In a move that will be seen in a positive light by critics of the use of electoral voting machines or EVMs in Indian elections, the Congress Party has promised to convert Indian elections into a hybrid one that uses both paper and machines.
It plans to do this by having the voter first press the button on an EVM, and then also deposit a paper slip with his vote in a separate ballot box. The machine will make the counting faster, while the paper slip will make it transparent and trustworthy, according to the Congress.
Under this system, when a voter casts their vote using the EVM, the machine will generate a paper slip displaying the symbol and name of the candidate they have voted for. The voter then gets the slip, checks it and then deposits it into a sealed VVPAT unit.
At the end of the voting process, the EVM tally will be matched against the VVPAT slip tally to ensure that there are no discrepancies. This, the Congress argues, will provide a robust audit trail and allow for any disputes or discrepancies to be quickly identified and resolved. This unlike the present process, where either no paper record is kept, or if at all it is kept, it is not handed over to the voter for examination before it is deposited.
"We promise to restore the voters' trust in the election process," said the manifesto.
"We will amend the election laws to combine the efficiency of the electronic voting machine (EVM) and the transparency of the ballot paper. Voting will be through the EVM but the voter will be able to hold and deposit the machine-generated voting slip into the voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) unit. The electronic vote tally will be matched against the VVPAT slip tally," the Congress Party's manifesto added.
This promise comes against the backdrop of persistent concerns raised by opposition parties and civil society groups over the reliability and security of EVMs. Critics have argued that EVMs are vulnerable to hacking and tampering, and that the absence of a physical paper trail makes it difficult to verify the accuracy of the electronic tally.
India is the only major democracy to use EVMs on a standalone basis for its major elections. Other democracies, including more technologically advanced ones such as the US and UK, either stick to paper ballots or use the hybrid mode in which a paper record is also available for all votes cast.
Currently, VVPAT audits are conducted in a small sample of randomly selected polling booths. By mandating a comprehensive tally matching process, the Congress is seeking to provide a higher degree of assurance to voters that their votes are being accurately recorded and counted.
The promise to introduce greater transparency in the use of EVMs is part of a broader set of electoral reforms proposed by the Congress in its manifesto. These include strengthening the autonomy of the Election Commission of India, cracking down on fake news and paid news, and amending the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution to automatically disqualify defecting legislators.
