Elon Musk On EVMs: Former Union Minister in the NDA government and BJP Rajya Sabha MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Sunday responded to Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s claim on the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) where Elon Musk has made a big claim that anyone can hack electronic voting machines (EVMs) and they need to be eliminated and thrown out of the system.
Elon Musk shared his concerns on social media platform X as he talked about EVMs being hacked. He posted on X: “We should eliminate electronic voting machines. The risk of being hacked by humans or AI, while small, is still too high” while reposting a post by Robert F. Kennedy Jr, an independent candidate for the President of the United States.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr posted on X: “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 where there is no paper trail? US citizens need to know that every one of their votes were counted, and that their elections cannot be hacked. We need to return to paper ballots to avoid electronic interference with elections. My administration will require paper ballots and we will guarantee honest and fair elections.”
He demanded the removal of EVMs from American elections as he observed that EVMs are in danger not only from humans but also from Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Musk had raised doubts over the credibility and reliability of EVMs reacting to Puerto Rico’s primary elections which allegedly experienced voting irregularities.
Elon Musk’s take on eliminating electronic voting machines (EVMs) from voting is a “huge sweeping generalisation” which holds no truth, inviting the Tesla CEO to come and learn some lessons in India.
Rajeev Chandrasekhar refuted Musk’s claims as he said this is not the case at all.
“This is a huge sweeping generalisation statement that implies no one can build secure digital hardware. Wrong,” said Rajeev Chandrasekhar as he said that Musk’s view may apply to the US and other places where they use regular computing platforms to build “Internet-connected Voting machines.”
Chandrasekhar further rejected Musk’s statement, saying that Indian EVMs are custom-designed, secure and isolated from any network or media.
“No connectivity, no bluetooth, wifi, Internet; there is no way in. Factory-programmed controllers that cannot be reprogrammed,” informed the former minister.
“Electronic voting machines can be architected and built right as India has done. We would be happy to run a tutorial, Elon,” Chandrasekhar added.