In an exclusive video interview to Ashis Ray in London, Prof Philip Stark from Berkeley explains why poll audits are necessary to ensure the integrity of the voting system. Prof Stark explains that all electronic voting systems are hackable. Even when the machine is not connected to the Internet, external devices used to load data and information about candidates, parties etc. to the Memory can be used to plant bugs and malware.
The video interview can be watched here:
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Prof Stark, who had studied the US Presidential election in 2016 as well as 2020 pointed out that hacking could also involve deleting name of voters from the electoral roll or changing the address of the voters, so that they are not permitted to cast their votes and are disenfranchised. Theoretically, it is also possible to add names to the electoral roll, he says to underscore the necessity of keeping the data safe till an audit is conducted.
Prof Stark also points out that at the time of assembling the machines there could be hardware placed that can lead to either accidental bugs or ‘supply chain hacking’.
Asked specifically to comment on the Indian Electronic Voting Machines, he says that according to his knowledge and understanding, they are unsafe and the VVPAT units introduced in 2019 to keep a paper trail are also not fool-proof.
Here are some of his observations on the Indian EVM and the VVPAT:
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Prof Stark had warned in 2020 that those jurisdictions in the US that relied mainly on electronic systems, without a trail of paper ballots for cross-checking the results, provided “lots of points of vulnerability.”
Eleven states in the US, he had said, had outsourced their results, reporting to a firm in Spain that was in bankruptcy.
He had then said that the most secure system comprised the “three Cs”: creating a trail of hand-marked paper ballot, curating those ballots in a trustworthy manner and statistically checking the electronically-generated tallies against the paper ballots.
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