'EVMs Cannot Be Hacked': Chief Election Commissioner Reiterates Quoting Court Judgments, Explains Voter Turnout Increase

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar on Tuesday (7 January) clarified various concerns raised around alleged discrepancies in voter turnout and vote counting.

"EVMs (Electronic Voting Machines) are commissioned a week before elections and symbols are fed into the machine, allowing mock poll by election agents," he explained.

Kumar added that the EVMs are kept in strong rooms and brought out from strong rooms on election day in the presence of polling agents and again, the mock poll is permitted.

He assured that votes counted are matched with 17C and then VVPATs are also cross-checked. The CEC also referred to court judgments that say that EVMs cannot be hacked.

"There is no question of introducing viruses and bugs in the EVM... No alteration of results is possible by activating a trojan horse or a virus... They are tamper-proof," Kumar quoted various court orders.

He also clarified that voter turnouts increase later because since EVMs are not connected to any network, real-time voter turnout is not available, which is counted later, leading to an increase in voter turnout.