No Internet, Bluetooth in Indian EVMs make them unhackable: ECI sources

New Delhi: A US official’s claim over possible hacking of electronic voting systems in that country was on Friday met with a reassuring calm by the Election Commission of India (ECI) with sources highlighting the Indian EVMs’ superior technology and no use of Internet or Bluetooth during voting as foolproof shields against manipulation.

The US official, in a viral video circulating on social media, made the claim about election integrity while referring to on-going probe in that country into ‘flaws’ in electronic voting systems and urged a switch to paper ballots.

Claiming that there was no reason for an alarm, sources at ECI said that the US and the Indian EVMs were not comparable due to several additional security measures incorporated into our machines.

“Some countries use Electronic Voting Systems, which are a mix of multiple systems, machines and processes including various private networks including Internet etc. India uses EVMs which work like simple, correct and accurate calculators and cannot be connected to either Internet, WiFi or Infrared,” said an ECI source.

Reassuring voters and the Indian public, an election panel official said: “These machines have stood legal scrutiny by the Supreme Court of India and are invariably checked by the political parties at various stages, including the conduct of mock polls before polling starts. More than 5 crore voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) slips have been verified and matched while counting in front of political parties.”

Earlier, the US official said in the video, posted on social media platform X: “We have evidence of how these electronic voting systems have been vulnerable to hackers for a very long time and vulnerable to exploitation to manipulate the results of the votes being cast, which further drives forward your mandate to bring about paper ballots across the country so that voters can have faith in the integrity of our elections.”

The US debate over the vulnerability of electronic voting systems in that country comes at a time when the Opposition parties, led by the Congress, in India have made several attempts to blame the EVMs for its repeated poll debacles.

After the Congress’ rout in the Haryana and Maharashtra Assembly elections in 2024, the Congress had blamed the ‘biased and fixed’ EVMs.

Apart from Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawer and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha General Secretary Supriyo Bhattacharya have regularly raised questions over EVMs.

However, the BJP has constantly criticised the Opposition parties for their inconsistent stance on EVMs.

“When Priyanka Gandhi wins, EVMs are fine. When they win in Jharkhand, EVMs function well. But the moment results in Maharashtra don’t favour them, EVMs suddenly become faulty or dishonest,” said BJP National Secretary Manjinder Singh Sirsa in November.

“When they secured 99 seats (in LS polls), Rahul Gandhi was patting his back, claiming they defeated PM Modi. But if the BJP wins 240 seats, then EVMs are to blame. This hypocrisy is the reason why they lack credibility,” he added.

IANS