Electronic Voting Machine / EVM can be hacked, Elon Musk claims, former minister replies- this is not possible in India

Electronic Voting Machine: The debate on Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) has started again. The world's richest businessman Elon Musk wrote on June 15 - EVM should be abolished. There is a risk of it being hacked by humans or AI. Although this risk is low, it is still very high. Voting should not be done with it in America. On this, BJP leader and former IT minister Rajiv Chandrashekhar said - According to Musk, no one can create secure digital hardware, this is wrong. His statement may apply to America and other places - where they use regular compute platforms to create voting machines connected to the Internet.

Indian EVMs are secure and isolated from any network or media. No connectivity, no Bluetooth, WiFi, Internet. That is, there is no way. Factory programmed controllers that cannot be reprogrammed. EVMs can be designed exactly the way India has done. It is not possible to hack it in India. Elon, we will be happy to run a tutorial (teaching institute).

At the same time, Rahul Gandhi reposted Musk's post and said - EVM in India is like a black box. No one is allowed to investigate it. Serious concerns are being raised about transparency in our electoral process. When institutions lack accountability, democracy becomes a sham and the possibility of fraud increases.

Rahul Gandhi mentioned the incident in North-West Mumbai, where Shiv Sena MP won by 48 votes

Rahul Gandhi reposted Musk's post with the news published in Mid Day newspaper. It mentions the incident of Mumbai. In fact, Mangesh Pandilkar, brother-in-law of NDA and Shiv Sena (Shinde) candidate Ravindra Waikar from Mumbai North-West Lok Sabha seat, went inside the counting center in Goregaon on June 4 with an election officer's mobile despite the ban.

According to sources, an Election Commission official had a mobile phone, which generates OTP during counting. With this, EVM can be unlocked. This phone was being used by Pandilkar, a relative of the MP. The police suspect that the phone was used from morning till 4.30 pm, when the counting was going on in a close contest.

Eventually, Waikar won by a margin of just 48 votes over Amol Kirtikar of the Shiv Sena Uddhav faction. This is the smallest margin of victory in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Mumbai Police registered a case against Mangesh Pandilkar and an election officer on June 15 after complaints from several leaders and the Election Commission.

Maharashtra Election Commission said - No OTP is required to unlock EVM

The Maharashtra Election Commission held a press conference on Sunday on the opposition's allegations of hacking EVMs from the phone. Returning Officer Vandana Suryavanshi said about the news published in the newspaper - No OTP is required to unlock EVM. EVM is not connected to any device. It is a stand-alone i.e. a self-running system. The news published in the newspaper is completely wrong. We have sent them a notice. A case of defamation has also been registered.

SP and Shiv Sena (UBT) also raised questions

After Rahul, SP MP Akhilesh Yadav said - Technology is meant to solve problems, if it becomes the cause of difficulties, then its use should be stopped. Aditya Thackeray wrote - The new meaning of EC is 'Entirely Compromised' and not 'Election Commission'.

Elon Musk's post

We should eliminate electronic voting machines. The risk of being hacked by humans or AI, while small, is still too high. https://t.co/PHzJsoXpLh

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 15, 2024

Musk said this by reposting a post by US presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Kennedy Jr. had talked about EVM-related irregularities in Puerto Rico's elections and talked about returning to paper ballots. Presidential elections will be held in the US in November.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said - will have to return to paper ballots

US presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wrote in the post - 'Many irregularities were found during voting with EVMs in Puerto Rico's primary elections. Fortunately it was a paper trail, so the problem was identified and the vote count was corrected. Imagine what happens in areas where there is no paper trail?'

'It is important for American citizens to know that each of their votes has been counted. There can be no tampering in their elections. They will have to return to paper ballots to avoid electronic interference in elections.'

The matter had also reached the Supreme Court in India

In April this year, a hearing was held in the Supreme Court on the demand for 100% cross-checking of Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) votes and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips. However, the petitions related to this demand were rejected in the Supreme Court. Apart from this, people associated with many political parties have been raising questions on EVM.