A vigorous debate unfolded on X (formerly Twitter) between Tesla CEO Elon Musk and former Indian Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar regarding the security of electronic voting machines (EVMs). Musk ignited the discussion with a provocative tweet: “We should eliminate electronic voting machines. The risk of being hacked by humans or AI, while small, is still too high,” referencing issues reported with EVMs in Puerto Rico’s recent elections.
Chandrasekhar countered Musk’s concerns by highlighting the robustness of India’s EVMs, stating, “This is a huge sweeping generalization statement that implies no one can build secure digital hardware. Wrong. @elonmusk’s view may apply to the US and other places where they use regular compute platforms to build Internet-connected voting machines … but Indian EVMs are custom-designed, secure, and isolated from any network or media … Electronic voting machines can be architected and built right as India has done.”
Musk retorted succinctly, “Anything can be hacked,” maintaining his stance on the potential vulnerabilities of digital voting systems.
Further deepening the dialogue, prominent Indian politicians like Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav joined the conversation. Gandhi criticized the opacity of the EVMs, remarking, “EVMs in India are a ‘black box,’ and nobody is allowed to scrutinize them. Serious concerns are being raised about transparency in our electoral process. Democracy ends up becoming a sham and prone to fraud when institutions lack accountability.” Yadav echoed this sentiment, advocating for a return to ballot papers to restore voter confidence.
Chandrasekhar acknowledged the theoretical possibility of hacking any system but differentiated the security of Indian EVMs: “With quantum computing, I can decrypt any level of encryption. With lab-level tech and plenty of resources, I can hack any digital hardware/system including the flight controls of a glass cockpit of a jet, etc. But that’s a different type of conversation from EVMs being secure and reliable…”
This debate raises crucial questions about the balance between technological advancements in voting systems and maintaining the integrity and trust in electoral processes. As nations around the world watch and learn, the discourse between Musk and Chandrasekhar serves as a focal point for ongoing discussions about the future of voting technology.
