Electronic Voting Machines EVMs Are Risky. Use Paper Ballots Only: Elon Musk
Electronic Voting Machines EVMs Are Risky. Use Paper Ballots Only: Elon Musk
The reports shared by Elon Musk confirmed that a malicious software or vote-stealing code can be developed to silently change the election outcome.
By Rakesh Raman
Tesla and SpaceX chief Elon Musk – who also owns social media site X (formerly Twitter) – has again warned of the risks of using electronic voting machines (EVMs) in elections.
In his tweet of today (July 9), 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.
Electronic voting machines and anything mailed in is too risky.
We should mandate paper ballots and in-person voting only. pic.twitter.com/TVC32b1Wkd
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) 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 recent 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 is an independent hopeful 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.
EVM Frauds in India
As 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 prime minister (PM) Narendra Modi manipulates EVMs selectively to win certain state elections and Lok Sabha (parliamentary) elections.
The opposition parties are scared to raise the EVM issue because most opposition politicians in India are illiterate and lack technology understanding. But recently the president of Samajwadi Party and member of parliament (MP) , Akhilesh Yadav, spoke forcefully against the fraudulent use of EVMs in Indian elections.
While speaking in parliament, he said that he would never trust EVMs even if his party wins all the 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh (U.P.) where the party operates.
While the BJP of PM Modi has also won the just concluded Lok Sabha election 2024, large-scale EVM frauds have been reported to help BJP candidates win elections.
The Wire news service reported on June 10 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.
As 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.
Today, 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 founder of the humanitarian organization RMN Foundation. He has been running the global technology news site RMN Digital for the past 12 years. He also runs the Pathway platform, which is a growth-centric technology program to help emerging businesses leapfrog in the increasingly competitive global marketplace. He also runs the EVM microsite that explains the security concerns in Indian elections.
Earlier, he was writing an exclusive edit-page tech business column (named Technophile) regularly for The Financial Express, which is a daily business newspaper of The Indian Express Group. He had also been associated with the United Nations (UN) through the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) as a digital media expert to help businesses use technology for brand marketing and business development. You can click here to know more about him and his work.
