Table of Contents
Introduction
Some of the world’s largest democracies have electronic voting. Many countries are considering adopting electronic voting systems in order to enhance different aspects of the democratic process. E-voting is often viewed as a tool for advancing democracy, fostering confidence in electoral management, enhancing the legitimacy of election outcomes, and improving the electoral process’s overall performance. Vote administrators, analysts, international associations, suppliers, and standardization bodies constantly review their methodologies and methods as technology advances.
When properly implemented, e-voting solutions can reduce the cost of elections or referendums in the long run by eliminating some popular avenues of fraud, speeding up the transmission of results, increasing accessibility and making voting more convenient for citizens—in certain cases, when used over a series of electoral events, e-voting solutions can also reduce the cost of elections or referendums in the long run.
The current state of e-voting technology is not without flaws. In some cases, legislative and technological issues have arisen; there has been resistance to implementing new voting technologies in others.
Electronic voting’s inherent difficulties are considerable, and they are related to the complexity of electronic systems and procedures. For voters and even election officials, many e-voting solutions lack accountability. The majority of e-voting solutions are only completely understood by a small group of experts. The electoral process legitimacy is mainly dependent on a small group of system operators rather than thousands of poll staff. The implementation of e-voting, if not carefully planned and crafted, will erode confidence in the entire electoral process. So, it is crucial to devote adequate time and energy to consider its application and analyzing previous electronic voting experiences.
What is E-Voting?
Electronic voting (also referred to as e-voting) is a voting method that uses electronic devices to support or take care of the casting and counting of votes.
E-voting can use standalone electronic voting machines (also known as EVMs) or computers connected to the Internet, depending on the particular implementation.
Background of E-Voting in India
Election Commission of India, in collaboration with Bharat Electronics Limited and Electronics Corporation of India Limited, created the Indian electronic voting machine (EVM) in 1989. The EVMs’ industrial designers were faculty members at IIT Bombay’s Industrial Design Centre. In 1982, EVMs were first used in a by-election in Kerala’s North Paravoor Assembly Constituency for a small number of polling stations. Electronic voting machines (EVMs) were used for the first time in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Delhi. In 1999, the electronic voting machines (EVMs) were used for the first time in a general election (statewide) to the Goa assembly.
Types of E-Voting system
There are two types of E-voting one is Internet voting that uses the Internet and another that does not use the Internet that is electronic voting
I-Voting
As Internet use grew exponentially in the 1990s and early twenty-first century, it seemed that the voting process would follow suit. In this scenario, voters may vote from any device with an Internet connection, including their home. I-voting is a term used to describe this form of voting system. Many saw the advent of these emerging innovations as an opportunity to change democracy by allowing people to engage directly in the decision-making process. Many nations, on the other hand, concluded that the Internet was not secure for voting purposes. In some countries, such as Estonia, Switzerland, France, and The Philippines, limited I-voting trials have been conducted. Estonia’s case is particularly instructive: despite having a well-developed infrastructure for digital democracy, the country’s Internet use has been severely disrupted at times by denial-of-service attacks. As a result, the country has been forced to retain both traditional voting infrastructure and the I-voting alternative.
Apart from Internet denial-of-service attacks, security experts are concerned that many personal computers are vulnerable to malware (malignant software). Such attacks may be used to obstruct or substitute valid votes, potentially undetected, thereby subverting the electoral process. The third issue about I-voting is the risk of voter intimidation and vote sale, which can be more easily perpetrated when voting takes place outside of a regulated setting. In stable democracies, however, there is no agreement on the severity of the issue. Furthermore, this objection extends to both absentee ballots and vote-by-mail, both of which have been commonly used in the past.
E-Voting
Many large-scale electronic voting is usually conducted in designated precincts using special-purpose devices due to security and access issues. E-voting is the term for this form of voting system. Direct recording electronic (DRE) machines and optical scanning machines are the two main types of e-voting equipment.
A typical DRE consists of a device connected to a touch screen. The electors are faced with ballots on a touch screen, where they can make their selections and cast their votes. The touch-screen display can support voters in a number of ways, including showing broad fonts and high contrast for those with poor vision, alerting voters to undervotes, and preventing overvotes.
