[liberationtech] EVM news from across India

Wed Feb 29 10:03:50 PST 2012

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Frederick FN Noronha फ्रेड्रिक नोरोन्या *فريدريك نورونيا <
fredericknoronha at gmail.com>
Date: 2012/2/29

The curious case of beeping EVMs: Ludhiana’s turn now
http://www.indianexpress.com/assembly-election2012-news/the-curious-case-of-beeping-evms-ludhianas-turn-now/913463/0
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/the-curious-case-of-beeping-evms-ludhianas-turn-now/913463/

Trained engineers to monitor EVM machines
With the electronic voting machines (EVM) erroneously flashing a
button for one particular party during Kolhapur and Sangli ZP polls,
the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has now decided to post three
engineers from the Electronic Corporation of India Limited, along with
trained officers, at all polling booths.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/trained-engineers-to-monitor-evm-machines/912229/

UP polls: Room with EVMs gets flooded
http://zeenews.india.com/state-elections-2012/up/up-polls-room-with-evms-gets-flooded_760638.html

IAC objects to EC hoarding
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-02-07/allahabad/31033573_1_iac-hoarding-election-symbol

Too many candidates, too few machines?
http://www.mid-day.com/news/2012/feb/030212-mumbai-Too-many-candidates-too-few-machines.htm

Manipur: Based on the reports of miscreants damaging electronic voting
machines (EVMs) and unauthorised armed persons intimidating voters and
snatching of EVMs during the election for the 10th Manipur Legislative
Assembly on January 28, the Election Commission of India ordered fresh
elections in the 34 polling stations of 11 assembly constituencies.
http://www.e-pao.net/GP.asp?src=1..050212.feb12

And at the heart of it are these EVMs, which are considered
infallible, untamperable and technologically superior to all other
electronic machines in the world. By our babus. Despite being almost a
decade old. How absolutely incredible it is for the government and the
Election Commission to believe that their EVMs are perfect; is best
answered with another question—how many of us believe that ATMs,
working on almost the same technologies, are fool-proof?
http://moneylife.in/article/my-take-away-from-the-subramaniam-swamy-talk-at-the-ml-foundations-2nd-anniversary/23674.html

interestingly, he disclosed, many people are not aware that in the
event of any actual attempt at “booth capturing,” all that the
presiding officer in a particular polling booth has to do is to press
the ‘close’ button on his EVM monitor — this will immediately
electronically disable the EVMs and it would then be impossible to
cast another vote.However, he added, “even if the presiding officer is
unable to immediately disable the EVM and prevent bogus votes from
being cast…the fact remains that EVMs are designed to provide a
minimum 12-second gap between the electronic recordings of each single
vote being cast.
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/displayarticle.asp?xfile=data/international/2012/February/international_February863.xml&section=international&col=

Quraishi further pointed out that detection of proxy voting from the
records of the electorates maintained in the Electronic Voting Machine
(EVM) is a difficult task and there is no possibility for detecting
bogus votes and then discarding them at the time of counting votes,
the source recalled.
http://www.e-pao.net/GP.asp?src=18..260212.feb12

It is not a lie that in many polling stations, militants (dressed in
civilian clothes) would barge inside and take control of the EVMs and
mobile handsets. Then, they pressed the EVM's button in favour of
their candidates while simultaneously forcing the genuine electors
(who were in queues) to be photographed by the polling officials. But
these genuine electors were not allowed to press the EVM buttons.
http://e-pao.net/epSubPageExtractor.asp?src=news_section.10th_Manipur_Legislative_Assembly_Election_2012.Problem_of_impersonation_and_multiple-voting_in_elections

Pune polls: Election commission ‘armed’ with foolproof EVMs
http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_pune-polls-election-commission-armed-with-foolproof-evms_1650857

Kolkata: EC checks EVMs to avoid controversy
http://www.dnasyndication.com/dna/article/DNMUM206276

Braille on EVMs
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-02-19/goa/31076756_1_braille-enabled-electronic-voting-machines-blind-voters-north-goa

Goa: "Fake" EVMs cause tension
http://www.navhindtimes.in/goa-news/fake-evms-lead-some-tense-moments-pernem
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-02-26/goa/31100978_1_evms-police-station-car-driver

Few exercised Section 49-o and with difficulty
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-02-17/nagpur/31070469_1_section-49-o-voter-list-polling-officials

PAKISTAN: ECP mulls using EVMs to ensure transparency in polls
http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/islamabad/20-Feb-2012/ecp-mulls-using-evms-to-ensure-transparency-in-polls

Goa-2004: Goa’s 430 missing votes exposes fallibility of EVMs
http://archive.deccanherald.com/Deccanherald/may262004/n4.asp

Beeping EVM: Poll body reminds DCs about 14 norms to man strong rooms
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/beeping-evm-poll-body-reminds-dcs-about-14-norms-to-man-strong-rooms/912546/

PUNE: PMC official rejects EVM tampering allegations
http://www.mid-day.com/news/2012/feb/290212-PMC-official-rejects-EVM-tampering-allegations.htm

Decide candidate's complaint in 5 days, HC to Manipur officer
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/guwahati/Decide-candidates-complaint-in-5-days-HC-to-Manipur-officer/articleshow/12078590.cms
--
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