Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati decided to move court against the alleged tampering of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs).
Why EVMs can’t be tampered?
Connectivity - Indian EVMs are not connected to the internet, so hackers cannot tamper with Indian EVMs.
Scale - The BBC report that an American had hacked Indian EVMs is false. The American opened one EVM, changed some parts, and hacked the new parts he had put in the machine. It is impossible to access hundreds of thousands of EVMs in India, break the seals and replace parts on a mass scale needed for rigging elections.
Security - They are also guarded by troops and by representatives of all political parties as well.
Sequence - Isn't it possible to programme the EVM at the manufacturing stage to record all votes for one candidate. A key issue preventing the transfer of votes from one button to another is that nobody knows what order the candidates or parties will be listed on the EVM till after the last date of withdrawing nomination papers. That means the order of buttons is known for about two week. It would be far too little time to manipulate the buttons.
Furthers, specific EVMs are assigned to constituencies in a randomized matter pretty late in the day, and in the presence of representatives of all parties.
Ballot paper-based voting is subject to much more fiddling and manipulation. A party can capture polling booths and stamp all the ballot papers in their favour. The estimated amount of false voting using ballot papers was 5%, which in a state like UP is as huge as 3.5 million false votes.
