Did CEC Rajiv Kumar Respond to Elon Musk's Claims on Validity of EVMs?

New Delhi: Rejecting an assertion made by SpaceX founder Elon Musk that electronic voting machines can be hacked, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar on Tuesday said that such theories are nothing but “misconceived narrative” adding that the very same person had also praised the Indian electoral system for counting all votes in a single day.

Without directly taking the name of Elon Musk, CEC Kumar, while addressing a press conference, said, “It’s a misconceived narrative. A global IT expert said EVMs can be hacked while our elections were going on. They (America) don’t have EVMs; they have electronic voting mechanisms. The remarks created a pandemonium here.”

“The same expert later said that India takes a single day to finish counting while the US takes over a month. We just follow the narratives that are suiting,” he added.

Here’s What Musk Had Said About EVMs

Earlier in June last year, tech mogul Elon Musk called for the elimination of electronic voting machines from the electoral system. 

“We should eliminate electronic voting machines. The risk of being hacked by humans or AI, while small, is still too high,” Musk posted on X.

His comment drew sharp reactions from both ruling and opposition parties in India.

Former Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar came out in defence of the EVMs. He called Musk’s remarks a “huge sweeping generalisation statement that implies no one can build secure digital hardware”.  

Musk Later Praised India’s Electoral System

“India counted 640 million votes in 1 day. California is still counting votes,” Musk posted on X after counting of votes in US presidential elections took several days in California to conclude.  

ECI Announces Delhi Poll Schedule

Delhi will go to the polls on February 5 in a single phase. The counting of votes will take place on Feburary 8