Now that BJP has also joined in (again) in the chorus against EVMs, it is time for another electoral integrity thread.
In my mind, broadly, election process integrity can be modelled as four levels of guarantee.
In my mind, broadly, election process integrity can be modelled as four levels of guarantee.
Level - 1. There is no conclusive proof that any given election has been rigged.
Level - 2. There is reasonable consensus among technical experts that the process is not riggable in any one candidate or party's favour or produce arbitrary results : with the technological and other tools available as of *today*.
Level - 3. There is reasonable consensus among technical experts that the process is similarly robust and will remain robust for the medium term future.
Level - 4. From the information available in public domain, lay persons (non-technically savvy people) can reasonably believe and be satisfied that the process is robust and beyond being riggable in favour of one candidate or party, or to produce arbitrary results.
As an advanced practitioner of electoral democracy, the ECI must operate at a Level-4 guarantee. They operate at Level -1. At best, some may argue, at Level - 2.
Level - 1 is fairly easy to achieve because the burden of proof is on the person who is alleging a failure of integrity. Level - 2 onwards, the burden shifts and therein lies the challenge for ECI.
The German Constitutional Court directly went for a Level-4 scrutiny to hold EVMs to be unconstitutional as far back as in last decade. There is no reason why we must not press for a Level - 4 Guarantee from ECI.
If ECI are adament about using EVMs + VVPATs, VVPATs must be redesigned to have the slip produced and for the voter to put the slip back in the ballot after satisifying herself.
Thereafter, every vvpat slip has to he tallied with EVM counts, with the latter being used only for early reporting and with the slip count being the official figure, however long it takes to count.
The slip count may be aborted early in some cases where the other candidates in a constituency have officially conceded the election based on electronic counts. It may happen in many cases where the margin is considerably large.
The statistical jugglery on 5% or 5 segments or 20% or 30% is all unnecessary.
Absolutely agree with @nikhilmkss who has always suggested a 100% tally.
#CountEveryVote
#EveryVoteCounts
What say, @naukarshah ?
Absolutely agree with @nikhilmkss who has always suggested a 100% tally.
#CountEveryVote
#EveryVoteCounts
What say, @naukarshah ?
