Two way Electronic Voting System UPSC

Two way Electronic Voting system

The Election Commission of India and the Indian Institute of Technology – Madras are working in collaboration to develop a new technology which will enable voters to cast their votes from different cities without going to the designated polling booths in their constituencies irrespective of where they are registered to vote. The project is still in research phase and aims to make a prototype soon to ensure two way electronic voting possible in India.

How will the Two way Electronic Voting System technology function ? 

• The technology will enable two-way voting under a controlled environment by using Blockchain technology. 

• It does not allow voting from home. Rather, to use this facility, the voter would have to be present at designated polling booths at a fixed time. 

• The voter identification and authorisation would be done via Election Registration Officer Network (ERO Net) via secure biometrics and webcam. 

• Upon establishing a voter’s identity, the Blockchain-enabled system would generate a “Smart Contract”, or a personalised e-ballot. 

• Upon a vote being cast, the Smart Contract will be considered as “executed” and the vote will be securely encrypted and a Blockchain hashtag (#) will be generated. 

• After the vote is recorded, this Blockchain node, or hashtag, will be sent to the candidates and political parties. 

• These highly-encrypted remote votes will be validated before counting to ensure they haven’t been tampered with. 

One way Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot system (ETPBS) 

• One Way Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System (ETPBS) was introduced by Law Ministry after amending election rules allowing service voters to get their postal ballots electronically. 

• Service voter are those who have service qualification. They include member of Armed Forces of the Union of India, members of Armed Police forces of the States serving outside that state and persons employed under Government of India on posts outside India. 

• As per existing arrangements, members of India Army, Navy and Air force, Border Road Organisation, BSF, ITBP, Assam Rifles, NSG, CRPF, CISF and SSB are eligible to be registered as service voters. 

• The ETPBS allows them to fill up their ballots and post them back using normal postal services. 

• Use of one-way electronic voting system during 2019 Lok Sabha Elections for service voters helped to save processing time, resources and avoid human errors. 

Two way Electronic voting 

Two-way electronic transmission of vote envisages that - a registered voter from any location in India, once his identity is proved, will be able to cast his vote electronically through a secure encrypted system and the same will reach the designated returning officer for counting. 

ELECTION REGISTRATION OFFICER NETWORK (ERO NET)

• ERO-NET is a Centralized Software for Electoral Roll Management and Form Processing. The ERONET has been designed and developed keeping in mind the need of Centralized Form Processing and monitoring the work of all the Officials involved in Form Processing. 

• For this purpose, Single Unified Database was created and all the existing Electoral Rolls data were migrated to the single data base from State-Specific databases. This created Unified National Photo Electoral Roll (UNPER). 

• ERO-Net application is available across India, to all citizens of India for enrollment/ corrections/migration from Electoral Roll. 

• Citizens can fill up various online forms on National Voters’ Service Portal or by using voter helpline mobile application. The form is processed thereafter in ERONET. The applicant also gets periodical alerts and notifications on each activity performed at ERONET. 

• ERO-Net also facilitates easy migration from one constituency to another by facilitating seamless communication between the EROs of two constituencies. It also helps in preventing De-duplication while including entries in the E-Roll. 

• It was launched in January 2018. 

What are the measures which need to be taken to facilitate two way electronic voting ? 

• The technology is not ready as of now and needs more stringent testing. Only after the protocol is considered fool-proof will stakeholders be consulted. 

• Changes in election laws needs to be done to facilitate two-way electronic voting. 

• Laws must allow for linkage of Aadhaar with Voter ID. (Representation of People Act, 1950) 

• The technology must be integrated with Election Registration Officer Network (ERO Net) to reflect vote casted by person even from remote or distant places.