I wonder is it really possible to tamper with EVMs (Electronic Voting Machines) on a big scale and steal an election.

Being an IT professional, I have no doubt it is possible to tamper with the votes, from an electronics/software point of you.

However the question really is about the logistics of it all. The country uses over 1.2million EVMs. That is 1,200,000 machines!

Each EVM will need to be seperately labeled each time to reflect the candidates. The votes will be tallied on the basis of the number associated with the candidate.

For example:

1. K Candidate
2. B Candidate
3. Z candidate

Note that there is no pre-fixed format for such allocation and to reprogram the EVM to rig the voting pattern a person will have to know the exact number in which he appears, and go to each and every machine to reprogram it.

It is a herculean task that’s impossible to manage by a small bunch of people. It’ll need at least one person per voting station, if it is going to be done on the day of the poll. When so many people are involved it can’t be done with any degree of secrecy.

So, the only other alternative is for people at the Election C omission to be involved. Or the people whom the C omission contracts this work to be involved. This is a more likely scenario.

I am not aware of how EC manages the programming of EVM. It would indeed be interesting to know the exact process. If this process is handled by a small bunch of people, then it is indeed possible for these EVMs to be rigged at a election stealing level. If this reprogramming (Or vote counting mechanism) is left to constituency levels, then to steal such an election will be worthy of a large espionage agency!!

All EC has to make sure is all parties are shown this process to be fair (not individual EVMs), and involve them in the process of programming or Tallying of the votes.

That shouldn’t be too difficult to do, and we will be spared of going back to the dark ages of ballots.