Electronic Voting Machines: transparency and tamperability — International Conference Feb. 13, 2010
STATEMENT OF DR.SUBRAMANIAN SWAMY, PRESIDENT OF JANATA PARTY MADE IN CHENNAI ON 04.02.2010
1. On February 13, 2010, I am convening in Chennai an International Conference on Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) at Savera Hotel. About 35 Experts from India, Germany, Netherlands and USA will be attending the Conference to review the international experience with EVMs in light of reports from several countries about the tamperability and the lack of transparency in polling of votes of the EVMs. The programme of the conference is enclosed.
2. The German Supreme Court has recently banned the use of EVMs in German elections based on these reports. The Delhi High Court has been hearing my PIL on the use of EVMs in Indian elections. The next date of hearing is scheduled for February 17th. In that petition, I have given two examples of two constituencies, Madurai (2004), Madhya Pradesh (2006) where prima facie rigging has taken place.
3. The Chief Election Commissioner Mr.Navin Chawla has been telling a blatant lie to the media that no one has yet been able to demonstrate the tamperability of Indian EVMs. In fact on September 3, 2009, I was accompanied by two IT software engineers, Dr.Hariprasad and Dr.V.V.Rao (both of whom will attend this conference) to the Election Commission for a demonstration. Half way through our demonstration, the EC officials abruptly aborted the meeting stating that they cannot allow us to continue the demonstration since it involved the patent rights of the ECIL, and needed special permission of the CEC! Since then no meeting has been held for us. However, ECI continues to ‘informs’ us that Indian EVMs are special and somehow different from International EVMs and that concerns about Indian EVM’s are misplaced. But activists, technologists contest that position. These conferences will throw light how Indian EVMs lack the many safeguards that internationals EVMs have and they can be easily hacked ([perhaps much more easily) than many internationally used EVMs and if corrective actions are not taken, it will have serious implications to the democracy of the country.
4. What is at core is the issue of transparency, as German Supreme Court has enumerated, the ability of a common voter understand the process form the time vote is cast to the counting of that vote to the candidate specified by the voter. When that transparency is lost, the elections are greatly beholden to experts and election officials and leaves field open for fraud, potentially in a very large scale
5. The challenge in India is also that the public is under the impression that EVM solved many issues related to paper ballots such as booth capturing, booth stuffing etc and is viewed as using technology to improve efficiency. However crimes of booth capturing etc., at the local level by physical means have now been replaced by the dangerous possibility of national level rigging by electronic means. The planned sessions in this conference are geared to bring an open discussion on these issues with international and national experts and help protect Indian Democracy.
6. International experts attending are: (see overleaf for biodata):
1) Dr.Rop Gonggrijp, Netherlands Computer hacker, successful Entrepreneur who is instrumental in banning of EVMs in Netherlands due to security reasons, in spite of huge investments made by Netherlands in EVMs.
Dr.Till Jaeger, Germany Attorney who argued the landmark German Supreme Court Judgment that effectively banned EVMs in German Elections.
Professor David Dill, USA (via Video Conference) University of Stanford, pioneer for reformation of usage of EVMs in US elections that resulted in 21 states in US either ban EVMs or require paper trail and additional 18 states require paper trail in state or local jurisdictions. Founder of Verified Voting Foundation. In 2004, Dr.Dill received the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s “Pioneer Award”rspearheading and nurturing the popular movement for integrity and transparency in modern elections.”
Dr.Alex Halderman, USA Computer Science Professor, University of Michigan, noted expert of Electronic Voting Security who demonstrated first voting machine virus, lead team of Scientists from Princeton and Berkeley for “Top to Bottom” review of California EVMs.
Janamejayan's Weblog 
Yes, Electronic Voting Machines are Misused in INDIA. They are tampered and made UPA to come to power again
How do you know that EVMs are misused in INDIA? Can you guess the technology used in INDIAN EVMs and which of the government organisation fabricated these machines.
Indian expert warns against use of e-voting machines
Saturday, June 12, 2010
* Says electronic voting machines more prone to manUipulation
Election Commission considering introducing EVMs to stop rigging
By Iftikhar Gilani
NEW DELHI: An Indian psephologist has warned Pakistan and Bangladesh against introducing electronic voting machines (EVMs) that, he claims, are even more prone to fraud and manipulation than the conventional voting methods.
The advise comes as Indian political parties are debating the effectiveness of these machines in stopping rigging, and at a time when many countries in the West have also stopped using EVMs.
On the other hand, Pakistan and Bangladesh are taking urgent steps for introducing these machines to stabilise their democratic systems.
The Pakistan Election Commission has already undertaken a feasibility study and intends to issue a final report by July this year after consultations with political parties and the civil society. A press release by the commission referred to India, where EVMs are being used since the 1980s.
Psephologist GV Krishnamurti believes that that EVMs had proved nothing more than ‘black boxes’ in India that rendered elections non-transparent, unverifiable and un-auditable after their introduction.
Most countries in Europe and the United States with much more robust democratic structures are also still unconvinced of the utility of this electronic system.
Despite the widespread problems reported in the previous elections in the United Kingdom with paper ballots, officials there remain unconvinced about the use of electronic voting machines.
Krishnamurti believes that unlike the traditional ballot system where election officials are the only ‘insiders’, electronic voting machine systems have a long chain of such officials, including manufacturers, programmers, foreign companies and their suppliers/vendors, maintenance engineers, local officials.
The expert claims all these officials can fix the elections, as has happened on many occasions in India. It is also more difficult to detect electronic fraud.
“The only way to protect Indian democracy is by preventing occurrence of such fraud by adopting adequate safeguards,” he said, warning both Pakistan and Bangladesh to decide whether or not to install the EVMs only after carefully weighing both their advantages and disadvantages.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010612story_12-6-2010_pg7_30
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