DNA TV Show: How reliable are electronic voting machines?

The Supreme Court has reserved its verdict on a batch of pleas seeking complete cross-verification of votes cast using EVMs with VVPAT. For the first time in 1982, voting took place in Kerala through Electronic Voting Machine (EVM). Since then, voting started taking place gradually on some seats through EVM in many states. In the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, elections were held through EVMs across the country. Despite this, doubts have been raised about EVMs. Every losing candidate tells EVM one of the reasons for his defeat. But how reliable are EVMs?

After 2014, an agenda started regarding EVM. Just before the elections, certain NGOs and opposition parties started reaching the court with their complaints about EVMs. They demanded that elections should be conducted in the country through ballot paper.

Many such petitions were filed in the Supreme Court just before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Back then, all the petitions were rejected by the Supreme Court. However, the apex court then directed to increase voter confidence. It asked that 5 EVMs be selected from each assembly constituency and matched with the VVPAT. Now, just before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, some NGOs and opposition parties have again reached the Supreme Court with their old demands. 

The Election Commission said in the court that EVM is an independent machine and it cannot be hacked or tampered. There is no need to redesign VVPAT. There was only one case of mismatch because the mock data was not deleted. The commission said that the possibility of human error in manual counting cannot be ruled out.