'EVMs are safe and can never store false vote', MH CEO empowers mass appeal over using EVM for upcoming Assembly elections

Mumbai, August 02: In the wake of State Assembly Elections scheduled in the month of October this year, the Maharashtra Chief Electoral Officer on Thursday said that the voting machines were technically very secure and could never store a false vote.

 

“Although EVMs have always remained a point of dispute when it comes to elections, it is impossible to breach their security. EVMs are extreme safe”, said Maharahshtra CEO, Baldev Singh.

 

 

Enlightening the forum over the security modules of the voting machines, Singh further said that each EVM is checked and sealed in the presence of representatives of political parties during the elections and that their representatives sign the machine seal.

 

"Since EVMs are allotted to all constituencies and polling booths, there is no preconception about which machines will be sent to which polling station.The list of contesting candidates is fixed only on the day after the withdrawal deadline ends”, he added.

 

Further explaining the process of voting through EVMs in detail, the IAS officer said, “The serial number of EVM machines used at a polling station is given to each candidate. Before the actual voting begins, a mock polling takes place in the presence of each candidate's representative. These representatives register their own vote and verify the result on the EVM through the VVPAT slip”, he said.

 

“Only after their certification the actual voting begins”, the CEO said, adding EVMs were certified by more than one billion voting representatives in the 2019 elections.

 

During the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, around 61.3 crore people across the country voted with EVMs at over 10 lakh polling stations and confirmed their vote on VVPAT. Voter verified paper audit trail machines, attached with EVMs, allow the voters to verify that their votes are cast as intended.