Elon Musk criticized delays in some U.S. states, especially California, on Sunday while applauding India’s effectiveness in the vote-counting process.
The CEO of SpaceX and Tesla elon musk emphasized India’s accomplishment of tallying 640 million votes in a single day during the general elections of 2024 in a post on X (previously Twitter). He likened this to the glacial pace in California, where the U.S. presidential election is still in the midst of counting votes 20 days after the November 5 election.
Musk said, “India counted 640 million votes in 1 day,” in response to a post that posted a media item headlined “How India counted 640 million votes in a day.” California continues to count.
More than 900 million people were eligible to vote in India’s parliamentary elections earlier this year. 642 million people voted, setting a new record. The results were made public on the same day as the vote count, despite the operation’s size.
How This Was Attained by India:
EVMs, or electronic voting machines: These devices, which have been in operation since 2000, guarantee quick and precise counting.
Designed to increase transparency,
the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) technology creates a paper slip for every vote, enabling verification if necessary.
The simultaneous vote counting in all 543 of India’s constituencies is supervised by the Election Commission of India (ECI). In accordance with Supreme Court directives, postal ballots are processed first, and then EVM votes are counted. At centralized counting centers, returning officers oversee the procedure and declare the outcomes at the conclusion of each cycle.
Recent state elections in Maharashtra and Jharkhand, when about 90 million votes were counted in a few of hours, further illustrated India’s efficiency. With four times the population of California, Maharashtra produced results fast.
On the other hand, it might take weeks to tally votes in the United areas, particularly in areas like California. California reported delays in the November 5 presidential election, with more than 300,000 votes still pending weeks later. Musk is among others who have criticized the inefficiencies, pointing to the state’s extensive use of mail-in ballots, which require laborious processes including matching, opening, and sorting ballots, as well as confirming signatures. The United States employs a decentralized system, with state and municipal election offices functioning under separate laws and resources, in contrast to India’s centralized system.