The elector fills out a paper ballot in optical scanning systems and puts it into an electronic scanning unit. Scanners can reject incorrectly marked ballots, allowing the elector to start over and reducing the number of votes thrown away. Voters write their ballots on a computer screen in other optical scanning systems. The machine prints an optical scanning ballot after a ballot is completed. The elector reviews the ballot before putting it into a computer that scans and counts the votes.
Benefits of E-Voting
- Increases the level of Participation– By allowing users to vote from anywhere and from any computer system or device with an internet connection, the Internet voting system tends to optimize user participation.
- Security– When talking about the secure election, it means a combination of security layers used to ensure that the votes counted reflect the electorate’s will and that they were cast by voters who were eligible to vote in the election. In Electronic voting systems, in addition to logical and physical safety layers, mechanisms are in place to ensure that only users who an official document has approved participate, ensuring that the electronic voting process is as secure.
- Accessibility– Internet voting offers a secure and private channel in which all users can participate equally. It increases the accessibility for foreign citizens as well as people who have trouble moving or have restricted mobility. This has a positive effect on the final turnout and, as a result, the election’s validity.
- Accountability– The whole voting process is auditable. The E-Voting system helps administrators ensure that users’ votes are correctly issued and accounted for according to their voting intentions. In addition, each consumer receives a voting receipt.
- Effectiveness– When compared to conventional paper voting. The reduction in operational and implementation costs greatly improves election management performance. Also, e-voting may prove effective in the pandemic as all elections processes have currently stopped in India due to the crisis.
- Precision– The electronic vote removes manual counting errors, allowing for correct and timely results to be released, with the receipt of votes for each vote cast.
Analysis
With a population of over one billion people, India is the world’s largest democracy. India has an electorate of over 668 million people and 543 parliamentary seats, needing over one million electronic voting machines (EVMs). EVMs have been used in many state elections since their legal acceptance in 1989, but they have never been used in a full general election. The EVM is split into two parts: polling staff to control and one for voters to use. The control unit records the vote after voters click the button next to the candidate’s name and symbol on the balloting unit. The vote is cast when a light next to the button glows, and a quick beep sound is heard. After that, the polling officer clicks a button to reset the machine for the next voter. The EVM comes with a reusable carry pack and can be used in remote areas with a battery power source. According to Election Commission Officials, each EVM can record five votes per minute, or nearly 3,000 votes, in a single polling day.
Building of Blocks under E-Voting
Remote voting in the form of postal ballots is also a part of the current electoral system. Still, it is only applicable to a small group of people, for instance, members of the armed forces, police officers, senior citizens, and others.
The Indian Election Commission has already introduced the Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System (ETPS) (ETPBS). It is the one-way electronic transmission – from the postal ballots to the service voters. After that, the Service Voter casts their vote and mails it to the appropriate returning officer via post.
“The entire process is secured by multiple checks and transmission protocol to ensure safe transmission” according to ECI. The returning officer validates the receipt of the postal ballot at the counting center by comparing it to the transmitter system’s QR code
The polling panel is also developing blockchain technologies to allow for remote voting. At a recent event, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora announced that India’s Election Commission collaborated with the Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, to build a blockchain system that would enable voters to cast ballots while physically absent from their constituency. Acceptance of this may be expected in the 2024 General elections. This type of blockchain technology also helps implement the ‘One Nation One Election’ concept more effectively.
Conclusion
The e-Voting platform aims to boost transparency and Corporate Governance standards. Moreover, it reduces the administrative costs associated with postal ballots by allowing results to be declared immediately after voting ends. Additionally, investors benefit because they can vote until the last day from the comfort of their own home or workplace, reducing the risk of their votes being declared invalid. Hence, this system can prove a boon for India if it can gain India’s people’s trust, and it can be achieved by creating awareness among people for the same. E-voting makes the process of voting much easier in India and helps the country to move with the pace of technology
REFERENCES
This article is authored by Yugal Jain, Student at Ajeenkya D Y Patil University, Pune.
