SC seeks Centre’s stand on use of totalisers in polls; EC warns against risks, flags public misapprehensions against EVMs
The Supreme Court of India has requested the Centre's position on implementing 'totaliser' machines to consolidate vote counting across multiple EVMs. The Election Commission has expressed strong reservations, citing a lack of legal framework and potential public distrust in electoral integrity.
Why it matters
This debate touches on the core of democratic transparency and voter privacy, balancing the need for anonymity against the public's growing skepticism toward electronic voting systems.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday (September 1, 2026) sought the Centre’s response on the use of ‘totalisers’, which are machines designed to consolidate and count votes from multiple Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) Control Units simultaneously without revealing booth-wise voting trends, as a “fall-back option”.
The court’s order to the Union government came despite a warning from the Election Commission of India that bringing in totalisers now, when even EVMs are subject to frequent public questioning, may not be the right move.
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