If there is one thing that has undisputedly emerged as the winner at Elections 2004, it is the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM). A country where 35% people are still illiterate, yet a country regarded as a super-power in IT manpower, infact a country with all kind of contradictions voted in this elections entirely through EVMs, with no problems. Credit indeed goes to the designers who envisaged this simple, no-fuss but robust machine. The upset for BJP in the final tally also proves the integrity of the devices and should put an end to the apprehensions that the logic in these machines could be doctored. In my comment to a post I had said that it wouldn't be prudent to reject any/all such claims because after all the software logic may be manipulated and hardware could get damaged during transit or due to sabotage. I also maintained however that, as far as software is concerned I don't think in a mass-production scenario anybody can really perform such manipulations to add his sinister-logic, however the robustness of the device does matter.
In one of the best analogies I have read so far, this post informs why a similar American experiment with Diebold might have failed. (It's time perhaps, the manufacturers think of getting few export orders! As far as the issue of carrying next elections on EVMs is concerned, I would reiterate that a better way to instill confidence among voters would be to make the source-code/internal details for the device public so that the initiated could debate. A closed-door affair will obviously lead to further apprehensions and speculations.
