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1. This is not an allegation (as of yet)This article is NOT an allegation. It is to only show that EVMs can be rigged at super-industrial scale by few people at top. Essentially, I am making allegation against EVMs, that EVMs are riggable in an industrial scale to favor some party such Congress etc and that too with just 10 people at top. I am not making allegations against any party or EC or BEL in this article. This article is to only explain how rigging can be done.
Some 100,000 new EVMs were made in Dec-2008. And later they were dispatched to Districts, most before Mar-2009. This article shows one way how CEC, Congress
could have rigged all these 100,000 EVMs to favor Congress. This is a
could have scenario, not an allegation.
I propose one way by which CEC, BEL, Congress may rig 100,000 EVMs with mere 10-12 men. As of now, I am not claiming they did it. I may or may not make such claim later when time comes. Because to claim that X did action-A, I need to first convince people that action-A is indeed possible and do-able. So for now, I only want to show that rigging 100,000 EVMs is possible with few people. Once I have shown that is do-able, I may or may not show that they were in position to implement the rigging mechanism I suggested. And then I may or may not make claim that they rigged it in the way I suggested or similar such way.
In this article, I have used following
fictitious names to show the process
CECX : Fictitious head of a fictitious body called EC, in charge of elections
CongressX : A fictitious party interested in rigging EVMs to favor its candidates.
SoniaX : The fictitious head of CongressX
BELX Chiefs : The persons in charge of manufacturing EVMs in fictitious body named as BELX
Pls note that resemblances to any real names is an unintended coincidence only
2. Why pre-programmed bias in EVMs was thought to be useless?We all know that a programmer can indeed write code in EVM, that favors a particular
serial number. Pls note - a particular
serial number only. And if the CEO level persons in BELX agree to put such rigged code in EVM, then there is no technological or scientific barrier to stop them. There are processes to ensure that junior guys cannot change code, but nothing will stop apex seniors with money from making changes they want. But till date, everyone thinks that no one can write a code that would favor CongressX, as the serial number of CongressX candidate is undecided when the coder is writing the EVM code and undecided even when the EVM is being shipped to the District from BELX. eg say a coder and BELX Chiefs decide to favor CongressX. Now the EVM is to be shipped out in Jan-2009. CongressX candidate will get the serial number in Apr-2009. Then which candidate number should the program be coded to give more votes? The Congress's candidate number will vary from seat to seat. So if the programmer programs EVM to give more vote to candidate number 1, then only in some 20% cases only CongressX will be no. 1 . And so in 20% cases, it would benefit Congress and in 80% cases it would hurt Congress.
Some anti-EVM people has hypothesized that some keys can be inputed in EVMs to communicate the candidate number after candidate number is issued. But then inputting this key combination in 100,000 of EVMs need 100,000 men to be sent at the booth and is a difficult task. So this way was ruled out due to logistic size. So till now, it was stated by "experts" and accepted by the gullibles that "BELX cannot make an EVM that would favor CongressX".
3. BELX can make EVMs with pre-programmed that favors CongressXBut I have shown that a "pro-CongressX" EVMs be made !! How can EVMs be programmed to favor CongressX Well, pls read this article and if you have any questions, pls call me at 98251-27780 .
4. A brief description of election process
ECX divides candidates in a constituency into 3 blocks : National or State Recognized Parties, Unrecognized Registered Parties and Independents. In each block, the candidates are alphabetically ordered by their names in the local language. There are 7 Nationally recognized parties and different states have0-4 State recognized parties. So if all recognized parties put their candidates, the number of candidates in first block will go to 7-11. But the reality is that all recognized parties do not put candidates in every seat. eg CPM hasnt put candidates in many seats since ages. In general, having 5 recognized party on one seat is a rare event. And so a recognized Party is will get a number between 1-5 with 99% guarantee in general. And as a reality check, one can look at 2009 election. All Congress candidates got serial number between 1-5 on the ballot paper. Further, EVMs can support only 64 candidates. If there are more than 64 candidates, EC will need to use paper ballots, a condition that has never come as deposits are regularly raised to ensure that nCandidates is below 64.
Now following dates play important role in "how EVMs can be made to favor a Party".
- Say opening date to fill form is Apr-2.
- Then last date to fill form will be say Apr-8.
- By Apr-10, candidates will get accepted or disqualified by RO (RO = Returning Office, mostly the District Collector).
- On Apr-11, candidates of Congress and other recognized parties will get to know their serial candidate number on EVM (*)
- Last day to withdraw will be say Apr-13, 3pm.
- Say on Apr-13, 3pm is the last date to withdraw form.
