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9 reasons why Aadhaar or biometrics should never be linked to voter id or elections

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Electronic voting machines (EVMs) have killed formal democracy of India by lack of transparency which is essential for election integrity. Aadhaar is further killing informal democracy by promoting micro-level all-pervasive surveillance and control of citizens by State through use of biometrics and digital technology. But now government wants to link Aadhaar with voting and completely bury democracy six feet under. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/linking-of-aadhaar-voter-id-may-be-made-mandatory/articleshow/67069414.cms. Let us understand why this linking is very very dangerous and let us stop it by raising our collective voice against it!

  1. Number of non-citizen bogus voters will explode.

    2. Aadhaar is not a proof of citizenship. Any resident can get Aadhaar. So if voting is done by Aadhaar itself, the number of non-citizen bogus voters will explode. Actually this is already a problem even before Aadhaar & EPIC are linked because the voter id EPIC can be obtained by Aadhaar itself.

  2. Linking Aadhaar to voting will hide EVM rigging beyond detection by audits

    3. Election rigging already happens through EVMs, but the nature of that rigging is currently relatively simple and can be caught in thorough, honest, end to end audits. In such audits we can detect mismatch between count of people who actually voted and total vote counts in EVMs. Such mismatch has been highlighted in the news many times. I am just listing a few that showed up in a quick search:

    The reason why it is possible to identify such discrepancies is because list of voters who actually voted (poll list) is manually prepared. When you go to vote, your voter id is checked against voter list, then you are made to sign against your name in the voter list and then allowed to vote. The process takes place in presence of security and observers. Thus because it is manual and prepared under scrutiny, this poll list is highly likely to be genuine. So if EVM counts are electronically rigged they will likely mismatch with this manually collected count. It is unfortunate that Election Commission hardly seems to care even about such glaring evidence. But at least public gets a clear evidence that there is something fishy with EVM results!

    But what will happen or what will change if Aadhaar gets linked to voting? Voters will be asked to do digital biometric Aadhaar authentication before voting instead of manually signing against their name in the voter list. Thus creation of the poll list will also become digital instead of manual. Then poll list can be digitally rigged to match EVM rigging and there would be no discrepancy between poll list count and EVM vote count. End to end audits will become useless at detecting EVM rigging at that stage!

    Thus linking Aadhaar to voting process will hide EVM rigging beyond detection by audits!

  3. It will enable vote rigging at individual voter level.

    4. In the current traditional voter identification before voting, signing on the poll list has no direct technology link with EVMs. Booth operators enable the EVM for vote. So it is not possible to granularly rig your EVM vote depending on who you are. The rigging would have to be wholesale creating mismatches between stages as seen in point 2 above.

    But in many places which have biometrics + EVM combined scam of CIA MI6, the biometrics and EVM are technologically linked. For example Brazil, Venezuela and Afghanistan have biometric EVMs. The EVM gets enabled for voting by your biometric authentication. If Aadhaar gets linked to voting, India too will replace the current M3 model EVMs with biometrics enabled EVMs.

    In such Aadhaar biometrics enabled machines, if you want to do granular election rigging at each voter level it will be possible. They are anyway building an all-round 360 degree profile of you using Aadhaar and other means of surveillance, all tied back to that general foreign key, your Aadhaar number. So if they expect you to vote in a different way than they want, they could change your individual vote when you do Aadhaar authentication and vote. This should also be possible if any other digital id is used, not necessarily Aadhaar. This is not possible with current non-digital id EPIC with manual identification.

  4. Mock polls will be difficult or impossible

    5. Currently booth agents conduct a mock poll of EVMs on voting day. Same person presses multiple votes in order to check that they are correctly recorded and reported. That will not be possible if Aadhaar authentication apparatus and EVM are technologically connected. Of course it is a different matter that mock polls do not matter because EVMs can work normally during mock polls but can be rigged at any later stage such as actual voting, storage, counting, etc.

