Elon Musk, the influential CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, recently ignited a political debate in India with his comments on electronic voting machines (EVMs) on X, the social media platform formerly Twitter.
Although his remarks were not explicitly directed at India, they have reverberated through the Indian political landscape, prompting responses from prominent leaders.
Rahul Gandhi of the Indian National Congress and Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party voiced concerns about the reliability of India’s EVMs following Musk’s comments. Yadav even retweeted Musk’s post, amplifying the discussion within India. Gandhi called EVMs in India practically black boxes.
The Curious Case of Puerto Rico
Musk’s comments came in the wake of a statement by Robert F. Kennedy Jr, an Independent candidate in the upcoming US presidential election, who expressed concerns about the voting process in Puerto Rico.
Kennedy highlighted issues detected in EVMs used there, noting that while irregularities were identified, they were corrected thanks to paper trails. He argued that the absence of such paper trails could lead to significant problems and advocated for a return to paper ballots.
According to AP, Dominion Voting Systems’ machines had software problems that caused the issues in Puerto Rico. Jessika Padilla Rivera, the interim president of Puerto Rico’s electoral commission, explained that these issues caused the machines to calculate total votes incorrectly.
Over 6,000 Dominion machines were used in the primaries, and the errors stemmed from the digital files used to export results.
Some machines reported lower vote counts than paper records, reversed totals, or recorded zero votes for specific candidates, leading to concerns about the reliability of these systems.M3 machines cannot connect.
Dominion Voting Systems and its coloured history
Dominion Voting Systems were also used in the 2020 US elections, in which former US President Donald Trump lost. Following the upset, many Trump supporters questioned the validity of Dominion Voting Systems’ voting and counting machines.
One of Trump’s closest allies, Mike Lindell, a mattress magnate and a TV commentator, spewed all sorts of conspiracy theories about Dominion Voting Systems, which filed a $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit.
In September 2022, Dominion was the subject of a lawsuit against Dominion. Officials from Fulton County, Pennsylvania, allege that computer forensic experts had discovered a Python script on one of the voting machines and found indications that the machine had been connected to an external system in Canada. However, the lawsuit was dismissed a year later, in September 2023.
Indian EVM is super secure.
In response to Musk’s comments, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, a former Minister of Electronics and Information Technology in India, called Musk’s statement a “sweeping generalization.” He emphasized that India’s EVMs are uniquely designed and cannot be reprogrammed, highlighting their security and reliability.
The Technical Experts Committee (TEC) of the Election Commission, in collaboration with two public sector organizations, Bharat Electronics Ltd. (BEL) and Electronics Corporation of India Ltd. (ECIL), developed India’s EVMs domestically, which makes them unique.
These machines are designed to be tamper-proof and enter a ‘Safety Mode’ if any tampering is detected, rendering them inoperable.
The latest third-generation EVMs, M3 machines, cannot connect to the Internet. They do not feature the physical components to connect to Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, making them immune to remote hacking attempts. Each EVM operates as a standalone device, similar to a basic calculator, and does not rely on any external power source. Instead, BEL installed an internal battery to power them.
Most important, though, is the microchip at the heart of Indian EVM systems. It is a uniquely designed, one-time programmable, or masked chip, which means it cannot be overwritten. This design ensures that the program used in the EVMs cannot be reprogrammed, adding another layer of security and making them highly resistant to tampering.
The machines used in most other countries use a generic chip reprogrammed after every election, making them more likely to malfunction.
EVMs in India are built explicitly for voting and are not general-purpose computing devices that are retrofitted and loaded with programs designed for voting. Each machine is a “unique electronic island,” ensuring high security.
Indian EVMs are not accessible remotely, as they are standalone machines that are not connected to any network or external devices. They do not use any operating system, further enhancing their security.
Security through obscurity
In contrast, many countries, including the US, use electronic voting devices manufactured by private companies, often considered less secure.
Some foreign experts have criticized India’s EVMs as outdated and in need of modernization. However, experts at the Election Commission of India argue that their perceived obsolescence actually adds a layer of security.
Hacking 5.5 million individual EVMs is virtually impossible, and the randomization process used in elections provides additional protection.
India’s EVMs are designed to be tamper-proof and secure, with multiple layers of protection to prevent hacking or manipulation.
Despite the concerns raised by political leaders in response to Elon Musk’s comments, the unique design and stringent security measures of India’s EVMs ensure the integrity of the voting process.
As the discussion goes on, it is crucial for nations to address and allay any worries about the security and dependability of their voting systems in order to ensure that all citizens uphold and trust the democratic process.
