Stop generalizing Elon Musk, Indian EVMs are safe and tamper-proof

No one in India is talking about eliminating Indian Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), as these are undoubtedly tamper-proof; no one can hack or influence them using human or artificial intelligence. The ongoing elections have given a resounding boost to the trust that 1.4 billion Indian citizens have in Indian EVMs.

Today, Mr. Elon Musk said that “we should eliminate electronic voting machines.” Perhaps he is only talking about the American democratic process and American electronic voting machines, which could be dangerous and could be hacked.

His statement cannot be applied to Indian EVMs. As of the latest count, nearly 400 million votes have been cast on EVMs in India, and no case of hacking has ever been proven. In fact, this massive $400 million sample constitutes the largest scientific experiment ever undertaken anywhere in the world, with no evidence of cheating.

The Election Commission of India says no incident of EVM tampering has ever been discovered, and Chief Election Commissioner Rajeev Kumar has said EVMs simply cannot be hacked. Even the Supreme Court echoed the same thing.

An EVM expert, Professor Rajat Moona, computer scientist and director of IIT Gandhinagar, told NDTV, “India loves tamper-proof EVMs made in the country. The Festival of Democracy 2024, where 642 million Indians voted digitally, shows that unique EVMs are at “

The world’s largest democracy began using EVMs in 1982, long before Mr. Musk was even a teenager; he was born in 1971. In that election, 5.5 million EVMs were deployed from the high Himalayas to the island of Great Nicobar, and the astonishing results only made the Indian voter realize how reliable and robust India’s electoral machinery is, with EVMs at the forefront. heart of the operation.

Problems with hacking “hanging chads” and privately-created networked EVMs are stories echoing and emerging from the US elections. None of this happened during the 2024 democracy festival that India celebrated, choreographed by the highly competent and independent Election Commission of India.

Here are some of the reasons why Indian EVMs defy the logic proposed by Mr. Musk.

While pontificating and generalizing about EVMs, Mr. Musk asserts that “the risk of being hacked by humans or AI, while low, remains too high.” Mr. Musk, next time, don’t cancel your visit at the last minute; Indian election officials can easily show you how artificial intelligence and even human hacking of Indian EVMs is impossible.

Today, India uses the third generation of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) or the M3 EVM machines. They are tamper-proof and, if tampered with, they go into “security mode” and become unusable. Each is a standalone device almost similar to a basic calculator. Even the latest third generation EVMs – the M3 machines used by the ECI – are not connected to the Internet and cannot connect to Bluetooth or WiFi, making them impenetrable via remote devices, a big problem for hackers because today, most hacking is done via the Internet in connected devices.

“Indian EVMs are different from other EVMs in the world. M3 EVMs have no connection with any other device, not even with mains power,” says Professor Dinesh K. Sharma, a specialist in microelectronics and technology. semiconductor electronics at the Department. in Electrical Engineering from IIT Bombay. “An EVM is a dedicated system designed for voting and not a general purpose computing device with a loaded program for electronic voting,” Prof Sharma said. “Each EVM is a unique electronic island in itself, making them extremely secure.”

Prof Moona, a well-known expert in IT and cybersecurity, smart cards and cyber-physical security, told NDTV that “no tampering has ever been recorded in Indian EVMs. It is an exceptional, user-friendly technology designed by Indians for Indian people to meet the unique needs of Indian democracy.

Professor Moona adds: “India invented zero and in 1982 it became the first country in the world to use zero in electronic voting machines because electronics relies solely on zeros and dots. some. In 2024, 642 million votes will be cast on tamper-proof voting machines. There is therefore no doubt that India, which is the mother of democracy and today an advanced digitally enabled democracy, was a pioneer in the use of electronic voting machines and remains the source of innovation in matter of secure electoral voting.

Even today, nearly 25 countries around the world use digital voting. According to the Election Commission of India, countries using EVMs include the United States, Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Italy, Switzerland, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Venezuela, Namibia, Nepal, Bhutan, Armenia and Bangladesh. , to name a few.

Globally, there are several types of digital voting. There is fully electronic voting, as in India, and in some countries only the counting is electronic. Some countries, such as Estonia, have started using remote Internet voting, and some offer Internet voting at designated polling stations. Some use optical scanners, networked or non-networked machines.

In most countries, e-voting devices are manufactured by private companies, which are considered less secure when it comes to cybersecurity than the Indian government facilities that manufacture EVMs. The United States, the most advanced country in the world, uses several different forms of electronic voting and has no national standards.

Many foreign experts have often complained that Indian EVMs are outdated and need to be modernized. ECI experts say that sometimes being outdated gives electronic technology an extra level of security because if one has to hack EVMs, then 5.5 million individual EVMs will have to be hacked, this which is almost impossible, and subsequently randomization provides that extra security. .

Moreover, today’s Indian elections are the most secure and advanced since the same departments that helped make India’s atomic bombs made electronic voting machines.

“The beauty of Indian EVMs is that they are under-designed for a 21st century electronic gadget, making them tamper-proof and hack-resistant,” says Prof Moona, who helped the ECI design the EVMs.

No one in India is calling for elimination of EVDs; the dumb machines delivered a clean, environmentally friendly election like the world has never seen before.

Professor Moona says, “The United States can learn the art and science of conducting free, fair and insurrection-free elections from India! »

(Pallava Bagla is the science editor of NDTV)

Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author