EC sources reject suggestions that Indian EVMs prone to hacking

Election Commission sources on Friday rejected suggestions that electronic voting machines (EVMs) used in the country are vulnerable to hacking, asserting that the machines work like simple calculators which are not connected to the internet or infrared. Referring to the reported remarks of United States Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard that her office has obtained evidence of vulnerabilities to the hacking of electronic voting systems for manipulating votes, the sources pointed out that some countries use "electronic voting systems" which are a mix of multiple systems, machines and processes including various private networks including the Internet.

They underlined that India uses electronic voting machines that work like "simple, correct and accurate calculators" and cannot be connected to either the internet, WiFi or infrared.

These machines have stood legal scrutiny by the Supreme Court and are invariably checked by the political parties at various stages, including the conduct of "mock polls" before actual polling starts.

More than five crore paper trail machine slips have been verified and matched while counting in front of political parties, they pointed out.

Tech mogul Elon Musk had last year called for the elimination of EVMs, citing the risk of being hacked by humans or artificial intelligence (AI).

The then chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar had in January responded to Musk's claim saying, "A global IT expert said EVMs can be hacked while our elections were going on. They (the US) don't have EVMs, they have electronic voting mechanisms.

"The remarks created pandemonium here. The same expert later said that India takes a single day to finish counting while the US takes over a month. We just follow the narratives that are suiting."

Kumar had, however, not named Musk.