Remote Electronic Voting Machine (RVM)

Remote Electronic Voting Machine (RVM)

#GS-02 Elections

For Prelims

Electronic Voting Machines (EVM)

  • EVMs were used in India for the first time in 1982 for conducting the by-election to the North Paravur Assembly constituency in Kerala.
  • The EVMs were used in the general election for the first time during the Goa state assembly election of 1999.
  • They allow the citizens to vote electronically which reduces the time and effort required for the Election Commission of India to count the votes.
  • EVMs comprises of two units, control unit and balloting unit, both of which are connected using a cable.
  • It can even be used in areas that have no electricity since due to the presence of an onboard 6-volt single alkaline battery.
  • The control unit is kept with the polling officer selected by Election Commission for safety and to prevent tampering.
  • Currently the EVMs used by the Election Commission of India has the ability to record a maximum of 2,000 votes.
  • Post 2013 EVMs have the capacity to have a maximum of 384 candidates including NOTA.
  • The EVMs were designed by the Technical Experts Committee (TEC) of the Election Commission in association with Bharat Electronics Ltd. Bangalore and Electronic Corporation of India Ltd. Hyderabad.

Remote EVM (RVM)

  • Remote EVMs are created to handle multiple constituencies from a single remote polling booth.
  • Its aim is to allow migrant voters to cast their vote through remote voting.
  • RVM has the ability to handle a maximum of 72 different constituencies from a single remote polling booth.

Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT)

  • VVPAT is essentially a printing machine which prints a slip with the poll symbol and candidate name, once the voter presses the key on the EVM.
  • This slip is visible to the voter on the VVPAT’s glass screen for seven seconds after which it gets dropped into a box within the VVPAT.

For Mains

Concerns about EVM

  • The ECI has stated that Indian EVMs are standalone, not connected to the internet, and have a one-time programmable chip, which makes tampering through the hardware port or through a Wi-Fi connection impossible.
  • However, this still raises the concern of ‘side-channel’, insider fraud, and trojan attacks.
  • Another major concern is that ECI sends the EVM software to two foreign chipmakers to burn into the CPU. This means that the manufacturers cannot read back the contents of the software to ensure its integrity.

Source “India’s new proposal for migrant voting

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