching of Control Unit data with the slips stored in the VVPAT compartment. Even one may ask to randomly verify the data of any polling booth or constituency with the voters’ slips in the VVPAT.

Yes, the EVM may develop some snag as any machine does at the time of poll. But it is different from hacking. Though I am no expert techie to say that EVM cannot be hacked, but I can say that possibility of its hacking like other computerised machine does not arise as it is not left open for any Tom, Dick and Harry to hack. Instead all such possibilities are nullified by different level checks and randomizations of EVM’s till the actual poll. Now as the VVPAT has been introduced, the hacking so many machines will require a godly interference. Those who doubt will even doubt their own beliefs as a weak captain blames the toss for loss, but the queerly looking VVPAT kept in equally queerly looking case has certainly strengthened the veracity of EVM’s.

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