Satya Nadella Has Built World’s 1st Election Software That Lets You Track Your Vote Till End

Amidst the chaos and the appeal of the opposition parties to Supreme Court for increase in VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trial) to 50% per constituency, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has come up with his ambitious pursuit of developing the world’s first election software giving accessibility to a voter to keep an eye on his casted vote.

With the LS elections in his fifth phase and SC then and now lamenting the EC regarding Model Code of Conduct, the software has come as a blessing in disguise. Opposition leaders have always put forward their concerns regarding the malfunctioning and mishandling of the EVMs. So in order to cease their suspicion the election software can play a pivotal role in making the elections fool-proof.

In one of its own kind, Microsoft CEO Nadella unveiled the election software named Election Guard at the Build 2019 Developer Conference yesterday. Precisely a kit, the Election Guard will soon go live on Github in the upcoming months.

Under the head of Defending Democracy Program of Microsoft the sole aim of Election Guard is to Safeguard the election process rendering it fool-proof and authentic. Having the scope of integrating the Election Guard even in certain ballot paper systems, the sole aim of the kit is to give a voter the power to track his/her vote.

The logistics behind Election Guard is a unique QR code available on the web portal which can be used by a voter to cast his/her vote and check for any kind of manipulation in the vote at a later stage. Also it ensures whether the vote was properly counted or not.

Although their being encryption in tracker to protect the privacy of the voter’s choice, the guard can turn out to be fruitful in allowing third parties and government organisations to audit and verify the tabulation process. Making the election secure, validated and allowing end to end verification, the Election Guard also comes with an informative feature.

This feature allows a voter to access the portal on which one can gain relevant information on the candidates in their constituency. Once you are done with your choice you can take the printout of the slip having the unique QR code on it. At the polling booth you can scan the QR code to cast your vote rather than hitting the EVM button thus making the process more user friendly.

Although the launching of the election guard is quite late keeping in view the LS polls 2019 because it was designed for the US Presidential elections 2020 but one can definitely utilize the benefits of the Election Guard in the upcoming years of elections in India, one of the world’s largest democracies.