Elon Musk, multi-billionaire entrepreneur, in a statement on X, on June 15, urged for a return to paper ballots and expressed concern about electronic voting. This comes after problems were discovered in Puerto Rico’s electronic voting system. Musk has also expressed fear that computerized voting machines could be hacked using Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Puerto Rico’s primary elections just experienced hundreds of voting irregularities related to electronic voting machines, according to the Associated Press.
Luckily, there was a paper trail so the problem was identified and vote tallies corrected.
What happens in jurisdictions…
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) June 15, 2024
Elon MuskWe should eliminate electronic voting machines. The risk of being hacked by humans or AI, while small, is still too high — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) said in a X post on June 15, 2024
Entrepreneur Elon Musk has raised concerns over the electronic voting systems and said that it can be hacked using AI leading to loss of credibility in the electoral process. He has cited the example of Puerto Rico.
Puerto Rican electoral commission said it’s reviewing a contract with the company providing electronic vote-counting machines after large discrepancies were found in the territory’s primaries.
The Puerto Rico elections faced several irregularities in the electronic voting system, with hundreds of anomalies reported. However, the presence of a paper trail allowed votes to be tallied accurately. Elon Musk expressed concerns about the absence of paper ballots in other countries, as electronic systems could be prone to hacking.
Puerto Rico is a territory of the United States located in the Caribbean Sea.Puerto Rico also has its own electoral system, with its citizens electing a governor, a legislative body called the House of Representatives, and other local officials.
Former Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar, stated on Sunday that Elon Musk’s proposal to eliminate electronic voting machines (EVMs) from voting is a “huge sweeping generalization” that is false, and invited the Tesla CEO to visit India and learn some things.
Responding to the tech billionaire’s X post, in which he claimed that electronic voting machines should be scrapped because the “risk of being hacked by humans or AI, while small, is still too high,” Chandrasekhar stated that this is not the case.
This is a huge sweeping generalization statement that implies no one can build secure digital hardware. Wrong. @elonmusk ‘s view may apply to US n other places – where they use regular compute platforms to build Internet connected Voting machines.
But Indian EVMs are custom… https://t.co/GiaCqU1n7O
— Rajeev Chandrasekhar 🇮🇳 (@RajeevRC_X) June 16, 2024
The BJP leader said Musk’s concerns might apply to countries where voting machines are built using standard computing platforms with Internet connectivity, they do not apply to India.
“Indian EVMs are custom designed, secure and isolated from any network or media – No connectivity, no bluetooth, wifi, Internet that means there is no way in. Factory programmed controllers that cannot be reprogrammed.”
Following tech billionaire Elon Musk’s call to eliminate electronic voting machines, senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday termed the EVMs in India a “black box”.
Use of EVMs in India
- In India, EVMs were introduced to address electoral frauds like booth-capturing and to simplify the electoral process.
- However, there are concerns that EVMs are vulnerable to hacking and could threaten the fairness of elections.
- Some believe that the use of EVMs jeopardizes the democratic process, while others argue that they are reliable and curb electoral fraud.
- Election Commission of India, has implemented various measures to address these concerns, such as conducting regular audits and testing of EVMs, and implementing strict security protocols.
- However, some political parties and individuals have raised concerns about the potential for EVMs to be manipulated or hacked and have called for greater transparency and accountability in the electoral process.
- The ECI has responded to these concerns by emphasizing the importance of maintaining the integrity of the electoral process and ensuring that EVMs are used in a fair and transparent manner.
How do other countries handle electronic voting?
- Brazil uses a homegrown direct recording electronic (DRE) system.
- Australia has developed open-source software for e-voting.
- Estonia and Switzerland are among the countries that offer internet voting.
- Some countries, like India and the U.S., use electronic voting machines in polling places.
- Other countries, such as Russia and Turkey, are rolling out e-voting systems, while Norway and Mexico allow e-voting for citizens living abroad
It’s important to note that some countries have cancelled e-voting systems or decided against a large-scale rollout due to reliability issues.
