Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) have been a significant part of our electoral process since their first large-scale use in the 2004 general elections. It was initially introduced to combat the challenges of booth capturing and vote rigging associated with paper ballots. EVMs were aimed to streamline the voting process for the vast electorate. Overtime, it has become a focal point of debate. Questions about its transparency and the possibility of tampering have surfaced leading to a trust deficit in some quarters. EVMs represent a step towards modernizing a country’s voting infrastructure, reflecting an ongoing effort to enhance the efficiency and integrity of the electoral process.

BOOM has fact-checked several videos of EVM that have been shared with misleading claims. In April 2024, BOOM factchecked a video that was being shared falsely claiming that it showed a man voting for the BJP five times on an EVM machine in Assam.

We found that the viral video was captured during a mock poll and the votes cast were cleared before actual polling began. A mock poll was conducted prior to the official polling as part of the standard procedure to ensure the integrity of the electoral process, and the EVMs are reset to zero before the commencement of actual polling. After the video went viral, the District Election Officer (DEO) clarified that the viral video was taken during a mock poll.

BOOM debunked another misleading video in the same month, which had claimed that “a man damaged an EVM machine amidst the current Lok Sabha elections”.

We found that the incident was old and happened in Mysuru during the Karnataka assembly election in May, 2023.