Can electronic voting machines be tampered with? 5 points you must know

NEW DELHI: Days after Bahujan Samajwadi Party chief Mayawati, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has raised doubts over the safety of electronic voting machines (EVM). Kejriwal has claimed that the votes for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) were transferred to the Shirmonai Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janta Party alliance during Punjab polls.

From time to time, doubts have been raised over the EVMs. The Supreme Court had directed the Election Commission in 2013 to introduce a paper trail in EVMs in a phased manner. Politicians from all parties, including the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), have expressed doubts over EVMs at different times.

How EVMs can be tampered?
A small chip with a Bluetooth connection can be inserted into the machine. The chip can be controlled from a mobile phone to influence results when the voting is taking place.

Why it's not possible
However, it may not seem possible that such chips can be inserted in lakhs of voting machines. Also, this kind of tampering will have to involve hundreds of people at different stages—including various centre and state officials—which makes it very difficult to keep the tampering secret.

Can EVMs be hacked?
A lot of people have said if something as safe as a bank account can be hacked, why not an EVM. Hacking would require an EVM to be connected to Internet but EVMs have no internet connection. So, hacking an EVM is not possible.

Also read: ​ Kejriwal alleges foul play in EVMs, says 20-25% AAP votes transferred to Akalis

Can we be 100 per cent sure of EVM safety?
No. Every electronic machine has a potential to be manipulated or go wrong. However, it may not be possible to manipulate thousands of EVMs to influence elections results in one particular way.

What is VVPAT?
The VVPAT, or voter-verified paper audit trail, means letting voters know, through printed pieces of paper which are kept as record, that the votes have really gone to the candidates they have voted. The paper trail is seen as one way to remove doubts about the efficacy of EVMs. However, even VVPAT is not a foolproof system. It can be prone to the same risks as the EVMs are.