Opinion - Letters to the Editor   

Electronic voting

The doubts raised by Subramanian Swamy on the susceptibility of electronic voting machines (June 17) cannot be brushed aside. In the absence of public scrutiny of the software used in EVMs, the voters are forced to believe that their votes are registered in favour of the candidates they vote for. This is far from reassuring. We can perhaps have EVMs generate a print out containing the name and symbol of the candidate for whom a vote is cast. The same can be deposited in a box. Although this will defeat the purpose of EVMs to some extent, it will not completely take away the advantages. Such a middle path will reduce the quantum of paper used, reduce the size of the ballot box, prevent invalid votes, remove the need for stamps and ink and, more importantly, provide conclusive proof of the votes cast.

M.D. Ravikanth,

Chennai

EVMs have an inbuilt custom application software running on the embedded operating system. Even a pliant Election Commission will find it hard to tamper with the system once it is built. It is sufficient to make sure that the EVM works the way it is intended to by having some experts test the system for all the possibilities, which I am sure the Election Commission does. In my opinion, the EVMs are more tamper-proof than the paper ballot.

Ramdass Keshavamurthy,

Bangalore

While the pros and cons of EVMs and the ballot paper are debatable, the EVMs lack in one aspect. The ballot papers from different booths can be shuffled well before the counting starts, thereby preventing anyone from getting to know the voting pattern in a polling booth. When votes are counted from the EVMs, the voting pattern is exposed. The voters, especially in rural areas, become vulnerable to attacks from the losing candidates.

R. Murugaiyan,

Kochi

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