The Supreme Court of India told the Election Commission of India today that the electoral process must be sacred and demanded that it provide a detailed account of the procedures taken to guarantee free and fair elections.”This procedure is election-related. A prerequisite is holiness. Let no one be concerned that something that is expected is not being done, the Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta bench declared.
Cross-verification of votes cast on Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) with paper slips produced by the VVPAT system is being considered by the court in response to petitions. To answer the questions, poll officials, the poll body’s lawyer, and senior advocate Maninder Singh are present in court.
Appearing for one of the petitioners, Advocate Nizam Pasha said a voter should be allowed to take the VVPAT slip after he votes and deposit it in a ballot box. When Justice Khanna asked if such a process won’t affect the voter’s privacy, Mr Pasha replied, “Voter privacy cannot be used to defeat voter’s rights.”
Advocate Prashant Bhushan then said that the light on the VVPAT machine should remain on at all times — it now stays on for seven seconds. “One possible solution is if they can’t change glass at this stage, at least the light should remain on at all times, so I can see the slip cutting and falling. No privacy will be compromised.”
Senior Advocate Sanjay Hegde, also appearing for petitioners, said there should be a separate audit to add greater credibility to the counting process.
Mr Bhushan cited a report on mock poll results in Kerala, where extra votes were recorded for the BJP. The court asked Mr Singh to explain this.
In its explanation of the voting process, the poll body said the EVM’s control unit commands the VVPAT unit to print its paper slip. This slip is visible to the voter for seven seconds before it falls into a sealed box, Mr Singh said. The machines are checked before polling in the presence of engineers, it added.
When the court asked if there was any software in the VVPAT printer, the poll body replied in the negative. “There is a 4 megabyte flash memory in every PAT which stores symbols. The returning officer prepares electronic ballot, which is loaded into the symbol loading unit. It will give a serial number, name of the candidate and symbol. Nothing is preloaded. It’s not data, it’s image format.”
When the court asked how many Symbol Loading Units are created for the polling, a poll body official replied, “Normally one in a constituency. It’s in custody of Returning Officer till conclusion of poll.” The court then asked if this unit is sealed to ensure no tampering, the Election Commission replied that no such process is currently in place.
The Election Commission told the court that all voting machines pass through the mock poll process. “Candidates are allowed to pick up randomly 5 per cent machines. The process is repeated on poll day. VVPAT slips are taken out, counted and matched. All machines have different kind of paper seals. At the time when a machine arrives for counting, seal number can be checked,” an official said.
The official responded to the court’s question about how voters can verify if their vote has been cast by saying that the poll body conducts awareness campaigns and provides demonstrations.Additionally, the Election Commission stated that voting machines are distributed at random among constituencies. It is not possible to connect any spurious unit to them. Only sister units will be accepted by them.”
The Election Commission informed the judge that the voting machines’ programs are stored in firmware, which is not modifiable. The machines are kept in locked strongrooms with political party representatives present.
The Election Commission said that once polling is over, the machines are taken back to strong rooms, which are sealed in the presence of candidates. On counting day, the strongrooms are opened in the presence of candidates.
The court then asked the Election Commission if it is possible for a voter to get a slip after voting. The poll body replied that this would compromise the secrecy of the vote and may be misused outside the booth. “How it can be used by others we cannot say,” it said.
What Is VVPAT and What Is The Case
Voters can check if their preferred candidate received the majority of the vote by using the Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail, or VVPAT. In the event of a disagreement, the paper slip produced by the VVPAT can be opened and is stored in a sealed cover. At present, each Assembly segment’s five randomly chosen EVMs’ VVPAT slips are validated. The petitions ask for a cross-verification of each vote in response to the opposition’s concerns and queries about the electronic voting machine system.
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