- So total number of candidates will be known on Apr-13, about 4pm. Pls note this : total number of candidates plays important role in how EVMs can be made to favor Congress-X
[* - Since recognized parties get top slot, on Apr-9, the candidates of recognized parties will get to know their candidate number The last minute withdrawal of candidate of other nationally/state recognized party can change the candidate number. But wont have any impact on the scheme I am proposing.]
5. Recognized parties' candidates are mostly in 1-5
I will repeat why.
EC (Election Commission) divides candidates in a constituency into 3 blocks : National or State Recognized Parties, Unrecognized Registered Parties and Independents. In each block, the candidates are alphabetically ordered by their names in the local language. There are 7 Nationally recognized parties and different states have0-4 State recognized parties. So if all recognized parties put their candidates, the number of candidates in first block will go to 7-11. But the reality is that all recognized parties don t put candidates in every seat. eg CPM hasnt put candidates in many seats since ages. In general, having 5 recognized party on one seat is a rare event. And so a recognized Party is will get a number between 1-5 with 99% guarantee in general. And as a reality check, one can look at 2009 election. All Congress candidates got serial number between 1-5 on the EVM.
6. Step-One : What rigged code to put in EVMsSay BELX chiefs made 5 different types of rigged EVMs.
Type-1 favors candidate number = (nCandidates + 1)
mod 5 + 1 (what is mod?)
Type-2 favors candidate number = (nCandidates + 2) mod 5 + 1
Type-3 favors candidate number = (nCandidates + 3) mod 5 + 1
Type-4 favor's candidate number = (nCandidates + 4) mod 5 + 1
Type-5 favor's candidate number = (nCandidates + 5) mod 5 + 1
(The mod5 is just an example function. If I were to make rigged EVMs, I would use more complex functions.)
Now what is "mod"?It is remainder left after division, i.e. ( 16 mod 5 ) means the number you are left with when you divide 16 by 5 which 1. So
(1 mod 5 ) = 1
(2 mod 5 ) = 2
(3 mod 5 ) = 3
(4 mod 5 ) = 4
(5 mod 5 ) = 0
(6 mod 5 ) = 1
(7 mod 5 ) = 2
The mod will keep repeating. There are only 5 values (n mod 5) can have.
So BELX made file types of rigged EVMs. A rigged EVM decides candidate to favor based on total number of candidates based on the following table
if the rigged EVM is of type-1 then- if there are 6 ,11 , 16 , 21 or ... , 61 candidates, then this EVM will favor candidate no. 3
- if there are 2 , 7 , 12 , 17 or ... , 62 candidates, then this EVM will favor candidate no. 4
- if there are 3 , 8 , 13 , 18 or ... , 63 candidates, then this EVM will favor candidate no. 5
- if there are 4 , 9 , 14 , 19 or ... , 64 candidates, then this EVM will favor candidate no. 1
- if there are 5 ,10 , 15 , 20 or ... , 60 candidates, then this EVM will favor candidate no. 2
if the rigged EVM is of type-2 then
- if there are 6 ,11 , 21, 25 or ... , 61 candidates, then this EVM will favor candidate no. 4
- if there are 7 ,12 , 22, 27 or ... , 62 candidates, then this EVM will favor candidate no. 5
- if there are 3 , 8 , 13 , 23 or ... , 63 candidates, then this EVM will favor candidate no. 1
- if there are 4 , 9 , 14 , 24 or ... , 64 candidates, then this EVM will favor candidate no. 2
- if there are 5 ,10 , 15 , 25 or ... , 65 candidates, then this EVM will favor candidate no. 3
if the rigged EVM is of type-3 then
- if there are 6 ,11 , 16 , 21 or ... , 61 candidates, then this EVM will favor candidate no. 5
- if there are 2 , 7 , 12 , 17 or ... , 62 candidates, then this EVM will favor candidate no. 1
- if there are 3 , 8 , 13 , 18 or ... , 63 candidates, then this EVM will favor candidate no. 2
- if there are 4 , 9 , 14 , 19 or ... , 64 candidates, then this EVM will favor candidate no. 3
- if there are 5 ,10 , 15 , 20 or ... , 60 candidates, then this EVM will favor candidate no. 4
if the rigged EVM is of type-4 then
- if there are 6 ,11 , 16 , 21 or ... , 61 candidates, then this EVM will favor candidate no. 1
- if there are 2 , 7 , 12 , 17 or ... , 62 candidates, then this EVM will favor candidate no. 2
- if there are 3 , 8 , 13 , 18 or ... , 63 candidates, then this EVM will favor candidate no. 3
- if there are 4 , 9 , 14 , 19 or ... , 64 candidates, then this EVM will favor candidate no. 4
- if there are 5 ,10 , 15 , 20 or ... , 60 candidates, then this EVM will favor candidate no. 5
if the rigged EVM is of type-5 then
- if there are 6 ,11 , 16 , 21 or ... , 61 candidates, then this EVM will favor candidate no. 2
- if there are 2 , 7 , 12 , 22 or ... , 62 candidates, then this EVM will favor candidate no. 3
- if there are 3 , 8 , 13 , 23 or ... , 63 candidates, then this EVM will favor candidate no. 4
- if there are 4 , 9 , 14 , 24 or ... , 64 candidates, then this EVM will favor candidate no. 5
- if there are 5 ,10 , 15 , 25 or ... , 60 candidates, then this EVM will favor candidate no. 1
To give example, say one constituency has say 200 rigged EVMs of type-3. Now say that constituency has say if nCandidates = 19. Then the rigged EVMs there will favor candidate number (19 + 2) mod 5 + 1 = 21 mod 5 + 1 = 1 + 1 = 2 . i.e. it will favor candidate number 2.
