Election Dept: EVMs credible, tamper-proof

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 26

The Haryana Election Department has stated that electronic voting machines (EVMs) being used in the country are credible, reliable and tamper-proof.

A spokesman of the department today said various High Courts have also held that EVMs were reliable and tamper-proof and the Supreme Court had dismissed appeals filed against High Court orders in this regard.

He said as EVMs were not linked to any other machine or system nor connected to the Internet, these could not be hacked and there was no possibility of data corruption. Besides, the software used in these machines was burnt into a one-time programmable or masked chip so that it could not be altered or tampered with.

Apart from this, voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) has been introduced, under which a paper slip bearing the name and symbol of the candidate voted for, along with recording of vote, is generated in control unit of the voting machine. In case of any dispute, these slips can be counted to verify the result being shown by the EVM. The paper slip remains visible on VVPAT for seven seconds through a transparent window.

He said mock elections were also conducted by representatives of political parties at the time of first-level checking, candidate setting and before the actual poll on the day of voting.

On the polling day, a mock poll was conducted at every polling station by casting at least 50 votes in the presence of representatives of political parties or polling agents with their signature.

A mock-poll certificate to that effect was obtained from every presiding officer.

After the poll was over, the presiding officer pressed the ‘close’ button on the EVM in the presence of polling agents after which the EVM was sealed, he added.