EVM and Its Use In India
EVM means electronic voting machines the system was deployed for the election Commission of India. Starting late in 1990s it was introduced in phased manner. Prior to introduction of electronic voting , paper ballots for used and counting all ballets was done manually . The printed ballots papers were more expensive. Voting by paper ballots were much expensive and most time taking. After the introduction of EVM Cost significantly reduced and the counting was within a reasonable time. EVM are battery powered and having a sufficient memory with no need of network.
Adoption of EVM
- Electronic Voting Machine first was proposed in 1977 by electronic corporation of India (ECIL)
- In 1979 a working model was suggested after discussion of all parties on 6 August 1980.Bharat electronics(BEL) and ECIL both were manufacturing EVM.
- In 1982 EVM trial was done in Paravur assembly byelection in Kerala state.
- In this by election a case was filed in Supreme Court of India which was ruled out under the act 1951 and the court stated that the use of and alternate technology would require the Indian parliament to amend the law.
- As there was no law to permit the usage of EVM it could not be deployed immediately.
- In the year 1989, the act of 1951 was amended by the parliament of India to use the electronic voting machine widely.
- In the year 1990 the EVM machines were used as an experimental basis across the 25 states in institutions during the assembly election in Rajasthan Madhya Pradesh and Delhi.
- In may 2001, EVMS were used in all constituencies for the state assembly election in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry and West Bengal.
- In 2004 in the General Election, the EVMs were used in all 543 parliamentary constituencies for the first time
- Thereafter EVMs are being used widely.
Further Improvements-
- In 2008 Totaliser unit was developed.
- This can be attached with control unit.
- After a ruling by the Supreme Court direction, Commission appointed expert technical committee in 2011 to study the feasibility of Voter Verified Paper Audit trail (VVPAT) in EVMs to counter the charges of tampering.
- VVPAT system was developed and was put on field trials
- In July 2011 – field trials conducted at Ladakh, Thiruvananthapuram, Cherrapunjee, East Delhi and Jaisalmer. This trial was conducted under various conditions of weather.
- Sep-2013 VVPAT was introduced on a trial basis in a by election in Noksen in Nagaland. It was later used in 08 Lok Sabha constituencies in 2014.
- As per Supreme Court order on 08 Oct 2013 , the Election commission of India introduced VVPATs along with EVMs in a phased manner .
- In 2019 The Supreme Court directed that a small percentage of the VVPATs (2%) shall be verified for reliability test before certifying the final results.
Design and Technology-
- EVM contains 02 units . Control Unit and Ballot Unit.Ballot unit connected with a cable
- Ballot Unit consists of button which facilitates voting by Voter. This store vote count. It has LED Display. This unit has pre programmed.
- EVM has a six volt alkaline battery to use as a secondary power source.
- The EVM has no component for communication and for internet.
- EVM was designed to record a Maximum of 3840 votes.
- Initially Single unit could list 16 candidates after connecting 04 unit in parallel. After upgrading in 2013, 24 unit can now be connected to single unit for a maximum of 384 candidates.
- In a minute EVM can register 05 votes.
- VVPAT device was added in June 2018
Operation of EVM
- Prior to Election day a trial run is being conducted by political parties with the sample votes to ensure that the machine hardware has not been tampered.
- On the election day , Control Unit is operated by the polling booth officer.
- The privacy is maintain at the polling booth by polling booth officer.
- Once the voter enters the vote, ballot unit display the vote to the voter and records it in its memory. After casting the vote “close” command of the polling officer is issued
- The EVMs are tracked by Election Commissioner of India on a real- time basis with a specialized EVM Tracking Software (ETS)
- At the counting of votes by pressing “Result” button results are displayed.
FAQ
Most frequent questions and answers
EVM self life is estimated 15 years
Yes. The EVMs are tracked by Election Commissioner of India with the help of EVM Tracking Software (ETS).
Maximum 3840 votes.
EVM designed by a team lead by A G Rao and Ravi Poovaiah professors at IIT Bombay.
In 1982 as trial used in by-election to Paravur assembly constituency in Kerala.
In 1980 BEL and ECIL were tasked with manufacturing EVMs
Yes Nepal, Bhutan,Namibia and Kenya have acquired India manufactured EVMs. Several Other countries are also interested in India made EVMs.
Appx Rs 17000 in 2023
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