'Too Risky': Months Ahead Of US Presidential Polls, Elon Musk Roots For Paper Ballot Over EVMs Again

Space X and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who is a staunch advocate of paper ballots, on Tuesday, reiterated that electronic voting machines and postal voting are “too risky.” He said that EVMs should be replaced with paper ballots and in-person voting.

Taking to X, formerly Twitter, the billionaire shared excerpts from news reports that emphasised the unreliability of EVMs ranging from the use of outdated versions of the Microsoft operating system to testimonies at the June 2017 Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, where it was alleged that the machines could be reprogrammed through a “vote-stealing code” to “invisibly cause any candidate to win.”

“Electronic voting machines and anything mailed in is too risky. We should mandate paper ballots and in-person voting only,” Musk wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Musk, who has often rooted for paper ballots over electronic voting machines, first weighed in on the issue while responding to Robert Kennedy, an independent Presidential candidate in the US, who claimed that Puerto Rico’s primary elections experienced hundreds of voting irregularities related to EVMs.

At the time, Musk called for eliminating electronic voting machines (EVMs) citing that these machines could be hacked by humans or artificial intelligence.

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

Responding to Musk’s statements, which came shortly after the Lok Sabha Election results, former Union Minister Rajeev Chandrakshar said that Musk’s views may apply to the US, where internet-connected voting machines are used but in India, EVMs are secured.

The former minister responded to Musk’s remark, saying they were a “sweeping generalisation” and offered the billionaire a “tutorial” on how the EVMs work.