The Supreme Court of India advocates for heightened Election Commission query on cross-verification of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) counts. The request is in alignment with a plea seeking at least 30% cross-verification in each Assembly and Lok Sabha constituency’s randomly selected polling stations. As of now, the cross-verification process only takes into account 10% of the VVPAT and EVM counts.
The Supreme Court’s Notice to EC
Besides suggesting an increase in the obligatory tallying of VVPAT with EVMs, the Supreme Court also issued notice to the Election Commission on two more related issues. The first motion calls for mandatory hand-counting of all the VVPAT slips in polling stations where the victory margin is remarkably tight – less than 3%. The second issue revolves around making it compulsory for the poll panel to order hand-counting in all polling stations. This becomes pertinent when the discrepancy between machine-counting total and hand-counting total – given a 5% sample EVMs – exceeds 1%.
The Judgement Behind the Action
The root of this directive traces back to the judgement passed in Subramanian Swamy versus ECI in 2013. The Supreme Court upheld that elections conducted through EVMs should ideally execute a mechanism of voter verifiable paper audit trails. This will ensure that the voter is confident that their vote was recorded accurately. Moreover, the mechanism for cross-verifying EVM and VVPAT counts was put in place to keep any technological interference or EVM mal-programming in check.
| Year | Court Case | Judgement |
|---|---|---|
| 2013 | Subramanian Swamy versus ECI | Implementation of VVPAT for accurate vote recording |
The Role of Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT)
The VVPAT serves as an independent verification printer machine and is coupled with electronic voting machines. Its purpose is to let voters affirm if their vote has indeed been cast in favour of the intended candidate. How does this work? When a voter presses a button in the EVM, a paper slip is printed via the VVPAT. This slip contains the symbol of the poll and name of the candidate, giving voters an opportunity to verify their decision. After the ballot slip is screened by the voter for seven seconds in a glass case located on the VVPAT, it then gets cut and drops into the VVPAT machine’s drop box, accompanied by an audible beep. It is worth noting that the VVPAT machines can only be accessed by polling officers.
