Paper ballots over EVMs: It is a retrograde proposition

Not only would it be very costly, it could expose our elections to malpractices and unfair vote rejections

- SOUMYA KANTI GHOSH

The keenly fought 2000 US presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore was decided by the US Supreme Court, which stopped a manual count of votes initiated by Florida's top court, terming it a violation of the country's constitutional framework. Bush was finally declared the winner with a small margin.

Two important guiding ideas came into play. First, the equal protection clause, which lets an individual county within a state determine the validity of polled votes unique to its own understanding (given conflicting manual recount standards). Second, the need to truthfully capture the "intent of the voter"—the holy grail of democracy.

A significant outcome of the contentious result was a broad US shift from manual vote counting in favour of a Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) machine system. The rapid adoption of electronic voting machines (EVMs) in the US, peaking at 30% in 2010, was unfortunately checkmated during the 2016 Trump-versus-Clinton election amid the purported meddling by outsiders in the electoral database and process.

America came full circle, with flip-flops that have made its electoral system a near mockery of democratic processes. India, under the guidance of the Election Commission of India (ECI), did not mimic the West.

When cynics and vested interests nudge the masses to believe unfounded tales of the ECI and EVMs being susceptible to manipulation and raise slogans asking India to revert to the "tried and tested" paper ballot system, they seem besieged with a colonial mindset. With the ECI having ring-fenced EVMs against all possible breaches, such cynicism is unwarranted.