To give one more example, say one constituency has say 200 rigged EVMs of type-4. Now say that constituency has say if nCandidates = 11. Then the rigged EVMs there EVM will favor candidate number (11 + 4) mod 5 + 1 = 15 mod 5 + 1 = 0 + 1 = 1 . i.e. it will favor candidate number 1.
Lets make
converse of the above table. The following
converse table will be used in Step-3 by SoniaX. I request the reader to reach each of the 30 lines in the following
converse table.
if the rigged EVMs in a Constituency are all of type-1 then and
- if we want EVMs to favor candidate no. 1, then we should have 4 , 9 , 14 or ... , 64 candidates
- if we want EVMs to favor candidate no. 2 , then we should have 5 ,10 , 15 or ... , 60 candidates
- if we want EVMs to favor candidate no. 3 , then there should be 6 ,11, 16 or ... , 61 candidates
- if we want EVMs to favor candidate no. 4 , then there should be 7 ,12, 17 or ... , 62 candidates
- if we want EVMs to favor candidate no. 5 , then there should be 8 ,13, 18 or ... , 63 candidates
if the rigged EVMs in a Constituency are all of type-2 then and
- if we want EVMs to favor candidate no. 1 , then we should have 3 , 8 , 13 or ... , 63 candidates
- if we want EVMs to favor candidate no. 2 , then we should have 4 , 9 , 14 or ... , 64 candidates
- if we want EVMs to favor candidate no. 3 , then we should have 5 ,10 , 15 or ... , 60 candidates
- if we want EVMs to favor candidate no. 4 , then we should have 6 ,11 , 16 or ... , 61 candidates
- if we want EVMs to favor candidate no. 5 , then we should have 7 ,12 , 17 or ... , 62 candidates
if the rigged EVMs in a Constituency are all of type-3 then and if
- if we want EVMs to favor candidate no. 1 , then we should have 2 , 7 , 12 or ... , 62 candidates
- if we want EVMs to favor candidate no. 2 , then we should have 3 , 8 , 13 or ... , 63 candidates
- if we want EVMs to favor candidate no. 3 , then we should have 4 , 9 , 14 or ... , 64 candidates
- if we want EVMs to favor candidate no. 4 , then we should have 5 ,10 , 15 or ... , 60 candidates
- if we want EVMs to favor candidate no. 5 , then we should have 6 ,11 , 16 or ... , 61 candidates
if the rigged EVMs in a Constituency are all of type-4 then and
- if we want EVMs to favor candidate no. 1 , then we should have 6 ,11 , 16 or ... , 61 candidates
- if we want EVMs to favor candidate no. 2 , then we should have 2 , 7 , 12 or ... , 62 candidates
- if we want EVMs to favor candidate no. 3 , then we should have 3 , 8 , 13 or ... , 63 candidates
- if we want EVMs to favor candidate no. 4 , then we should have 4 , 9 , 14 or ... , 64 candidates
- if we want EVMs to favor candidate no. 5 , then we should have 5 ,10 , 15 or ... , 60 candidates
if the rigged EVMs in a Constituency are all of type-5 then and
- if we want EVMs to favor candidate no. 1 , then we should have 5 ,10 , 15 or ... , 60 candidates
- if we want EVMs to favor candidate no. 2 , then we should have 6 ,11 , 16 or ... , 61 candidates
- if we want EVMs to favor candidate no. 3 , then we should have 7, 12 , 17 or ... , 62 candidates
- if we want EVMs to favor candidate no. 4 , then we should have 8 ,13 , 18 or ... , 63 candidates
- if we want EVMs to favor candidate no. 5 , then we should have 9 ,14 , 19 or ... , 64 candidates
So step-1 is : BELX made 20,000 rigged EVMs of type1 to type5 each, which work as ab
7. Step-Two : Ensuring each seat has same type of rigged EVMs
CECX has to ensure that 200 rigged EVMs go ton each of the 500 Constituency, in away that Type of each EVM is a constituency is same. How can he ensure that? He and BELX chiefs can ensure this as follows :
