I've done a case before the Supreme Court, where we used a lot of his research and that of others. The EC essentially is uncompromising on EVMs to the extent that they aren't even willing to introduce a paper trail. I'm not surprised by the reaction of the Indian authorities. This guy could come to India, get hold of an EVM and bust the myth of their "impenetrability" sky high. That would be a disaster for the ruling party and more significantly for the Election Commission. Bear in mind this is an EC which has always been an independent entity, but in relation to which the Congress and BJP fought a shameless turf war prior to the last parliamentary elections. As someone who likes the odd conspiracy theory, I would think that all is not kosher.
I must add though that most independent experts I've spoken to truly believe that these machines are completely tamper proof. Regards, Nikhil Mehra Advocate, Supreme Court of India Tel: (+91) 9810776904 Res: C-I/10 AIIMS Campus Ansari Nagar New Delhi - 110029. On Wed, Dec 15, 2010 at 8:04 PM, Eugen Leitl <[email protected]> wrote: > ----- Forwarded message from Frederick Noronha <[email protected]> > ----- > > From: Frederick Noronha <[email protected]> > Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2010 17:26:10 +0530 > To: [email protected] > Subject: <nettime> US prof behind EVM study deported on arrival > > > US prof behind EVM study deported on arrival > 13 Comments > > An American computer scientist, J Alex Halderman, who had co-authored > a study titled “India’s EVMs are vulnerable to fraud”, was not allowed > to enter the country after landing at the Indira Gandhi International > (IGI) Airport here on Sunday evening. Airport sources said he would be > deported, but offered no reason for the action. > > Speaking to The Indian Express from the airport, Halderman said: “I am > about to be thrown out of this country and there is no reason anyone > is giving me. There is just no explanation, they are not letting me > enter.” > > Halderman, an assistant professor of electrical engineering and > computer sciences at the University of Michigan, was here to attend a > technical conference in Gujarat. > > In February this year, top researchers from India, US and Netherlands, > had come up with a study which said that EVMs are prone to tampering. > Halderman and his Indian co-author, Hari K Prasad, were part of the > group. > > Earlier, the Election Commission had challenged Prasad to demonstrate > how EVMs could be tampered with. The EC, however, withheld access to > the EVMs. > > In his blog about the study, Halderman wrote: “Despite widespread > reports of election irregularities and suspicions of electronic fraud, > the Election Commission has never permitted security researchers to > complete an independent evaluation. Hari and others in India > repeatedly offered to collaborate with the Election Commission to > better understand the security of the machines, but they were not > permitted to complete a serious review.” > > He added: “Indian election authorities have repeatedly claimed that > the machines are ‘tamperproof,’ but we demonstrated important > vulnerabilities by studying a machine provided by an anonymous source. > The story took a disturbing turn when my co-author, Hari Prasad, was > arrested by Indian authorities demanding to know the identity of that > source.” > > > http://www.indianexpress.com/news/us-prof-behind-evm-study-deported-on-arrival/723897/0 > > > # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission > # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, > # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets > # more info: http://mail.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l > # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: [email protected] > ----- End forwarded message ----- > -- > Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org";>leitl</a> http://leitl.org > ______________________________________________________________ > ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org > 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE > >
