Trump's Endorsement Of Ballot Papers In Modi's Presence
During a joint press conference with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, US President Donald Trump openly expressed his support for the return of ballot papers, providing fresh ammunition to India’s Opposition. The Indian opposition has been continuously endorsing the return of ballot papers.
Donald Trump, considered PM Modi’s ‘dear friend,’ endorsed ballot papers in response to a question about the possibility of interference by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in the 2020 US elections and last year’s election in India.
“So it could have had a role. There are a lot of bad things that happened in 2020. I think bad things happened in 2024 but we won by a tremendous margin, we won every swing state, we won the popular vote by millions of votes, it was too big,” Trump said.
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And this hasn’t been the first time, Donald Trump had expressed his support for paper ballots and had raised concerns about voter fraud. After the 2020 US election, he repeatedly questioned the authenticity of the mail-in voting system and even continued call it fraud following his defeat.
US follows a very unique method of voting procedure, as each state has its own rules and regulations, the US voters may either cast their votes through ballot papers or electronic systems, depending upon the regions they reside in.
Elon Musk, the first friend of the US government, too had earlier aired his support for paper ballots. He in 2012, had described President Barack Obama’s victory over Republican Mitt Romney as a “total sham” on ‘X’. He had recently claimed that the voting machines are responsible for rigging elections. Musk had also called for a nationwide shift to paper ballots, hand-counted for transparency.
And Congress which has been long demanding the return of ballot papers had seized on Trump’s comments. The opposition had alleged EVM manipulation in the last two assembly elections in Maharashtra and Haryana. Trump’s remark ‘if a country like the US can’ had given opposition parties greater confidence in their concern over EVMs. Reacting to it Supriya Shrinate while speaking to the Print said, “So it could have had a role. There are a lot of bad things that happened in 2020. I think bad things happened in 2024 but we won by a tremendous margin, we won every swing state, we won the popular vote by millions of votes, it was too big”.
“The EC has been found wanting in its task of conducting free and fair elections… We want the Prime Minister and the Election Commission to be accountable.”
She further reminded the election commission that it is the duty of the poll body to ensure that each citizen is satisfied with the power of their adult franchise. “Even if one person raises questions or objections or has a doubt about the fate of their vote, and is convinced that their vote did not go where it was intended, then the Election Commission has failed in its duty,” she said.
“Trump has shown the mirror to this government,” Congress leader Abhay Dubey said. However, BJP leader RP Singh dispercing all the concerns regarding the manipulation of EVM machines said, “Even if one person raises questions or objections or has a doubt about the fate of their vote, and is convinced that their vote did not go where it was intended, then the Election Commission has failed in its duty,” she said.
However, despite several arguments, the controversy surrounding EVMs in India refuses to dissipate. The issue gained prominence when the Congress party attributed its humiliating defeat in the Maharashtra assembly elections to alleged vote tampering via EVMs. This defeat had reignited skepticism about the reliability of EVMs and the integrity of India’s electoral process. And the primary reason behind the controversy is the lack of transparency in the entire process. The authorities who are tasked with upholding electoral integrity have not provided any sufficient technical details about the junctions within the EVM system.
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The Opposition’s concerns gained traction during the Haryana and Maharashtra assembly elections when allegations surfaced that the vote percentages increased post-polling. And the significant contributor to these discrepancies is the absence of standardized operating procedures (SOPs) for calculating and reporting voter turnout percentages.
The EVMs are designed to record votes as data, providing a numerical count without calculating percentages. The basic principle of data science dictates that data should be captured as its source in its original form. Applying these principles, election would mean relying solely on the vote counts provided by EVMs, without any additional transformations.
The Supreme Court’s Stance:
The political parties had challenged the authenticity of the voting machines in the top court. However, the Supreme Court had dismissed the dicussion by observing that paries only questioned the credibility when they looses the election. And critics argued that denying citizens a fair hearing undermines public trust in the electoral system.
