Elon Musk calls for elimination of EVMs, BJP leader responds
What's the story
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has called for the elimination of electronic voting machines (EVMs) due to their vulnerability to hacking.
"The risk of being hacked by humans or AI, while small, is still too high," he replied to Robert F. Kennedy Jr's post on X, which flagged irregularities in the EVMs used in Puerto Rico's primary elections.
Musk's response appears to have rubbed many the wrong way, including Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Rajeev Chandrasekhar.
Paper vs digital
Indian politician responds
In a long post, Chandrasekhar said Musk's statement is a "sweeping generalization statement that implies no one can build secure digital hardware" and that India would be pleased to run a tutorial on EVMs.
"Musk's view may apply to US and other places - where they use regular compute platforms to build Internet connected Voting machines."
"But Indian EVMs are custom designed, secure and isolated from any network or media. Factory programmed controllers that cannot be reprogrammed," he wrote.
Twitter Post
Read Chandrasekhar's reply here
This is a huge sweeping generalization statement that implies no one can build secure digital hardware. Wrong. @elonmusk 's view may apply to US n other places - where they use regular compute platforms to build Internet connected Voting machines.
— Rajeev Chandrasekhar 🇮🇳 (@RajeevRC_X) June 16, 2024
But Indian EVMs are custom… https://t.co/GiaCqU1n7O
EVM security
Indian EVMs: Secure and tamper-proof, says experts
India uses third-generation EVMs, also known as M3 EVMs. They are tamper-proof, and attempting to open them causes them to enter "Safety Mode" and become inoperable.
A dedicated team from three prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology has upgraded these machines to ensure robustness and security.
Professor Dinesh K Sharma from IIT Bombay told NDTV that "Indian EVMs are different from other EVMs in the world. The M3 EVMs have no connection to any other device, not even mains power supply."
Vote verification
Supreme Court of India addresses EVM cross-verification
The reliability of EMVs had also been a source of contention in India, with the opposition seeking the old electoral method using paper ballots.
However, in April of this year, the Supreme Court expressed its unwillingness to pass any ruling regarding EVMs solely on the basis of alleged hacking and manipulation.
At the same time, it noted that it would not hesitate to ensure steps for improvement if it felt the need for such.