Elon Musk applauds India’s elections — after doubting the very system behind it; here's what he had to say

Elon Musk lauds India's one-day vote count, yet his previous skepticism of EVMs raises questions about his stance

On Saturday, billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX Elon Musk praised India’s election system for its impressive efficiency in counting 640 million votes within a single day. Musk’s remarks came in response to a post on X that highlighted the article “How India Counted 640 Million Votes in a Day”.  His comments compared the speed of India’s vote counting with the slower process in California saying, “India counted 640 million votes in 1 day. California is still counting votes.” But this efficiency is not without its critics — one of them ironically being Musk himself. 

Elon Musk on elections

First, for some context —  it is important to note that in India, Electronic Voting Machines are the standard means of conducting elections which helps with quick counting. Alternatively, more Americans now vote through paper ballots. Due to this dependency on mail-in paper ballots, many areas, including California, experience delays in vote counting. Now coming to what Musk said. In July 2024, the tech mogul called for the elimination of electronic voting machines in the US, citing risks of hacking by humans or AI. 

Here Musk’s stance feels very paradoxical to his current statement —  while he admires India’s ability to deliver quick results, his scepticism of EVMs might feel out of sync with India’s own trust in the technology. In the tweet Musk wrote: “Electronic voting machines and anything mailed in is too risky. We should mandate paper ballots and in-person voting only.”

Musk had previously called for the halt of EVM voting

At that point, Musk’s comments had sparked a strong response from former Minister of State for IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who criticised them as an “oversimplification.” Chandrasekhar’s reaction came against the backdrop of ongoing debates in India over the reliability of EVMs. He said, “Elon Musk’s view may apply to the US and other places – where they use regular compute platforms to build Internet-connected voting machines. Electronic voting machines can be architected and built right, as India has done. We would be happy to run a tutorial, Elon.”

Even today a parallel debate is emerging among politicians and civil society activists advocating for a return to paper ballots, considered the “gold standard” for elections. Taking these points into consideration, as citizens we must think about the efficiency of these machines over paper and what is more important — speed or reliability?