During the announcement of election dates for Maharashtra and Jharkhand, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar clarified that EVMs cannot be hacked as they are not connected like pagers that were recently used for bomb blasts in the Middle East. He stated that the difference is that EVMs are not connected like pagers.
The clarification from the EC came as Congress recently alleged discrepancies in the electronic voting machines during the counting of votes for the Haryana Assembly elections. The Election Commission further clarified that the battery of an EVM was like that of a calculator and dismissed claims that the machines could be tampered with like pagers.
With regard to the claims made that the battery in some of the EVMs in Haryana was still showing 99 per cent charge at the time of counting and these machines were manipulated, he that the battery life at the time of counting depends on the number of mock polls it has gone through, the number of candidates in that particular constituency etc.
He said if a greater number of votes are cast in the mock poll, especially if there is a large number of candidates, the battery life will be lower at the time of counting. “This (doubts raised based on battery life) is a new thing. Wonder what will come next,” Kumar said.
“EVMs have a single-use battery like a calculator battery and not a mobile battery,” Rajiv Kumar said. He further added that the EVMs had three-layered security, including the batteries and the first-level checking of EVMs begins 5–6 months before polling takes place.
“An EVM is commissioned 5–6 days before voting takes place. A new battery was inserted that day,” Rajiv Kumar said. He has asked the returning officers to prepare detailed reports in response to the complaints filed by Congress candidates.
They alleged irregularities in the working of electronic voting machines in 20 constituencies in the recently held Assembly elections in Haryana, and these will be shared with the candidates very soon, Rajiv Kumar added.