Electronic Voting Machines are in the
news due to the recent and upcoming elections. This means, there’s a high
chance you might get a question related to EVMs in your UPSC CSE
Exams.Therefore, here we are providing you details about Electronic Voting
Machines. This article is brought to you by Oliveboard, an online preparation platform for
government, banking and MBA exams.
What are Electronic Voting Machines?
Electronic Voting Machines are used to
enable people to vote electronically. It is also used to aid casting and
counting of votes.
When were EVMs introduced?
EVMs were manufactured
during 1989-90 by two public-sector undertaking; Bharat Electronics
Ltd (Bangalore) and Electronics Corporation of India Ltd
(Hyderabad) and were devised by the Election Commission of India.
However, they were first used in the General Elections in November of 1990, in
16 Assembly Constituencies in the States of MP, Rajasthan and NCT of Delhi.
How do EVMs work?
EVM’s are powered by a 6-Volt
Alkaline Battery. It consists of two units namely, the Control
Unit and the Balloting Unit.
These two components are joined by a
5-meter cable. The Balloting Unit is the component on which the voters press
the button and cast their vote. (This is placed inside the voting chamber). The
Control Unit is the component supervised by the Presiding
Officer or Polling Officer at the Poll booth. The Officer presses
the ballot button which enables the voter to cast his vote.
Once the voter casts his vote, the
machine automatically locks itself and disables the voter from casting another
vote, thus ensuring the principle of “One man, one vote”.
Can EVMs be accessed in areas where there
is no electricity?
Absolutely. As mentioned earlier, EVMs
run on a 6-Volt Alkaline Battery, enabling EVMs to be used throughout the
country without interruptions.
How many votes can be recorded in
total?
EVMs can record maximum of 3840
votes.
What’s the maximum number of candidates
an EVM can cater to?
Each Balloting unit has a provision
for 16 candidates. If the number of candidates exceed 16, a second
balloting unit is linked parallel to the first one. The maximum number of
candidates an EVM can cater to is 64 (That is 4 Balloting units).
If there are constituencies with more
than 64 contesting candidates, they must adopt the conventional voting method
wiz, ballot box and ballot paper.
Advantages
·
Saves a great deal of paper
·
Saves the cost involved in printing, transporting,
storing and distributing the ballot papers.
·
The counting of votes is much quicker in electronic
voting (2-3 hours), compared to counting of votes in conventional voting (30-40
hours).
·
No bogus voting. No voter can vote twice. And no
invalid votes.
·
EVMs do not require electricity to function.
·
EVMs have a very long shelf life (approx. 15 years)
·
EVMs are very easy to install and use.
·
It is next to impossible to hack or tamper with
EVMs.
·
Can be used for simultaneous elections for
Parliament and State Legislative Assembly.
Disadvantages
·
It’s hard to tamper with EVMs but not impossible.
·
Software malfunction leading to inaccurate results.
·
Security problems
·
Vulnerability to hacking
·
No means for voters to verify their votes
·
The time gap between the voting and the counting of
votes is a risk to possible tampering, as the ballots are physically stored
after votes
Impact on Electoral Processes
India’s is the largest democracy in the
world and has hundreds of millions of voters. Electoral
frauds(multiple-voting, vote buying) have been the biggest challenge for
the Election Commission of India. Among
these, ‘booth-capturing’ (goons supporting a political party raiding
polling stations and stuffing ballot boxes with votes) is the biggest.
Though the Election Commission of
India, over the years, has taken measures to curb these malpractices, the
traditional voting system still posed security problems.
However, with the introduction
of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in the 90s, booth-capturing was
curbed. EVMs can register only 5 votes per minute, and booth-capturing would
require more time than that. EVMs also made sure that the whole electoral
process and results are fair, by improving efficiency of tallying the results thereby
avoiding human errors, reducing manipulation or rigging and abuse of power in
poll booths.The introduction of EVMs also, successfully reduced the time and
cost involved in the conduct of elections.
We hope the above information broadly
helps you understand EVMs and their working.Now, prepare for UPSC with
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