“Paper Ballots Are The Only Option”

On the eve of Republic Day, retired bureaucrat, and coordinator, Citizens’ Commission on Elections Citizens Commission on Elections (CCE) M. G. Devasahayam, and technocrat Sam Pitroda, raised concerns about the fear of votes not being counted, or being erroneously counted, by the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs).

They said with elections a few months away it was time that the voters demand their rights be safeguarded and ask for paper ballots.

Devasahayam and Pitroda, also shared that “an international civil society group” will be constituted to monitor the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Pitroda described the upcoming elections as the most crucial polls in India that will “decide the nation's destiny”.

The proposed election observation group will include international observers, electoral experts from India, academics and those involved in conducting elections in India and abroad. Devasahayam and Pitroda said this would lend transparency and credibility to the process and dismissed that political parties may call this out as an external interference in elections.

“The global [monitoring] body will ensure that Indian elections are fair,” opined the two. “The people’s vote is more important,” Pitroda said. According to Devasahayam, if political parties are “confident then they should welcome any kind of monitoring.”

They addressed an online press conference on January 25, which is recognised as National Voters Day in India, to encourage citizens, especially first time voters, to take part in the electoral process, which is essential in a democracy.

According to Pitroda, going back to the basics of voting on, and counting each ballot paper, was the only way to ensure that the citizens’ voting rights were protected. They also shared that the paper ballot system was the only way forward to ensure a free and fair elections this year, as people had lost faith in the EVMs.

Devasahayam, who has been raising the issue of EVMs and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) for a long time has himself conducted elections when he was in service as a bureaucrat. The now retired IAS officer said that India was the world biggest democracy and it was a “global issue”.

The two stressed that voters must know their rights and that it was “imperative for voters to make sure that the vote they are casting is the vote being counted” in the upcoming general elections.

Pitoda said that the voters must not be confused between ‘digital India’ and the use of EVMs during elections. “It is about going back to the basics. The voter does not know if the vote they cast [on EVMs] is the vote that has been counted. They are shown the VVPATs for seven seconds and it is dropped in a box. The slips are not counted” Pitroda said.

“The election commission has shut its doors,” Devesahayam added, saying it was the citizens right to know. concerned. We have to convince the voter, not the ECI,” he said. “Each voter should be able to verify that their vote is cast-as-intended, recorded-as-cast and counted-as-recorded”, they said

The Citizens’ Commission on Elections, headed by a former Judge of the Supreme Court of India, and with top national and international experts weighing in on the subject had in its report titled ‘Reclaim the Republic’ stated that “Due to the absence of End-to-End (E2E) verifiability, the present EVM/VVPAT system is not verifiable and therefore is unfit for democratic elections.”

This, stated Pitroda had alerted him, as an Indian citizen and voter, and others and has led to public protests “demanding the discarding of EVMs and returning to paper ballots for the forthcoming General Election to India’s Parliament due in the next couple of months.”

Pitroda added that “it is imperative to talk about the importance of our vote and the role it plays in upholding, protesting our constitution and our basic rights. The key is to be concerned about the fact that: ‘are you counting the vote I am casting?’”

He said that 2024 is the “most important election in recent history”, across the roads and that “Democracy is at the crossroads.” According to both the speakers, “there is a huge trust deficit. It matters what the voter thinks, not the EC. It is an issue for a voter. The voter needs to be convinced.”

They claimed that the EC’s response to their representations was “very bureaucratic” and that they were “not convinced.”

According to Pitroda, “now that the elections are around the corner, I don't believe there is time to look at [EVM] hacking, and what version of software it is. The only option today is paper ballot. Always good to go back to basics.”

He added that democracy is about citizens, for the people, by the people of the people. However, people are afraid to speak up, for fear of being hounded. “ We are at a critical phase and must speak up. I have a voice and I want EC to be sensitive and not remain in their own environment, talk with authority and not answer the people,” Pitroda said.

“I have conducted elections, as a super senior citizen I have cast my vote on paper ballot and EVM/VVPAt so I know from personal experience. This is not a matter of numbers, this is a citizen transferring their sovereignty to the elected representative. The voter must know that her vote is cast as intended, recorded as cast and counted as recorded. This is the essence,” Devasahayam said.

