Election Frauds: Will India Follow Trump’s Advice to Hold Elections on Ballot Papers?

Election Frauds: Will India Follow Trump’s Advice to Hold Elections on Ballot Papers?

While India is among the most notorious countries where rampant election frauds are happening, now along with EVMs, it is alleged that the BJP of PM Modi is committing various other crimes to win elections fraudulently. 

By Rakesh Raman

The U.S. President Donald Trump has advocated for holding elections on ballot papers instead of electronic machines. It is reported that Trump’s advice for ballot papers came during a joint press conference in the U.S. with the prime minister (PM) of India Narendra Modi.

As electronic voting machine (EVM) frauds are happening frequently to win elections deceptively, particularly by the ruling regimes, most citizens in the world demand elections on paper ballots. In India, for example, there are numerous complaints against EVMs.

It is alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of PM Modi manipulates EVMs selectively to win certain state elections and Lok Sabha (parliamentary) elections. 

In the press conference, Trump expressed his preference for paper ballots in elections in response to a question about the possibility of external interference in the 2020 U.S. election and 2024 Lok Sabha election in India.

Last year, Tesla and SpaceX chief Elon Musk – who also owns social media site X (formerly Twitter) – had warned of the risks of using EVMs in elections. In his tweet, Musk said, “Electronic voting machines and anything mailed in is too risky. We should mandate paper ballots and in-person voting only.”

He appended with his tweet a slew of media reports that revealed the vulnerability of EVMs. These reports asserted that EVMs can be reprogrammed to invisibly ensure the victory of any candidate in the elections. 

The reports shared by Musk also confirmed that a malicious software or vote-stealing code can be developed. This rogue software can spread from EVM to EVM like a computer virus to silently change the election outcome.

Dishonest election authorities, like in India, often deceive the citizens with the excuse that counting of paper ballots is a time-consuming exercise; therefore they use EVMs.

However, Musk shattered this pretext with the example of Argentina which hand-counted 99.9% of its 27 million paper ballots in less than 6 hours. “There’s no reason it can’t be done here,” Musk said in his tweet of July 9, 2024.

Earlier, in his tweet of June 15, Musk said, “We should eliminate electronic voting machines. The risk of being hacked by humans or AI, while small, is still too high.”

As a top technology and business leader in the world, Musk believes that EVMs can be hacked by humans as well as artificial intelligence (AI) systems to change election results fraudulently.

He expressed his views after the allegations of EVM irregularities in the primary elections of Puerto Rico, which is an unincorporated territory of the United States (U.S.).

Musk made his remarks in response to the EVM concerns highlighted by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – nephew of former U.S. President John F. Kennedy – who was an independent candidate for the 2024 U.S. presidential election.

In his tweet of June 15, Kennedy quoted an Associated Press report to say that “Puerto Rico’s primary elections just experienced hundreds of voting irregularities related to electronic voting machines (EVMs).”

He added that elections should be held on paper ballots to avoid electronic interference in voting and his administration will implement voting on paper ballots to guarantee honest and fair elections.

ELECTORAL FRAUDS IN INDIA

While the BJP of PM Modi won the Lok Sabha election 2024, large-scale EVM frauds have been reported to help BJP candidates win elections. The Wire news service reported that in over 140 Lok Sabha seats during the 2024 election, more EVM votes were counted than EVM votes polled. It has given data for different parliamentary constituencies where discrepancies are visible. 

Since the Election Commission of India (ECI) works without any accountability and the Supreme Court judges – who are clueless about EVM technology – are arbitrarily dismissing petitions against EVMs, there are no repercussions for this possible voting fraud in India. As a result, BJP and Modi will keep winning elections at will.

Since the opposition parties in India are full of uneducated and criminal politicians, they do not raise their voice forcefully against EVMs. After each election defeat, they willy-nilly accept the results and wait for the next election when BJP wins again. It is believed that if voting is done on ballot papers instead of EVMs, neither Modi nor BJP can win any election. 

After Musk’s observations about EVM vulnerability, a BJP politician had vaguely defended EVM elections in India. In a misleading and convoluted tweet on June 16, he said Indian EVMs cannot be hacked because they are not connected. But this is a totally unfounded argument to hoodwink the Indian voters, most of whom are already illiterate.

It can be deduced from various studies which reveal the vulnerability of EVMs that BJP and Modi will keep winning those elections that they want to win in different Indian states and Lok Sabha constituencies to stay in power by hook or by crook.

They manipulate EVMs cautiously so that the manipulation does not look like a flagrant fraud in elections. As the naive opposition leaders cannot understand these tricks, they will stay in opposition perpetually while BJP and Modi are on course to complete 15 years in power.

Reports suggest that now India is among the most notorious countries where rampant election frauds are happening. Along with manipulation of EVMs, it is alleged that the BJP of PM Modi is committing various other crimes to win elections fraudulently. 

These crimes include vote-buying, intimidation of voters, misuse of government resources, fake voters, and misinformation campaigns. The Election Commission of India (ECI), which works under the Modi government, is mostly complicit in these election-related crimes.

Since elections are not fair and transparent in India, mostly the honest and educated candidates are not elected. Therefore, nearly 1.4 billion Indians are suffering under the Modi regime with unprecedented poverty, corruption, inflation, unemployment, lawlessness, and religious animosity.

Meanwhile, a dedicated microsite explains the risks of holding elections on EVMs in India. It covers legal, political, and technological issues related to EVMs.

By Rakesh Raman, who is a national award-winning journalist and social activist. He is the founder of the humanitarian organization RMN Foundation which is working in diverse areas to help the disadvantaged and distressed people in the society.