'All measures taken to prevent mishandling of EVMs'

Karwar: “There need not be any doubt regarding the work efficiency of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM). These machines, which can be programmed only once, cannot be hacked in any case. Even the Election Commission of India has thrown an open challenge to hackers to show if the EVMs could be hacked,” said Deputy Commissioner K Harishkumar.

Speaking at a programme organised to demonstrate the efficiency of the EVMs, at his office in Karwar, Harishkumar said that ‘M3’ machines have been introduced in Bengaluru for the Lok Sabha elections. These machines absolutely have no connection with other centres. The place where they are manufactured and the place where they are sent to are kept secret. Such administrative alertness in handling EVMs is probably not seen in any other country. To prevent mishandling of the EVMs, GPS was being fitted to them. They are then kept under the vigil of CCTV cameras which means they cannot be even touched without authorised permission. The entire machine gets deactivated even if a single screw is misplaced. 

The deputy commissioner said, when a voter presses the button on the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail machine against the chosen candidate, a printed VVPAT slip is displayed for seven seconds before it’s automatically cut and delivered to a sealed ballot compartment. This helps in verifying that the vote polled by a voter goes to the candidate of his choice. According to guidelines, a voter should be given another chance to cast vote in case, his vote is not recorded properly. But if the voter resorts to misguiding the officers then legal action would be initiated against him. So, the voters must verify in the VVPAT within seven seconds.

Excise raids

He said that Excise Department staff had become more alert and were conducting raids to check flow of liquor and cash ahead of the elections. Such raids will continue till the election process concludes. 

‘Special’ voters

Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer Mohammed Roshan said that they had identified 14,210 physically-challenged voters in the district. They had submitted a proposal to the Election Commission to offer necessary support including transportation facilities to such people to reach the polling booth.

He directed the concerned officers to ensure that posters, buntings and other publicity material put up on government buildings and public places were pulled down within 24 hours of the moral code of conduct coming into effect. Publicity materials displayed on private buildings must be brought down within 72 hours, he added.

Voter awareness

Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer Mohammed Roshan said that under the Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) programme, voters in the district were being provided with information of EVMs and the method of voting. Till now, around 2.7 lakh voters of the district have already voted on an experimental basis in 72 machines.