Countdown to Phase 1 of the 2024 Indian General Election: Key Observations on Voting Interference
As we get closer to Phase 1 (April 19th) of the 2024 Indian Election, I’m sharing some thoughts around themes and trends of note that center around possible voting interference. With the exception of the study by the Association for Democratic Reforms regarding candidates’ criminal records and financial standing, these narratives go beyond the current corruption and extortion claims lobbied by both the Congress Party and the BJP, and instead focus on themes that could interfere with the act of participating in the voting process.
🌡️ Heatwaves: With an alarming rise in temperatures on April 19th, there is a strong potential that content around voting or participating in the election process could be altered, since each state’s electoral offices are in charge of generating awareness around the issue, with different states issuing their own individual guidelines.
- States that will see soaring temperatures: Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Odisha, and Madhya Pradesh
- The Indian Health Ministry and National Disaster Management Authority have issued advisories with a general list on how to tackle heat waves
- Without country wide election commission guidelines, there is an opportunity for an information gap that could be exploited to provide incorrect information related to closures of sites, hours of operation for polling sites, drinking water availability at sites, etc.,
🏫 Polling Locations: Schools and colleges often close to serve as polling places — there is not a list online to cross reference what schools are closed to verify polling locations.
- To figure out the polling location, you have to search the ECI site using your EPIC number
- Using traditional search engines, asking LLM models, or looking on social media platforms for answers could prove fraught because of a lack of open source authoritative information.
🗳️ Machine Voter Fraud: New claims from a YouTuber who was arrested earlier this week urged people to conduct voting for the general election via ballot paper instead of using electronic voting machines.
- To date, in comparison to the U.S. narratives around voting machine fraud, there’s been little conversation around EVM’s or VVPAT in India, but as the election draws closer, expect an uptick on narratives around potential fraud.
- Here’s more information on the VVPAT machine and why the slips are important.
- Deep dive series on the 100 FAQ’s provided by the ECI on the EVMs and VVPAT
🎯Targeting of candidates with misleading or false narratives
- An independent study from the Association for Democratic Reforms showed that a percentage of candidates have criminal records, which could lead to targeting of certain candidates and potential creating false narratives around their crimes
- Candidates from certain political parties either had zero or low assets or assets over Rs1 crore, allegations that could lead to targeting candidates, political parties and accusing them of corruption.
If you want to conduct research on any of these topics using traditional search engines or any of the leading Ai platforms to see what information is being shared (on free and paid models), my suggestion is to also translate questions into Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Telugu, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati and Kannada as well.
