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EVM: Electronic Voting Machine

The full form of EVM is “Electronic voting machine”. Electronic voting is the standard means for conducting elections using the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM), sometimes called “EVM” in India. It is an electronic device to register votes. An EVM consists of two units, a control unit (CU) and a voting unit, connected by a five-meter cable. The Control Unit is placed with the Chairman of the Board or a Voting Officer and the Voting Unit is placed inside the voting compartment.

Instead of issuing a ballot, the voting officer in charge of the control unit will cast a vote by pressing the vote button on the control unit. This will allow the voter to cast their vote by pressing the blue button on the voting unit against the candidate and the symbol of their choice. As soon as the last voter casts the vote the polling officer presses the “Close Button” so that EVM will not accept any vote. After the election ends, the balloting unit is disconnected from the Control Unit and kept separately.

Brief History

The use of EVM and electronic voting was developed and tested by the State-owned Electronics Corporation of India and Bharat Electronics in the 1990s. They were introduced to the Indian elections gradually between 1998 and 2001. Electronic voting machines have been used in all elections to the general and state assemblies of India since 2004. The Supreme Court of India in 2011 instructed the Election Commission to also include a paper record to help confirm the reliable operation of EVMs. The Electoral Commission developed EVM with a voter-verified paper audit system (VVPAT) between 2012 and 2013. The system was tested in the 2014 Indian general elections.

EVM and the voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) ) are now used in all general assemblies and elections in India and a small percentage of VVPAT is verified. On April 9, 2019, the Supreme Court of India ordered the Electoral Commission of India (ECI) to use the VVPAT document tracking system in all constituencies of the assembly, but verify only about 2% of EVM, that is, 5 polling stations per constituency before certifying the final results.

Other full forms of EVM