Think EVM - VVPAT hacking is a conspiracy theory? Found out one part of it is 100% true.
Earlier VVPAT screens used to be transparent, they changed it to translucent, and now it's completely opaque. You can't see the slips being printed or cut now. Just light on and light off.
Video above is how it used to be - you could clearly see slip being printed and cut. Then they changed it to where light only turned on after slip printing, and turned off before slip cutting. You could still see the process from the right angle though...
In the latest version, nothing. You can't see the printing or the cutting. You only see the slip when light is turned on, and then light turns off... it's totally an opaque window now.
Why is this relevant?
Because the most prominent theory around EVM hacking suggests same slip is shown to consecutive voters, as shown in the @pbhushan1 tweet that was taken down.
The way the design is now - where light comes on many seconds after button press, and turns off before slip cutting...
It is totally possible that something surreptitious is going on. Why change the VVPAT from transparent to translucent to opaque?
Even crazier: the VVPAT stops working if too much external light is falling on the window. If you try to peak in, the device stops working.
ECI provides nothing to assure voters this isn't happening. The code is secret!
Plus, the EVMs are not standalone. Each EVM gets connected to a computer for symbol loading, and people who've seen the process say the symbol files come from a server over the internet!
Came across this presentation on EVMs... The ECI's claims actually don't stand up to scrutiny.
The stand alone claim is clearly a lie, as explained above... but so is claim on "One Time Programmed" and randomization. We don't know all the chips, but one we know is not OTP.
And symbol loading happens after all randomization. So you're connected all EVMs to a physical network at the very last stage, making all randomization meaningless.
The EVM hacking claims sound like a conspiracy theory and are scary to explore. But there's so much genuinely wrong in the process and ECI just refuses transparency.
The Indian voting system is by far the most secretive in the world. No code in public, no audits, nothing...
Till ECI brings in transparency, I don't know if we should trust a secret system for our democracy.
The #EVM_हटाओ_लोकतंत्र_बचाओ movement sounded crazy, but the more you explore the more you realize just how secretive and unaudited India's EVMs are. And they're not standalone!
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