EVMs are not designed to record this method of voting.

Ever wondered why the Electronic Voting Machines, used in four Lok Sabha elections and 127 assembly elections since 2004, are not used in the election of the President and Vice President of India, members of Rajya Sabha and members of state legislative councils?

EVMs are based on a technology where it acts as an aggregator of votes in direct elections like Lok Sabha and State Assemblies.

Voters press the button against the name of the candidate of their choice and the one who receives the most votes is declared elected.

But the President is elected according to the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote.

According to the system of proportional representation, through the single transferable vote, each elector can mark as many preferences as the number of candidates contesting the election.

National Democratic Alliance's (NDA) Draupadi Murmu and opposition-backed Yashwant Sinha are the two candidates in the presidential election on Monday.

Officials said that EVMs are not designed to record this method of voting.

EVM is the aggregator of votes and under proportional representation system the machine will have to count the votes on the basis of preference and it will require completely different technology. 

In other words, a different type of EVM would be required.

EVMs have been used in four Lok Sabha and 127 assembly elections since 2004, according to the August 2021 issue of the Election Commission's quarterly magazine 'My Vote Matters'.

According to the Election Commission website, it was first envisioned in the Election Commission in 1977 and Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL), Hyderabad was entrusted with the task of designing and developing EVMs.

The machines were first used in May, 1982 in the assembly elections in Kerala.

However, the Supreme Court struck down that election due to the absence of a specific law prescribing its use.

Subsequently, in 1989, Parliament amended the Representation of the People Act, 1951 to make a provision for the use of EVMs in elections.

Consensus on its introduction was reached only in 1998 and they were used in 25 assembly constituencies spread over Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi. 

In the May 2001 assembly elections held in the states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry and West Bengal, EVMs were used in all assembly constituencies.

Since then, for every state assembly election, the commission has used EVMs.

In the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, over 10 lakh EVMs were used in all the 543 parliamentary constituencies of the country.

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