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This article has been modified. Please see the clarification at the end.
Fear that the Supreme Court would scrap electronic voting machines (EVMs) made the Election Commission of India put up a fight in the apex court on the issue, ending on Tuesday with a direction to introduce a paper trail in EVMs for the 2014 general election.
It means votes will be recorded on EVMs but a paper slip will also be generated for each cast poll. For instance, if we had the same number of total electors today as in the 2009 general elections, a total of 71,69,85,101 paper slips would be generated. India had completely stopped using paper ballots since the 2004 elections.
The slips will be collected in a separate and sealed box attached to the EVMs. A voter can glimpse his slip for six to seven seconds before it is automatically captured in the sealed box. The slip will reassure the voter about the contestant or party for which he has voted. Also, the contestants can later have the option of manually counting how many people voted for them, ending a controversy generated during closely fought elections.
"There is so much mistrust in the society and among intelligentsia about EVMs. We had actually anticipated that the SC might strike down the entire concept of voting, as happened in Germany a few years before," said a high-ranking Election Commission officer, who refused to be named. "The judiciary could have ruled either way, so we didn't take a chance. We reluctantly accepted the argument of introducing the paper trail in a phased manner. Had they actually struck it down, it would have taken us 20 years back."
Adding: "EVMs have already run their course of controversy in the country and political parties have more or less accepted their use. Only those who lose elections make some noises about EVMs."
If EVMs were scrapped, the ECI would have to order hundred of thousands of ballot boxes, which it had already discarded, and go through the cumbersome process of manually counting the votes. "Imagine the situation, if the directives had come just before the general elections."
Even so, with the latest SC directive, the ECI would still have to do some firefighting to implement the order. It will have to procure 1.3 million printers, attached with an equal number of EVMs. The commission had tried around 300 such printers during the Nagaland elections. A single printer had come for roughly Rs 13,000 each. The ECI believes it would cost them an additional Rs 1,690 crore, beside the anticipated Rs 1,500-2,000 crore for the 2014 general election. An order for 1,000 new printers has already been placed with two public sector companies.
"We expect to use these at a few constituencies during the December 4 elections in Mizoram and Delhi. The positive side is that people will have more faith in EVMs now because of this new alternative. Contestants can manually count the votes," the officer added.
Earlier in the day, the apex court ruled that a paper trail in EVMs will ensure free and fair polls. It directed the Union government to provide financial assistance for introducing a Vote Verifier Paper Audit Trail system. The court's order came on a plea from Bharatiya Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy, seeking a direction to the poll watchdog to ensure EVMs have a paper trail and to issue a receipt to each voter.
CLARIFICATION
There was an error in the cost estimate of the 2014 general election and the total cost of printers, both of which has been corrected. We regret the error.
