A Look Inside Electronic Voting Machine

India is the world’s largest democracy with a population of more than 1 billion. Voting is the bridge between the governed and government. The current voting system has many security holes, and it is difficult to prove even simple security properties about them. Still there is some scope of work in electronic voting system because there is no way of identification by the electronic voting system whether the user is authentic or not and securing electronic voting machine from miscreants.

Introduction
Electronic Voting Machine is a simple electronic device used to record votes in place of ballot papers and boxes which were used earlier in conventional voting system. It is a simple machine that can be operated easily by both the polling personnel and the voters. Being a stand-alone machine without any network connectivity, nobody can interfere with its programming and manipulate the result. Keeping the erratic power supply position in many places in the country, the machines have been made to run on batteries.

It has mainly two units: Control unit and Ballot unit. The Control Unit is the main unit which stores all data and controls the functioning of EVM. The program which controls the functioning of the control unit is burnt into a microchip on a “one-time programmable basis”. Once burnt it cannot be read, copied out or altered. The EVMs use dynamic coding to enhance security of data transmitted from ballot unit to control unit. The new EVMs have also got real time clock and date-time stamping facility which enables them to record the exact time and date whenever a key is pressed. After the voting is completed and the close button is pressed, the machine does not accept any data or record any vote. Through the press of “total” button, the control unit can display the number of votes recorded till that time which can be cross checked with the register of voters.

Advantages of EVM over the traditional ballot paper/ballot box system

• It eliminates the possibility of invalid and doubtful votes which, in many cases, are the root causes of controversies and election petitions.

• It makes the process of counting of votes much faster than the conventional system.

• It reduces to a great extent the quantity of paper used thus saving a large number of trees making the process eco-friendly.

• It reduces cost of printing almost nil as only one sheet of ballot paper required for each Polling.

Definitions
The category “electronic voting” is potentially broad, referring to several distinct possible stages of

electronic usage during the course of an election. For the purposes of this paper, distinctions are made between

the following terms:

• Electronic voting: Electronic voting refers to any system where a voter casts his or her ballot using an electronic system, rather than a paper ballot (or mechanical machine to punch a paper ballot). Once recorded, an electronic vote is stored digitally and transferred from each electronic voting machine to a counting system.

• Electronic vote counting: Electronic vote counting refers to the system that is used to tabulate ballots and award seats. It would be possible to vote using a non-electronic medium and then convert these votes to an electronic system and award seats through an electronic vote counting system.

Rule 49MA of Conduct of Elections Rules
As per the provisions of Rule 49MA of Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961, the presiding officer can obtain a written declaration from the voter if they claim that the vote cast is incorrect. If the voter gives the written declaration referred to in sub-rule (1) of Rule 49MA, the presiding officer can permit the elector to record a test vote in the voting machine in his presence and see the paper slip is generated. If the claim is found to be true, the presiding officer will report quickly to the returning officer, stop further casting of votes in that voting machine and act as per the guidelines are given by the returning officer. The technical experts committee of the Election Commission in collaboration with two PSU's is in charge of devising and designing the EVM's.

Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT)
Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) also plays an imperative role in voting. VVPAT is another independent machine attached to the EVM which helps the voter verify the vote. After casting the vote, a slip is printed which contains the serial number, name, and symbol of the candidate and is visible through a window for seven seconds. Post this, the printed slip automatically falls in the sealed drop box of the VVPAT.

Only engineers from Bharat Electronics Limited and Electronics Corporation of India Limited conduct checking of EVMs and VVPATs.