EVMs Cannot Lie, Only Humans Can

I have no doubts about the credibility of the machines and I also consider it a matter of the nation's pride that this change was brought about and we improved our electoral system.

- T.S. KRISHNAMURTHY, Soni Mishra

Although the electronic voting machines were first introduced at the national level for parliamentary elections in 2004, the steps for introducing such a device were taken several years before. We had the conventional ballot paper voting, which is in vogue in many countries even now. The Election Commission replaced the ballot paper system because of its inherent infirmities.

Broadly, EVMs prevent manipulations in the ballot paper system, including booth captures. They also eliminated invalid votes and helped save paper and time. EVMs are manufactured by Bharat Electronics Limited and the Electronics Corporation of India Limited, both public sector undertakings, as against the experiment conducted in the US where the EVMs were manufactured by a private company. This is a very important difference.

When I took over as chief election commissioner in February 2004, the commission had to decide on using EVMs on the basis of the experience gained from the (initial) use of the machines in some Assembly elections and by-elections. The decision to implement the use of EVMs in about eight lakh polling stations was based on the report of an expert committee headed by DRDO technical expert S. Sampath. When the machines were tried in some Assembly polls and byelections, voters uniformly welcomed the change. This was, however, different from the response of some political parties, which questioned the credibility of the machines. It is significant to note that the Supreme Court had also cleared the use of EVMs after some petitions were filed challenging its use. The two political parties that had challenged the use of the machines came to power through the use of these very machines in the subsequent elections.