The Election Commission should introduce a paper audit trail that can be verified (“SC wants paper trail in EVMs for fair poll”, Jan.9). Technology has many benefits but is Janus-faced. Electronic voting systems may solve a lot of problems but do introduce new ones in their wake. How can one be certain that voting machines, especially those that have digital components, cannot be hacked? The best way to protect the integrity of the voting process is to have a parallel paper trail as when doubts or disputes arise it will prove reliable. Paper ballots may be cumbersome to handle and make counting a long-drawn-out process but they are relatively foolproof. Recent events even in the most advanced country have proved that cyber campaigns to sabotage elections can be mounted.
H.N. Ramakrishna,
Bengaluru
How does one ensure that a voter is not intimidated by a rival political party? There is a chance of misusing ballot paper. Instead of printing ballot paper, there should be a mechanism to store encrypted voter data in a centralised database for better and effective verification. Such data must be transmitted the moment a voter completes the voting process.
Gunreddy Srinivas Reddy,
Hyderabad