- BELX chiefs send 1st shipment of 20000 EVMs between dates say Jan-01 and Jan-06
- BELX chiefs send 2nd shipment of 20000 EVMs between dates say Jan-07 and Jan-13
- BELX chiefs send 3rd shipment of 20000 EVMs between dates say Jan-14 and Jan-20
- BELX chiefs send 4th shipment of 20000 EVMs between dates say Jan-21 and Jan-27
- BELX chiefs send 5th shipment of 20000 EVMs between dates say Jan-27 and Feb-07
- CECX asks staff to send 200 EVMs from 1st shipment to each Constituency-001 to Constituency-100
- CECX asks staff to send 200 EVMs from 2nd shipment to each Constituency-101 to Constituency-200
- CECX asks staff to send 200 EVMs from 3rd shipment to each Constituency-201 to Constituency-300
- CECX asks staff to send 200 EVMs from 4th shipment to each Constituency-401 to Constituency-400
- CECX asks staff to send 200 EVMs from 5th shipment to each Constituency-501 to Constituency-500
So each seat has about 200 rigged EVMs of same type. And only CECX and SoniaX know the type for each Constituency.
8. Step-Three : Adjusting the number of candidates
Now take some Constituency such as Gandhinagar as example. Say in Mar-2009, say Gandhinagar Constituency got 200 rigged EVMs of type-2. Now on Apr-8, CongressX knew that its candidature number, say it was number 2. How how many candidates should be in race so that EVMs of type-3 favor the CongressX candidate? Pls look at the converse table. The answer is :
if SoniaX can ensure that Gandhinagar has exactly 4 , 9 , 19 , 24 , 29 or ... 63 candidates in race, then all EVMs which are of type-2 will favor the no. 2 .
Can SoniaX ensure this? How can SoniaX ensure that number of candidates in race are 4 , 9 , 14 , 19 , 24 , 29 or ... 64 and not some other number? She can tell the Congress candidate that astrologer has asked that the number of candidates must be 4 , 9 , 14 , 19 or ... 64. And CongressX candidate has to be told to put 4 spurious independents and have 0-4 withdraw the form at
last moment, so that nCandidates 4, 9, 14, 19, 24. 29, or ..., 64.
I will explain in detail. Say it is Apr-13, 3pm. Say the CongressX candidate has 4 spurious independent candidates say A, B C and D and they are in collector's room for withdrawal, along with 10 other people who want to withdraw. Now all the CongressX candidate has to manage is that these 4 people are at the end of the queue. Now say candidates have withdrawn or refused to withdraw (in which case they will leave the room) and at the end only A, B C and D are left.
- now say candidate count is 20. Then CongressX can ask A to withdraw, B..D to stay in race and thus ensure that nCandidate is 19
- now say candidate count is 28. Then CongressX can ask A, B, C, D to withdraw and thus ensure that nCandidate is 24
- now say candidate count is 23. Then CongressX can ask A, B, C to withdraw and thus ensure that nCandidate is 19
IOW, using 0-4 candidates at the end of the withdrawal queue on Apr-13 , he can ensure that number of candidates in the race are 4, 9, 14, 19, 24. 29, or ... 64.
This is not easy as RO is not even suspecting that EVMs use nCandidates as any parameter. And in states where Congress-X has CM, SoniaX can ask CM to ask RO to put the spurious independents at the end of the queue so that they have last word n nCandidates.
In 5% cases, say CongressX fails. Then they lose 5% EVMs to opponents. But in 95% cases, the rigged EVMs will support CongressX candidate as in 95% cases, SoniaX could tweak nCandidates to favor its candidate number.
The RO (District Collector) is not a person in conspiracy. And the candidate too need not be aware of this conspiracy, for all he knows, he is doing what SoniaX's astrologer asked him to do.
