Amidst large-scale allegations of EVMs (Electronic Voting Machines) being tampered with, the state chief electoral officer S Chockalingam on Saturday shot down claims that the machines can be manipulated at all. In an interview to Yogesh Naik he also dismissed allegations of candidates who claimed to have got zero votes in their area blaming malfunctioning EVMs for the same.
The Opposition has raised doubts on the functioning of EVMs, alleging they can be remotely controlled. Can EVMs be tampered?
It has been repeatedly proven that EVMs cannot be tampered. The Supreme Court has upheld the use of the EVMs. The machine consists of a control unit, a ballot unit and a Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) unit. The control unit has a burnt-in chip whose programming cannot be modified. The control unit only registers the numbers of candidates voting. The VVPAT has been introduced for transparency. It shows the voter’s choice of symbol.
There are two parts of EVM security – technical and administrative.
It is technically fool-proof, with no possibility of a connection with wi-fi or Bluetooth. Its chip cannot be re-programmed.
The administrative side ensures transparency of the process – in fact, after candidates are finalised, they are invited for inspection.
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Please explain the process from the time of voting to calibration of votes by polling officers.
After the voter presses the button on the ballot unit, the vote gets recorded and the VVPAT unit displays the symbol. At end of the day, the EVM displays the total number of votes. It is only on the day of counting when the ‘result’ button is pressed that it displays the votes polled by each candidate. A voter can press the EVM button only once.
Many candidates are asking for a verification of burnt memory chip. What is the procedure?
The EC has a set procedure for this, following the Supreme Court’s directive. Accordingly, EVMs chosen by a candidate will be taken out for verification to understand if it is working properly.
The Opposition has also raised doubts over the spike in numbers of new voters just five months before the elections. What’s your view?
New voters are registered every year. Now, EC has given four cut-off dates for registration of first-time voters; earlier there was only one deadline – January 1.
Apart from this, we also took up many activities under SVEEP (systematic voters’ education and electoral participation) which led to increased registration. The process of registration is transparent – every registration is open for challenge for a week.
Also read: ‘Difference in votes of EVMs but don’t have proof,’ says Sharad Pawar after Maharashtra poll loss
Videos of some candidates and party workers alleging a skew in the number of votes and voters in some villages have gone viral. Some candidates have also said they have got zero votes in areas where their families live. Will there be a probe into this?
These allegations have been found to be fake. There has been no zero voting, and no extra vote counted than polled. Our district election officers have rebutted this claim.
What about the claims of a sharp rise in voting in the last hour of polling?
It’s a false claim. The flow of voters remained sustained from 7 am to the end of the day on November 20. A similar trend was also seen in the 2019 assembly election. Some are trying to draw parallels between voting patterns in Jharkhand and Maharashtra. In Jharkhand, polling ended at 5 pm and in Maharashtra it ended at 6 pm; and people standing in queue at 6 pm are entitled to vote even after that time.
In Jharkhand, people are known to vote early. In Maharashtra, people turn up in the evenings too.
There are allegations of booth capturing in Parli, Beed. What has been EC’s action so far? Don’t you feel repolling was necessary? Can people vote sans fear if the atmosphere is very intimidating?
Booth capturing is a serious term. There was no such event in Parli. Some people created a commotion, and the police responded to the occasion. Voting continued after EVMs were replaced wherever needed. Repoll is considered only when papers are scrutinised the day after polling. We found no need for that.