The Election Commission of India (ECI) has recently proposed the implementation of a Remote Electronic Voting Machine (RVM), aimed to allow domestic migrants to participate in national and regional elections. The ECI has suggested testing this approach through a State Assembly election, enabling internal migrants to cast their vote within their respective states.
The Need for Remote Voting
While the 2019 general election saw a record high voter turnout with 67% of registered citizens casting their votes, there is still concern regarding the significant number of eligible voters who remained absent from the voting process. Internal migration contributes to this problem as it takes electors away from their home constituencies. The Supreme Court of India, in 2015, directed the ECI to explore options for remote voting to solve this issue. Furthermore, with nearly 10 million migrant workers registered on the government’s e-SHRAM portal, the implementation of remote voting could have extensive implications.
The Current Proposal for RVMs
A modified version of the existing Electronic Voting Machine (EVM), the proposed RVM would allow multiple constituencies to be managed from a single remote polling booth. These special remote polling booths would be established in different states during elections. Employing an electronic dynamic ballot display, these booths will showcase a variety of candidate lists according to the constituency number of the voter as read by a constituency card reader. The system will feature a device similar to the voter-verified paper trail (VVPAT) allowing voters to verify their votes, with results shared with the home returning officer (RO) for tallying on counting day.
Working of Existing EVMs
EVMs have been heavily used in India since 1992 and have been in operation for all Lok Sabha and State Assembly elections since 2000. In 2010, multiple political parties requested the ECI to design a mechanism to verify that votes were recorded correctly. This led to the development of the VVPAT machine, a standard feature in elections since mid-2017. The current EVM setup includes a Balloting Unit (BU), connected to the VVPAT printer located inside the voting compartment, which is in turn connected to the Control Unit (CU) that tallies the votes cast.
Challenges Facing Remote Voting
While the proposed RVM shares the same security system and voting process as present-day EVMs, it doesn’t alleviate existing challenges and creates a few new ones. Challenges include questions on voter registration at remote locations, removal of names from electoral rolls of home constituencies, and transparency in remote voting applications. The current VVPAT system isn’t entirely voter-verified, a potential issue that could carry over into remote voting.
Way Forward for Remote Voting
A fully verifiable and correct voting process needs to be independent of the hardware used. The “voter should have full agency to cancel a vote if not satisfied; and that the process to cancel must be simple and should not require the voter to interact with anybody”. It is essential for a successful remote voting system to consider the confidence and acceptability of all stakeholders of the electoral system, including voters, political parties, and election machinery.
UPSC Civil Services Examination Previous Year Question (PYQ)
Q. Right to vote and to be elected in India is a (2017)
(a) Fundamental Right
(b) Natural Right
(c) Constitutional Right
(d) Legal Right
Ans: (c)
Exp: This right is implicit in Article 326 of the Constitution, stating that elections to the House of the People and to the Legislative Assembly of every State shall be based on adult suffrage. Therefore, option (c) is the correct answer.