Election Commission agrees in principle to voting machines with printouts

NEW DELHI: The Election Commission has told the Supreme Court that it has in principle decided to introduce electronic voting machines that can print a paper trail of each vote cast, but it will be done in a phased manner because of high costs involved.

Electronic Voting Machines fitted with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (EVMVVPAT) will help voters check if their vote is recorded for the candidate they meant to and ensure there is no rigging in the machines.

Responding to a public interest litigation filed by BJP member Subramanian Swamy seeking the court's intervention to ensure such machines are used in all elections, the Election Commission on Friday said fund constraints and staff training among other things will delay implementation of such machines across the country. The poll panel has already placed orders for 20,000 such machines with two public sector companies, EC counsel Meenakshi Arora told a bench led by Chief Justice of India P Sathasivam. That will cost around 38 crore - a small portion of the expenses of a total switch, which would require one million machines. The poll panel decision to switch to the new machines came after a successful experiment with such machines in 21 polling booths in Nagaland bypolls last month.

"In principle we found them satisfactory," Arora said. "But it will take time. The financial constraints, the time taken for the machines to be manufactured and training of staff will take time," she added. The Chief Justice tried to get the poll panel commit to introducing them in the next round of Assembly polls due in December, but could not.

"Can we at least be optimistic that you will implement it by 2014?" he then asked. But the EC counsel refused to commit to that date either. "We will need 10 lakh EVMVVPATs for 10 lakh polling stations," she said. This will cost around 1,500 crore. Also, it would take time to manufacture so many machines.

Swamy objected to the court dismissing his case with a plea that its "benign supervision" is required to ensure that the government provides more funds to the poll panel to switch over to such voting machines. "The EC can make a plea to the government which is a political coalition," the BJP leader said.