Why Electronic Voting Machines Are Not Used During The Presidential Election In India?

To elect the 15th President of India, MPs in the Parliament House in Delhi and MLAs and chief ministers in state assemblies across the country cast their votes.

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PC Mody, Secretary General, Rajya Sabha, informed the media that 99.18% MPs cast their vote on 18 July 2022. He further said, "736 electors, including 727 members of Parliament and nine legislative assembly members were permitted by the Election Commission to vote, out of which 730 cast their votes.¡±

The counting of votes will take place on July 21 while the next President will take oath on July 25.

Have you ever wondered why electronic voting machines (EVM) are not used during the President and Vice-President elections?

Instead, the ballot papers are used in these two elections. But Why?

What is a ballot paper?

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The word ballot comes from an Italian ¡®ballotta¡¯ meaning a small ball used in voting or secret voting done by ballot in Venice, Italy. A ballot paper is used to cast votes in an election. It could be a device or a piece of paper or a small ball used in secret voting. Every voter uses a single ballot that is not shared.

Why ballot papers are used during the presidential election?

Unlike the general election, the presidential election is done by following a system called the single transferable vote, which follows the proportional representation system.

In this system, each elector marks his/her preferences among the candidates contesting the election. The electors mark their preferences by placing numbers in the space provided in column 2 of the ballot paper against candidates¡¯ names like 1,2,3,4,5.

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Simply put, the ballot paper has two columns of which the first column includes the name of the candidate and the other includes the preference (listing). There is no use of symbols during the election of the president.

MPs were given a green colour ballot paper and MLAs were given a pink ballot paper in the election. A day before Election Commission stated that ¡°For marking the vote, the Commission will supply particular pens. The pen will be given to the electors in the polling station by the designated official when the ballot paper is handed over. Electors have to mark the ballot only with this particular pen and not with any other pen. Voting by using any other pen shall lead to invalidation of the vote at the time of counting.¡±

Why EVMs are not used?

Based on technology, the EVMs work as aggregators of votes in direct elections like Lok sabha elections. It's one of the easiest ways for the voters to cast their votes and elect their leader.

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In the EVM system, a vote can be cast by pressing the button against the mane of their choice of candidate and the candidate bagging maximum votes is declared elected.

While the Presidential System is different and it will require altogether a different kind of machine to decide the verdict, as the machine will be required to calculate votes based on preference and it requires an altogether different technology.

Top two candidates

The tough competition is between the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate and former Jharkhand Governor Droupadi Murmu and the Opposition¡¯s candidate, former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha.

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According to The Hindu analysis, ¡°there are about 4,809 eligible voters in the electoral college. With the Opposition parties such as the BJD, TDP, YSRCP, JD(S), JMM, BSP, Shiromani Akali Dal and the JMM pledging support to Ms. Murmu along with the AIADMK, both the factions of the Shiv Sena, JD(U) and the BJP, she is comfortably placed to win more than two-third votes.¡±

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