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Author - Associate Runa Jasia

EVM stands for Electronic Voting Machine. It is used for giving votes to the political candidate who stands up for an election contest during that particular year in India. Voter cast their votes according to their choice of the candidate. Generally all citizens of India vote during Lok Sabha elections, state elections or general elections which happen once in a 5 year of a fixed time. Before the announcement of using EVM in India, paper ballots were used. If any EVM machine stops working then it is replaced by another EVM machine at that time only. A voter has to press a button which is in front of the symbol of a particular political party. A red light glows against the symbol and name of that candidate. A long beep can be heard after the vote has been successfully cast. Generally, EVM machines work in a good flow thus there is less chance of failure. The first level of checking is done by the manufacturer before the elections. It has made the voting system quite easy and less time-consuming. A paper ballot was done manually, but now as technology has snowballed in our society in every field, it is quite apparent to use EVM instead of the standard manual voting. 

EVM was introduced in the year 1982 in India. However, in the year 2003, all the elections were held using EVMs. Around the whole world, there are countries which use electronic voting system instead of a paper ballot system. But during the last years, people have raised questions regarding this e-voting system. 

 Taking an example of Germany, several flaws were found in the e-voting system in the year 2006. Germany ended electronic voting in the year 2009, with the German Federal Constitutional Court finding that the inability to have meaningful public scrutiny meant that electronic voting was unconstitutional. Now they are back to the paper ballot system instead of the Electronic way of voting.

Certain myths about VVPAT are as follows:

Myth: VVPAT takes a photo of the voter, thus compromising confidentiality. 
Fact: There are no cameras in VVPAT at all.

Myth: VVPAT slips are usually collected by the voter

The fact is that these slips cannot be touched by the voters at all.

Myth: VVPAT print will not last more than 15-30 days.

Fact: The print on the thermal paper which is used usually lasts for more than five years

Myth: VVPAT takes a photo of the voter, thus compromising confidentiality. 

Fact: There are no cameras in VVPAT at all.

Myth: Large number of VVPATs stop functioning in stoppage of polls. 

Fact: There have been such instances where VVPATS stopped working during polls, but there is plenty of resources to ensure a replacement is available.

Different political parties, candidates, and people of India have raised the questions regarding e-voting system in India. Many objections have been raised during the past years regarding this EVM system. Many other political parties claimed that EVM was tampered during the elections to support the ruling party and it was responsible for winning in the polls. This controversy was quite big, and it took a big turn. This matter even reached to the Supreme Court and Delhi Court of India. So the Election Commission of India decided to introduce VVPAT (voter-verified paper audit trail). Now both VVPAT and EVMs are used during the elections. 

This EVM news was so controversial that many people across from the different regions of the world researched the EVM to a profound extent. In the year 2010, a website named https://indiaevm.org came into existence which stated and provided proof that EVM can be tampered and is unreliable. It has many flaws and has no security system. This website contains prove in the form of video, images and investigating inside of the EVM machines. Title provided to this was "India's EVMs are vulnerable to Fraud." This site presents an independent scientific study about the security of the electronic voting machines (EVMs) used in India. People who provided this report are Hari K. Prasad, J. Alex Halderman, Rop Gonggrijp. They came up with the fact that the EVM system can be attacked and the votes can be tampered according to the given choice of the political party. Elections can be easily manipulated through this system. So it became sensational news in the media and after that introduction of VVPAT was taken place. But till the date, many people do not trust this EVM voting system. 

A voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) or verifiable paper record (VPR) is a method of providing feedback to voters using a ballot free voting system. A VVPAT is intended as an independent verification system for voting machines designed to allow voters to verify that their vote was cast correctly, to detect possible election fraud or malfunction, and to provide a means to audit the stored electronic results. It contains the name of the candidate (for whom vote has been cast) and symbol of the party/individual candidate. The voter must destroy the VVPAT before leaving the room.

The VVPAT offers some fundamental differences as a paper, rather than electronic recording medium when storing votes. A paper VVPAT is readable by the human eye and voters can directly interpret their vote. 

As per the provisions of Rule 49MA of Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961 in India, the polling officer can obtain a written declaration from the voter if they claim that the vote cast is incorrect or false. If the voter gives the written declaration referred in Rule 49MA, the polling officer can permit to record a test vote in the voting machine in his presence and see the paper slip is generated.