I've run one election with EVMs and been an observer in 3 more. Indian EVMs are simple. They are inspected by reps from all parties before polling begins (to ensure that all candidates start from 0) and again at close of polls.There are backup records from poll day of the number of votes cast in each booth and on each machine. The EVMs are sealed at close of polls, then deposited in sealed strong rooms until counting day. The seal is opened in the presence of all contesting candidates and observers when the EVMs are taken out on counting day.
The totals for each candidate on each machine are verified by all parties, then added up independently at the Returning Officer's table, at district HQ and at the Election Commission. A paper record is kept of each EVM and of each round of counting. Yes, the system can be manipulated, but it's far easier to do so in the process of voting (within the booth, by manipulation of the humans involved and not of the machines) than in the recording and the totalling. Overall, my experience is that the use of EVMs has improved the reliability of the electoral process. It has at least removed the malpractices at the counting table, speeded up the results and brought some amount of transparency. I could be wrong. I've only experience to rely on, as distinct from the worthy prfessor's learning. I've never experienced an election in any other country, but the Indian electoral process has to be most detailed and laborious in the world. Where the people running the process are biased / partial / sold, the process cannot be reliable. This applies equally to, say, the USA, where a few hundred thousand voters can be kept off the rolls in marginal constituencies. But where the election managers are impartial and reasonably dedicated, it's a comparatively reliable process. I've blogged about this in 2006, though that was not about the electoral process in isolation - http://sadoldbong.blogspot.com/2006/05/red-reckoner.html But as I said, what do I know, I may be missing the wood for the trees. -- J. Alfred Prufrock "Gliding wrapt in a brown mantle, hooded I do not know whether a man or a woman - But who is that on the other side of you?"
