EC defends EVMs as US intel chief Tulsi Gabbard flags ‘vulnerabilities’
Tulsi Gabbard said that the Intelligence department has “evidence” that EVS are susceptible to the exploitation to manipulate the results”
The Election Commission of India said on Friday that the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) used in India are “simple, correct and accurate calculators”, responding to concerns raised by US Director of Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard over the “vulnerability” of electronic voting systems (EVS) in the United States to “hacking”.
During a Cabinet meeting convened by US President Donald Trump on April 10, Gabbard said that the Intelligence department has “evidence” that EVS are susceptible to the exploitation to manipulate the results” of votes cast and advocated for paper ballot-based elections. To be sure, she was commenting about the machines used in the US and not specifically referring to the EVMs used in India.
ECI said on Friday that in India EVMs have stood legal scrutiny. An ECI official who asked not to be named explained the difference between EVS and EVMs: “EVS are a mix of multiple systems, machines and processes including various private networks including the Internet etc. India uses EVMs…[which] cannot be connected to either Internet, Wi-Fi or Infrared. These machines have stood legal scrutiny by the Supreme Court of India and are invariably checked by the political parties at various stages including the conduct of mock polls before polling starts. More than 50 million voter verifiable paper audit trail slips have been verified and matched while counting in front of political parties.”
“Evaluation of ECI-EVM design at its formulation stage as well as prototype and pilot stages are done traditionally by testing for worst case considerations, and performance measured on established statistical principles. Hence, EVM design as well as voting through EVM is reliable,” it added.
EVMs are designed with two units, the control unit and the ballot unit, and the two are joined by a cable.
ECI has explained in the past that the control unit of the EVM is kept with the presiding officer or the polling officer, while the ballot unit is kept within the voting compartment for electors to cast their votes.
“Indian EVMs are robust and implement technologies and processes which are different and non-comparable. The Supreme Court of India and various High Courts have time and again scrutinised the machines and have reposed their confidence and faith in ECI-EVMs,” ECI said.
