'Simple, correct and accurate calculators': EC sources back Indian EVMs amid Tulsi Gabbard's tampering remarks

New Delhi: As US National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard raised concerns over Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and advocated for return to ballot paper, the Election Commission (EC) on Friday said India uses EVMs that work like "simple, correct and accurate calculators" and "cannot be connected" to either Internet, WiFi or Infrared.

EC sources said these EVMs used in India have stood legal scrutiny by the Supreme Court and are invariably checked by the political parties at various stages, including the conduct of mock polls before polling starts. More than five crore VVPAT slips have been verified and matched while counting in front of parties, sources said.

Some countries use Electronic Voting Systems which are a mix of multiple systems, machines and processes including various private networks like internet but India uses EVMs, which work like simple, correct and accurate calculators and cannot be connected to either Internet, WiFi or Infrared, the sources said.

In her remarks, Gabbard said they have "evidence" of how these electronic voting systems "have been vulnerable to hackers for a very long time" and "vulnerable to exploitation to manipulate the results of the votes being cast".

She also said it "further drives forward your mandate to bring about paper ballots" across the country so that voters can have "faith in the integrity of our elections".

Congress General Secretary and Rajya Sabha MP Randeep Surjewala targeted the Modi government, EC and the Chief Election Commissioner for remaining "silent" on the issue and asked whether it was fair just to "outrightly rubbish and reject" the statement made by Gabbard, whom India felicitated less then a month ago.

He also asked shouldn’t the EC and Modi government reach out to the US government and Gabbard to collect "all the details of hacking and other vulnerabilities" in their EVMs and test India's EVMs against the fallibilities suggested by the US official.

"Why is EC planting 'source based stories' to negate what Tulsi Gabbard said?3. Why are the PM, NDA government and BJP mum?...Should the Supreme Court of India not take suo moto notice of the issue and conduct a thorough investigation, considering that free and fair elections and democracy are part of the basic structure of the Constitution?" he asked.

In his presidential address to the AICC Session in Ahmedabad on Wednesday, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge had attacked EVMs and had demanded a return to ballot papers. "There is fraud in elections. With the advancement of electronic technology, developed countries of the world have abandoned EVMs and moved towards ballot papers. But our Election Commission is not ready to take cognizance of this problem," he had said.

Several Opposition leaders had raised concerns over EVMs earlier.

Earlier, US billionaire Elon Musk had cited the risk of EVMs being hacked by humans or artificial intelligence (AI) and called for its elimination. 

Then Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar had in January responded, "a global IT expert said EVMs can be hacked while our elections are going on. They (the US) don't have EVMs, they have electronic voting mechanisms".