When Elon Musk tweeted about large scale rigging in the Puerto Rican national elections conducted through electronic voting machines (EVMs) and called for EVMs to not be used to conduct elections, Rajeev Chandrasekharan, a businessman and technocrat who has worked with the Indian government in the past caught on to Elon’s tweet to emphasize that EVMs used in India are custom manufactured, stand alone and cannot be tampered with.
As an electronics engineer I am aware that all digital devices can be tampered with and in many data sensitive cases analog devices are preferred over digital ones. That aside, if the claim that Indian EVMs are immutable, how come during elections many EVMs have been found to register votes for BJP irrespective of voters voting for any other party? Does this mean those EVMs were preprogrammed to register votes for BJP only? Doesn’t this come under EVM tampering?
Then there is a larger question. India has had Aadhar card for all its citizens for more than a decade now and Aadhar cards contains biometric information of the citizens. Then why not introduce a biometric voting system and eliminate the controversy over EVM rigging forever? With all the latest technology available, voters can vote from their homes and NRIs can vote from wherever they are on election day. The address provided on the Aadhar card will determine who the person’s candidates to vote for are. Biometric voting system can simplify voting for everyone, complete voting quickly and increase voter turnout. It will also eliminate all possibilities of illegal votes and prevent anyone who is not an Indian citizen and does not have Aadhar card from voting.
Don’t know how right I am here would love to hear opinions from anyone who is reading this article.