Tesla founder and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk opposes the use of electronic voting machines (EVMs). On social media platform X, Musk said that EVMs should be abandoned as there is a possibility of election fraud. Musk’s statement was shared by Robert Kennedy Jr.’s X post, which shared media reports that the EVM was tampered with in the election held in Puerto Rico.
At the same time, BJP leader and former Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar came forward to respond to Musk’s statement. Rajeev Chandrasekhar responded in X that Musk’s statement is a generalization and if required, he is ready to train Musk in EVM manufacturing.
It would be a mistake to think that no one can build secure digital hardware. Musk’s view may be correct in the US and elsewhere, where common computing platforms are used to build Internet-connected voting machines. But Indian electronic voting machines are designed to be secure. It does not use internet, bluetooth, wifi or any other connectivity.