  5. If removed from voter list, citizens have no way to prove they used to be on list

    6. With your current EPIC voter card if they remove you from voter lists you have a voter card in your hand as a proof using which you can fight your case. But once Aadhaar is linked to voter id, the EPIC or voter card will be gradually or suddenly made redundant and useless. When Aadhaar biometric authentication itself becomes your id for voting, you no longer have a physical voter id, no proof that you are a voter. Aadhaar is not a card but a dematerialized id, i.e. an id lacking material form. It is just your biometrics of your body and a number in their database. If they remove the number, your biometrics are of no value or meaning. So if they remove you from voter list or delete your Aadhaar, you have no tangible proof in your hand that you used to be on the voter list. So voter list suppression/tampering can be done with greater impunity if voting is done by Aadhaar and citizen has no way to prove because Aadhaar is a dematerialized id!

  6. Voting by Aadhaar enables granular blameless voter suppression

    7. In the current method of voting using EPIC, if your name is on the voter list and the EPIC is in your hand, no one can stop you from voting except the voting booth personnel. Even if a booth personnel stops you it would generally be possible to fight back and prevail due to other booth workers, observers and security (Unless of course the booth itself has been captured, but that's a different matter).

    But with Aadhaar authentication based vote, if they do not like your profile which they evaluated through something like Cambridge Analytica, Aadhaar based surveillance machinery or any other means, they can stop you from voting by unofficial hidden ways. Someone can just blamelessly set some flag or data variable in the system to prevent your Aadhaar from authenticating. If that happens, even if all persons in the booth want to help you, they cannot. The system closed itself to you centrally. No local can help.

    So officially u are on voter list, you have the voter id/Aadhaar, but you are simply unable to vote. Granular, blameless voter suppression. No one can be held accountable for this voter suppression. It would be blamed on 'technology', 'biometrics failure','bad fingerprints'.

  7. Inablity to vote due to genuine biometrics failure

    8. Even if no one has set flags against u by analyzing your profile, your biometrics can fail to authenticate. It will especially fail to authenticate for those whose lives are hard, those who are weak. Those are the people who need a voice the most. So biometrics linked to voting would inherently rob the weakest of their democratic voice, even if no other foul play is done. For example check the failure rates of Aadhaar authentication in PDS systems where it is used. As per the official Economic Survey 2016-17 there was 49% failure for Jharkhand, 6% for Gujarat, 5% for Krishna district in Andhra Pradesh, 37% for Rajasthan! See page 194 of Economic Survey 2016-17 https://www.indiabudget.gov.in/budget2017-2018/es2016-17/echapter.pdf . Such exclusion errors in voting means vote deprivation for millions of eligible voters.

  8. Someone could vote on your behalf by biometrics theft

    9. When voting is done by Aadhaar, picture or photo id might no longer be used, depending entirely upon Aadhaar fingerprint or iris scan for identification and authentication. In that case someone else may fake your fingerprints or iris scan,and vote for you even without complicity of booth workers.

    See how easy it is to fake someone's specific fingerprint

    German minister's fake fingerprint was created just using her hand's photograph

    https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/dec/30/hacker-fakes-german-ministers-fingerprints-using-photos-of-her-hands

    Even if nobody has your fake fingerprint see how researchers have created "Deep Master Prints" using machine learning which works as a master key for 1 in 5 fingerprints already!

    https://thenextweb.com/artificial-intelligence/2018/11/15/researchers-create-master-key-fingerprints-that-can-fool-biometric-databases/

    The same hacker who duplicated German minister's fingerprints also fooled iris scanner with printed images.

    https://thehackernews.com/2015/03/iris-biometric-security-bypass.html

    Of course in non-biometric voter identification also someone could vote for you but booth workers would have to be complicit. And someone making signature on your behalf in the voter list at the booth would also have to be good enough at forgery else would be caught if questioned or audited.

    Of course you can argue that for illiterate angoothachhap persons fake fingerprints could still have been used in traditional voter identification. But fake biometrics wouldn't be too viable business in pre-Aadhaar days because of poor demand. But forged biometrics industry would flourish if Aadhaar stays and same will be used in elections if needed. Literate as well as illiterate population would be vulnerable.

  9. Easier vote by force.

    10. Goons can force people to put finger/thumb or get iris scanned and vote on their behalf. Force is possible in current manual method too but Aadhaar makes it easy. Just scan the person's biometrics which are always visible.

Of course the question of linking Aadhaar with voter id or EVM arises only while Aadhaar and EVMs exist, If India has to have any real democracy we must #DestroyTheAadhaar and #BanDigitalElections as soon as possible.

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