Thread by @gauravsabnis

I believe they are very possible.

Whether they actively occur in India & on a wide scale, I don't know.

But I don't get why we can't do EVM with a proper paper verification mechanism. Not this ad hoc "VVPAT" system. I mean the kinda stuff we do in NYC and other places.

https://twitter.com/DrVW30/status/1506154120725819393

This is how we do it in NYC. Like a paper standardized test. You fill out the bubbles. Then you scan the ballot into a machine that instantly counts it.

Best of both worlds. Results in a couple of hours. Plus paper trail.

Verrrrry few places in US do EVM-only voting.

After Trump's 2020 treason throwing shade at a system with practically zero election fraud, I don't think any US jurisdiction will ever add EVM-only in the future.

Even the ones that used to be EVM-only are talking about switching to an NYC type scantron system.

If the best tech companies in the world and the most sophisticated government agencies and departments get hacked, I don't see how we can hold on to the Indian EVM unhackability shibboleth even in 2022.

It is such simple and old tech!

Especially when most machines sit there for weeks and weeks before being tallied.

The most bizarre and factually wrong hot takes from India on the 2020 US elections are "lol, it took you 4 days to decide a winner, y'all should have a Central Election Commission and EVMs like India".

When what stopped Trump was NOT having an India type system.

Trump subverted or tried to subvert every federal agency under his control to hold on to power. From the supreme court to the Pentagon to DoJ to even the US postal system.

If there were a US federal body running all the elections, he would have weaponized it too.

US elections are extremely decentralized. Not just at the state level but even at local county or even city level. And that's by design. It puts in place so many natural checks & balances that even if someone wanted to commit fraud, they couldn't. It's too complicated to do it.

What Republicans are doing to prepare for 2024 is now trying to take over or subvert the system at local levels. From voter registration to voter ID requirements to even how results are certified.

2024 is going to be a bigger test of US democracy than 2020.

I'm old enough to remember when decentralization or devolution of power was a credo in Indian politics across all party lines.

Since the sanghis took over, they've gaslit India into a mindset where Delhi is being given even MORE power than before. Absolutely WTF decline.

You can see why by how pissed off sanghis got at Rahul Gandhi literally just quoting the first words of the constitution that we are a union of states.

They treat the constitution as a slur and then get offended if we call them the real anti-nationals and nazis.

I am so glad you asked because that's a fascinating history lesson that I'll give briefly cos it's another of my nerdy history obsessions, especially from before my time.

Short answer - mechanical voting machines. For several decades! Fun "tech" it was.

https://twitter.com/zigzackly/status/1506232372102316033?t=YJh4TIAWPR4u8q3md38NaQ&s=19

USA was automating stuff well before computers became widespread. From vending machines to automated diners being prevalent even 100 years ago. Without any electronics, forget computers.

Just mechanical engineering. Lever based machines! Sped up the elections big time.

I went down this rabbithole when I was reading about this famous incident.

I was like, wait, in 1948, America was pretty big. How the hell were they able to count paper ballots in just hours like they do today, without any voting machines? How is it physically possible?

You voted for a candidate by pulling a lever, basically exact same "tech" as a slot machine. That lever count went up in the backend, mechanically designed to just let one candidate's mechanical indicator go up at a time.

Some were used till recently!!

Now, much like EVMs, you can see that this tech could also be "hacked". A clever engineer with a toolbox, in theory, could rejig the backend of the machine so no matter who you voted for, only one candidate got it.

Fun fact. Used by dictators in many countries for fake elections

So there needed to be some way to verify that the "tech" had not been hacked. They did this with "chads", or cards that got punched at the same time and dropped into a bin. Counted only for procedural audits or in case of recounts.

Levers gave automatic instant counts.

For decades, these "chads", which worked on the same "tech" by which a train or bus conductor punches your ticket, would stay unknown and irrelevant. As long as both parties had representatives at every stage of voting, and they all trusted lever counts, no need for chads.

This was a non-issue until 2000. The very historically valid allegations that the Democrats "stole" the election for Kennedy from Nixon in 1960, were possible not just by "stuffing ballots" India style, but also taking over the lever machines and cranking the hell out of them.

But Nixon, in a seriously admirable display of putting country before self, did not contest the results. Even though he was furious behind the scene and cussed the fuck out of the Kennedy machine, he conceded because he knew it'd rip the country apart at a vulnerable time.

Damn, I'm suddenly becoming a Nixon stan. 😂😂

Anyhoo, cut to 2000. It all came down to Florida. Especially parts of Florida with a lot of retired folks, lot of old people.

The thing about old people is, their arms aren't as strong as they used to be.

See where I'm going?

So if you're a young or even middle aged person, you gave that lever for your candidate a nice hefty yank.

It made a physical counter to up hidden behind the scenes, until polls closed. And it also punched a hole next to your candidate in the "chads". And dropped it for audit.

But if you are 70 plus and your arms aren't they used to be, maybe you pull the lever hard enough for the mechanical counter to count your vote. But not hard enough to punch a hole in the card. You just create a.....say it with me.... dimpled chad! Or hanging chad. Etc.

It was an absolutely freakish turn of events and took a lot of things coming together for the 2000 drama to occur.

Remember, Republicans didn't steal that election with fake votes or anything. They stole it by delaying the count and running out the clock & going to SCOTUS.

It's only because the election came down to a few Florida counties with a lot of old people who were also split very evenly, that these dimpled or hanging chads ever got any attention. Though they were a part of every US election for most of the 20th century.

Thank you for asking the question, @zigzackly. This was a fun thread to write on the fly. If I weren't so lazy, I'd seriously do a history vlog or podcast.

Alright, off to teach. To give in person fun threads to kids who pay my bills. 🤗🤗

But I do love doing history threads and they are also the ones that get me the most love and no hate.

Y'all, feel free to ask me any history questions you've wondered about. Not just US or India. Anywhere. I read a LOT of history. That's how I relax.

And I love doing threads.

Oh, I'll leave you with one final fun fact in case you missed it in these pics.

Don't look at the candidate names. Look at whom we are voting for.

Not for President.

We are voting for "Electors for President and vice President".

Electoral college is the worst college. 🙄

Last November, I voted for Carolyn Maloney for Congress. I did not vote for Joe Biden for President! Technically, I voted for Electors who would then vote for him to be President.

Weird relic of a 1700s democracy.

Btw this bill signed by Dubya himself, with almost unanimous support from both parties scarred by the 2000 election, effectively banned lever machines and punchcard voting.

Back when GOP didn't actively try to destroy the American democracy.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help_Amer…