'Replace EVMs': Hotmail co-founder Sabeer Bhatia bats for AI-assisted identity verification of voters

Hotmail co-founder Sabeer Bhatia recently said that Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) should be replaced with a secure voting app. He said that doing this could help address what he described as the "Election Commission's voter-ID problem".

Bhatia wrote in a post on X, "I have a solution for the Election Commission's voter-ID problem: replace EVMs with a secure voting app. Each voter declares: 'I am XYZ, and I am a citizen of India.'"

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In his post, Bhatia also suggested what could be done to fix the issue. He wrote, "Use AI-assisted identity verification to flag discrepancies for review. One citizen. One verified identity. One vote. Why are we still voting with 20th-century technology?"

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Meanwhile, the Election Commission of India (ECI) offers several digital and physical methods for citizens to verify their voter registration status, cross-check their details in the voter roll, and participate in official verification drives such as the Special Intensive Revision (SIR).

Voters can verify their details online through Voters Service Portal (VSP) by searching using the EPIC Number or their personal details such as full name, date of birth, gender, state, and district. Voters can also download the Voter Helpline App for the same.

For those who do not have regular internet access, the poll body offers options such as SMS verification and the National Voter Helpline.

To verify your voter details using SMS, send the text ECI to 1950. Citizens can also dial the toll-free helpline number 1950 (add the local STD code before dialling) to speak with a representative and verify their voting credentials. 

The ECI also relies on field processes such as house-to-house verification (BLOs conduct door-to-door physical visits to identify eligible citizens who have not been enrolled, address logical discrepancies, and remove names of deceased, shifted or duplicate entries), doorstep document verification, and community verification.

Moreover, the Election Commission has developed ECINET, a unified, single-point digital platform to consolidate all major election-related applications and websites into a single secure ecosystem. Launched at the India International Conference on Democracy and Election Management (IICDEM), the ECINET integrates and reorients more than 40 separate ECI mobile and web apps.