Amid allegations of Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) tampering during the Haryana elections and previous protests at Jantar Mantar over the reliability of EVMs, Elon Musk’s recent claim that “EVMs are rigged” ahead of the U.S. presidential election is expected to fuel national and international debates, including in India, about the trustworthiness of EVMs. Musk has urged people not to trust EVMs. In the past, Indian lawyers have demonstrated EVM malfunctions during protests at Jantar Mantar, further questioning their reliability.
Musk has called for elections to be conducted using ballot papers with manual vote counting across the country. He emphasized, “As someone closely associated with technology, I find it hard to trust computer programs. They’re too easy to hack.” Musk also criticized a company that manufactures voting machines, though the company responded, stating that his claims are unfounded.
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According to ABC News, Musk raised doubts about the reliability of voting machines during a townhall event in Pennsylvania. He specifically linked Dominion Voting Systems to Republican losses in Philadelphia and Arizona, pointing out that Dominion machines were used in those areas but not in others, questioning whether this was a coincidence. Musk reiterated his stance that elections should be conducted using ballots and that vote counting should be done by hand.
Dominion, the company Musk mentioned, was previously accused of vote rigging by Fox News last year. However, Dominion later sued the network for defamation, resulting in a $787 million settlement.
