Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs)
Technical Architecture and Sharing Mechanism
India's Electronic Voting Machine programme is one of the world's largest electoral technology deployments. The ECI uses Mark III (M3) EVMs — the third generation of machines — for all Parliamentary and state assembly elections. The machines are manufactured by two public sector units: Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL, under Ministry of Defence) and Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL, under Department of Atomic Energy). EVMs have a 15-year operational lifespan; machines at the end of their lifecycle with ECI are typically transferred to SECs for local body elections.
- EVM architecture: Ballot Unit (BU) where voters press button; Control Unit (CU) operated by polling officer; VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) attached since 2013–2014 elections
- M3 EVMs introduced: 2013; used in all Lok Sabha elections from 2014 onwards
- Sharing mechanism: ECI does not charge states for EVM use during assembly elections; retired M3 machines (after 15 years) go to SECs at no cost
- EVM security features: One-time programmable (OTP) chips — cannot be reprogrammed after manufacture; time-stamped — records time of each vote; no wireless connectivity
- Supreme Court on EVMs: In numerous cases (including Subramanian Swamy v. ECI, 2013), the Court upheld EVM reliability; in 2024 post-election petitions, the Court declined to order return to paper ballots
- VVPAT: Voter sees paper slip for 7 seconds confirming their vote; 5 VVPAT units per assembly constituency are now counted and matched to EVM results per SC direction (2019)
● Tracked since February 24, 2026 · last seen June 18, 2026 · updates as the daily brief publishes
See it in today’s brief.
Daily current affairs with every static concept explained in place.
Read the daily brief