Akhilesh Yadav Alleges EVM Tampering In UP; An In-depth Look At The Possibilities Of An EVM Machine Being Hacked Or Tampered

Akhilesh Yadav, the Samajwadi Party chief, accused the Uttar Pradesh government of rigging the vote count at a press conference on Tuesday. He said that three vehicles loaded with voting machines were seized in Varanasi. Two vehicles had left, but the third one was stopped by SP workers.

After Akhilesh Yadav’s allegations, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) retaliated. Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya said that the Samajwadi Party (SP) is losing, so now they are trying to blame their loss on electronic voting machines (EVMs).

The Election Commission of India has also responded to his allegations by saying that these EVMs found in vehicles were being taken for training purposes only and not used during elections.

There have been questions about EVMs before elections and after the results for the past few years. Every political party except for the BJP has been claiming that EVMs can be hacked. However, the Election Commission says that EVMs are completely safe and cannot be hacked.

In this article, we will take an in-depth look at the security of EVMs and see if they can really be hacked.

Once a Hacker claimed

According to a BBC report, a hacker from the United States claimed that machines were hacked during the 2014 elections. In that year’s assembly election, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition won with a large majority.

However, the Election Commission of India denies these claims. People have always been worried that the technology in these machines can be used to hack the voting process. According to a recent report, seven cases involving this issue are currently being heard by different courts in India. However, the Election Commission has repeatedly claimed that these machines are hack-proof.

What Election Commission of India Says?

In 2019; a special committee was formed by the Election Commission of India to look at EVM hacking and tampering allegations. The committee concluded and submitted its report on “Why EVMs cannot be hacked or tampered with”:-

• Because, these machines are not connected to the internet, it is not possible to hack them.
• The EVMs used in India are programmed by engineers from government-owned companies who do not share their source code with anyone.
• Indian EVM machines have two units: Controlling Unit and Balloting Unit. The two units are separate and they’re divided during elections. If any one of the units are tampered with, it will not work.

The committee has confirmed that there is absolutely no chance of tampering or hacking into the EVMs.