“Now what happens. The voter presses a button, there is a beep, a light, and he does not know… that is why we have doubt. The machine has taken over from the voter. They brought in VVPAT in 2013, however there are ‘two votes’, one in the memory of the EVM, one that is a paper slip that is shown for seven seconds to the voter, and dropped in the box. It is natural that paper slip needs to be counted, however, in 2018 EC said only EVM memory will be counted” he added.

“Since then we have been struggling for it and saying count the paper slip and if needed check with EVM memory. They are doing the reverse. That is fraud number one,” Devasahayam said.

According to him “fraud number two is that elections take months, the EVMs are stored for months, but counting is done in a tearing hurry. Actually counting is critical and they made an excuse that it will take three days… It takes a maximum of one day.

“It is an absurd argument. We have been trying as civil society to represent this however EC doors are closed. They will not listen to anybody. We brought in the best experts from the world to analyse and give the report in 2021.

We asked them to make the paper VVPAT slip bigger, better quality and give it in the voter’s hand to put it in the box. This way the voter is satisfied. Then count the slips. That is the real vote. If there are doubts cross verify. They will not listen or respond to this,” he said.

They said that it was not difficult to go back to the tried and tested paper ballot system as the ballot boxes “are continually being produced in India” and ballot papers are printed after candidates are finalised. “At 2-3 weeks’ notice we can go back to paper ballot. We will not accept anything but paper ballots. It is the only system that complies with democratic system,” they said.

“On social media lies get amplified. But we do not have enough time now. Find your own truth, don’t listen to social media ‘truth’. Ignore that,” Pitroda said, adding that the recent state election results were not an indicator either. “If someone wants to manipulate they can, give [lose in] one state and win seven.”

It was “the lack of response” from the EC that has concerned the CCE which has made representations on the issue before. On December 08 2023, Devasahayam as the group’s coordinator, had written to, CEC and Election Commissioners, Election Commission of India, sharing with them a memorandum signed by over 16,000 thousand of voters.

The list of demands before the General Election 2024 are as follows:

1. Ensure the integrity of voting and counting

i. The VVPAT system should be re-calibrated to be fully voter-verifiable. A voter should be able to get the VVPAT slip in her hand and cast it in a chip-free ballot box for the vote to be valid.

These VVPAT slips should be fully counted first for all constituencies before the results are declared. For this purpose, VVPAT slips should be larger in size and must be printed in such a manner that they can be preserved for a minimum of five years.

ii. Subsequently, if need be, the results of the counting of VVPAT slips should be cross verified with the electronic tallies of the EVMs for every constituency before the results are declared. In case of any mismatch, the counting of the VVPAT slips should be treated as the final result as also laid down in Rule 56(d)(4)(b) of The Conduct of the Election (Amendment) Rules, 2013.

Forms 17A (Register of electors) and Forms 17C (Account of votes recorded) must be tallied and be publicly disclosed at the end of polling on the polling day itself. Forms 17A and 17C should also be tallied with the manual count of VVPAT slips before the declaration of results.

2. Ensure the integrity of Electoral Rolls

i. To prevent arbitrary deletions, the ECI must ensure that prior notice is issued to every voter whose name is proposed to be deleted. This has also been directed by the Supreme Court in its recent judgement dated 4-8-2023 in which it was stated “No deletion should be done without following due process of law as contained in the R P Act, 1950 and the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960.

In all cases a notice must be issued to the elector and must be duly served on him”. This is critical to ensure that no voter is left behind.

ii. The ECI should immediately implement a transparent and public system of Social Audit of Electoral Rolls. Voter’s lists must be publicly displayed in the most accessible manner and also made available on the ECI website in a searchable database. Citizens should be empowered to check their own information as well as that of bogus names and duplicates in their area.

3. Rein-in Money Power

The ECI must strongly advocate for transparency in political party funding and ensure that money-power does not sway elections and their outcome. It must oppose electoral bonds that provide for unlimited anonymous funding of political parties.

However, according to Devasahayam, the EC is yet to respond in any manner. “The silent will have to speak up, the Opposition will have to wake up,” Pitroda said. “We are not beggars, we are citizens,” added Devasahayam, importing the people to amplify this demand for paper ballots.