The Election Commission of India (EC) is a constitutional body in India that has been around for a long time and is in charge of holding free and fair elections. Elections in a nation with a population of over 1.4 billion people are a major task, especially when they are held on a regular basis. While there is no doubt that the EC is innovating its day-to-day operations, whether it is implementing technology such as JARVIS to resolve vote rigging or a smartphone-based e-voting system, there are numerous areas where it can enhance them, such as detecting hate speech and foreign trolls. Let’s look at some ways we can provide free and fair elections with the help of artificial intelligence.
Vote-count Manipulation
Preventing vote-counting manipulation is one of the Election Commission’s major challenges today. Many parties have repeatedly claimed irregularities in the election process, citing the primary reason as the use of EVMs. The Bihar State Electoral Commission used video surveillance with optical character recognition for its panchayat elections in 2021 to close such gaps and collect real-time voting data. The data was generated by the polling station and stored on the servers of the State Election Commission. The system was built on JARVIS, a one-of-a-kind video analytics tool that used OCR and text recognition to identify candidates and count votes directly from the camera feed by observing the EVM screens. After entering the EVM data into the systems, it was compared to the data obtained from the CCTV video to look for inconsistencies. This was also the first time video analytics were used in an Indian election during vote counting.
Smartphone-based e-voting
Because of the country’s multicultural area, which includes desert areas in the west, freezing mountains in the north, and wide-ranging forest cover in the east, elections in India differ from those in other countries. Voting officials travel to outlying areas to collect votes. To address this issue, a smartphone-based e-voting system may be used in remote areas. Many countries have long wished to incorporate a smartphone-based e-voting system.
Estonia, for example, implemented an online voting system, which was a success, as more than 43% of Estonia’s population voted online. To vote in the elections, Estonian citizens must first log in with their national ID, after which they will receive a downloaded file containing their ballot. On election day, e-voting is not permitted for security reasons. Estonia also uses blockchain technology to prevent data breaches, extending the life of the digital space.
India can benefit greatly from technology because it has one of the fastest-growing smartphone markets, with more than 54% of the population using them. The good news is that the European Commission is already working in that direction.
The Election Commission has collaborated with IIT-Madras and the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing to develop a secure e-voting system. Last year, Telangana also hosted the country’s first dry run for smartphone-based e-voting. The Telangana State Electoral Commission used cutting-edge technology for the trial, including artificial intelligence and blockchain ledgers.
Areas where the EC can Improve
During election campaigns, India has seen an increase in hate speech in recent years. According to one report, the number of cases filed for hate speech in India has increased by 500% in the last seven years. This is one area where ECI and tech behemoths could work together.
Companies like Meta already have the capability of filtering hate speech content from their websites. For instance, between January and March 2022, Meta decided to take action on over 15 million hate speech videos on Facebook, 95% of which were detected by an AI system. Furthermore, with each successive election, the likelihood of coordinated tweets from other countries influencing domestic elections grows. The 2019 general elections, for example, were trending not only in India but also in Pakistan.
Using an AI module, the EC can identify and eliminate foreign trolls spreading false information among democratic voters across multiple social media platforms. Furthermore, in order to gain a fair understanding of voter turnout, EC can use an AI module like KCore Analytics, which can be used to predict voter turnout in any election. This can help general or state election officials increase efficiency and ability and willingness, decrease wait times, and ensure smooth elections.
Author- Toshank Bhardwaj, AI Content Creator