9. Where would this rigging be used?
There are 543 Loksabha Constituencies. Step-One will work well as it is all in a few controlled factories. And Step-2 will work as dispatching decisions are very centralized. CongressX will not send rigged EVMs to 70-80 sure seats. Say rigged EVMs are sent to 460 seats. And out of these 460 seats, step-3 works out in 410 cases and fails in 50 cases. Then CongressX or ally candidate will get all 200 EVMs to vote for CongressX in those 460 seats. If each EVM gives him extra 300 votes, he gets 60,000 extra votes. Enough to make increase final tally by 100-150 seats.
Now please note that I am not making allegation that this indeed happened. I am saying that this can happen in future. And this is one way to rig EVMs, there can be 100s more. IOW, we know that ballot box with paper ballots was empty when poll started. In case of EVMs, we dont know what was filled in EVMs chip and whether it was biased before poll started. So I appeal to citizens of India that we should ask PM, MPs to ask EC to cancel EVMs and use paper ballots with camera in booth.
10. Compact description of rigging
A
compact description of rigging is as followse
- There are 5 types of rigged EVM CEC made. EVM-k favors candidate whose roll number is (nCandidates + k) mod 5 + 1 , k is between 1 to 5
- Congress will know its roll number 2-3 days before candidates can withdraw. Say Congress's roll number is p and it will be between 1 and 5.
- Then Congress has to ensure that, that seat has nCandidates = 5m + (p - 1) - k , m is any integer.
- So in each seat, local Congress candidate has to add 4 dummy candidates and make 0-4 of the withdraw after everyone else has withdrawn, so that nCandidates is 5m + (p - 1) - k , m is any integer
- If nCandidates = (5m + (p-1) - k), then that EVM will benefit candidate number
= (nCandidates + k) mod 5 + 1
= ((5m +(p-1) - k) + k ) mod 5 + 1
= (5m +(p-1)) mod 5 + 1
= p - 1 + 1
= p = the roll number of the Congress candidate.11. Why such rigged EVMs cant be detected?- If I were to write such rigged EVM, I would do rigging only if there are over 200 votes and time EVM was left on was above 7 hours. Hence mock polls and testing would never detect this rigging
- If I were to make such EVMs, I would ensure that rigging happens only once in life time and never again. So if the same EVMs are now tested, all of them will be free of rigging.
- The code inside ROM cannot be read. One can read the hash code. But if the manufacturer of the chip (which is in Japan) was asked to make a chip that would give planted hash than real hash, the hash is not the hash of the code in EVM but some planted hash. Hence, there is no way to detect if EVMs used in Apr-2009 were rigged or not.
12. How to put such code in microcode of the chip
There are two place to put this rigged code in the chip. One is ROM and other is microcode. If this rigged code is in ROM, one may find out by opening the machine and scanning the ROM if lockbits are not set. If the lockbits are set, then ROM cant be read, only hash can be read. And if chip maker has agreed to make a chip that would give planted hash rather than real hash, then hash has no value. But if lockbits are not set, the code can be read.
But one can also put this rigging in microcode. How? If the microcode writer knew the EVM's code, he can find out the memory locations in RAM that stores nCandidates and counts of each candidates. And based on nCandidates and its own type k, it calculates FavoriteCandidateNo from the table given in Section-6 (Step-One). So it can add votes to the favorite candidate and deduct from the rest. Also say there were one bit of on-chip flash memory which gets reset some 8 months after manufacture. And once that bit is reset, that part of microcode will never get executed and so the microcode will become will become "honest". This is technologically very much feasible. And microcode cant be read using any equipment. So now there is no technologically feasible way to know if such a given EVM is rigged or not.
The EVM used a made in Japan chip. So if CongressX had asked that Japanese company to put trojan in microcode of the chip, which implements the table I gave, then CongressX and CECX together could have rigged 100,000 EVMs in a way we will never ever know.
13. How to put such code in microcode of the chip
My demand as of now is not to remove EVMs. My demand is that PM should issue a Govt order by which we citizens can register NO on any clause of any law at Talati's office for Rs 3 fee. (see the article number 5 in this blog for details). If PM agrees, then those who oppose EVMs will ask citizens to register NO on clause-61A of People's Representation Act of India. This section is necessary for EC to use EVMs. Once this section is deleted, EC will not be able to use EVM and will have to use paper ballots.
IOW, I want to get rid of EVMs, but via citizens of India, not via activism. I want activism to confine to creating the procedure by which we commons in India can register YES/NO at Talati's office by paying Rs 3 fee. And I am not interested in PILs, expert committees etc. IMO, it is time we citizens of India decide whether EVMs should continue or not. We must not let ECs or judges or MPs pr PM decide this anymore.
In next article I will show how paper ballots can be improved and made less expensive as well as free from problems like ballot stuffing. Pls follow the blog if you wish regular updates.