Assembly elections in UP, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa, and Manipur have now been completed. Now everyone is waiting for the results to be declared on March 10.
Between victory and defeat, a question arises in our mind that after all, how is the counting of the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) through which voters cast their vote at the booth? There are also some special rules for counting votes from EVMs. For example, in the hall where the votes are counted, only 14-14 tables are set behind a fence made of bamboo sticks. The question must be arising in your mind that why is this so?
Before the counting, the EVMs are brought from the strong room at the counting center under tight security. Strong room is the place where EVMs are kept after voting.
Apart from the Returning Officer i.e. RO, there are many other officers including Candidate, Election Agent, Counting Agent at the counting site. The entire process is video recorded with the camera.
There is a wire fence between the counting agent and the agents of the candidates. Mobiles are banned in counting halls.
The entire counting is done in rounds. In every round, 14 EVMs are opened.
Usually, there is one EVM per booth and each booth is made for about 1200 voters. According to 60% to 70% voting, 750 to 850 votes are cast in each booth.
According to this, about 10 thousand to 12 thousand votes are counted in every round. Considering this number of votes convenient, the Election Commission has made a policy of counting the votes of 14 EVMs in every round.
This is the reason why there are 14-14 tables inside a fence in the counting hall. The votes of one EVM are counted at each table.
This fence has a blackboard on one side. After each round of counting, the votes received by all the candidates are written on this blackboard.
The EVM machine of a booth is kept on a table. The chart is prepared in advance for which booth the machine will be placed on which table.
The counting of votes starts at 8 am. The postal ballots are counted first. EVMs are counted after 30 minutes.
The result one present in the EVM machine is pressed, after which it is known which candidate got the number of votes. It takes 2-3 minutes for this.
It is flashed on the display board. So that, all the election personnel sitting at the 14 tables and the agent of the candidate can see. This is what we call a trend.
Counting personnel at all 14 tables fill out Form 17-C in each round and give it to the RO after signing from the agent.
ROs record the count of votes in each round. This result is written on the blackboard after each round and announced with the help of loudspeakers.
After the completion of the first phase of counting, the returning officer waits for 2 minutes so that any candidate who has any objection can register it.
It is up to the Returning Officer whether he wants to get the votes counted again or assures the candidate that there is no malpractice.
After every round, the Returning Officer informs the Chief Electoral Officer of the State about the result.
What will happen if Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections are held simultaneously?
When this happens, the 14 tables are divided into two parts. 7 tables are kept for assembly elections and 7 other tables are kept for Lok Sabha elections.
If the number of candidates is more in a constituency, then with the permission of the Election Commission, the number of tables and counting halls can be increased.
Now know the story of EVM voting in India
The Election Commission had first discussed the conduct of elections using EVMs in 1977. For this, Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL) was asked to make the design.
A model of EVM was prepared in 1979 and displayed by the Election Commission to the political parties on 6 August 1980. After this, the work of making EVM was given to ECIL and Bharat Electronics Limited i.e. BEL. Both these companies are the government.
EVMs were used for the first time during the general elections in Kerala in May 1982. However, there was no law to conduct elections through EVMs. After which law was made in 1989 for the use of EVMs in Parliament elections and the Representation of the People Act 1951 was amended.
The consensus on holding elections through EVMs was reached in 1998. After this, as an experiment, elections were held on 25 assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Delhi using EVMs.
EVMs were used for 45 Lok Sabha seats in 1999 and then in February 2000 in Haryana Assembly elections on 45 assembly seats.
In 2001, for the first time in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry, and West Bengal, all assembly seats were held by EVMs.
Since then EVMs are being used for all elections. In the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, EVMs were used for all 543 seats in the country. The number of EVMs was more than 10 lakhs.
One NOTA option with 14 candidates in one EVM
EVM consists of two units. One in the voting room and the other near the election officer. We know this by the name of Ballot Unit and Control Unit.
The ballot unit ie BU is connected to the control unit ie CU through a wire.
No voting data is stored in the control unit.
There are a maximum of 16 buttons on the ballot unit. If there are more than 15 candidates in a seat, then another ballot unit is added. The 16th button is of NOTA.
Up to 4 Ballot Units can be connected to one Control Unit.
As soon as the control unit is turned on, it displays the battery status along with the date and time. As soon as the election officer presses the button from the control unit, the red light in the control unit and green in the ballot unit flash.
This shows that the machine is ready to cast its vote. With the sound of a beep as soon as the voter casts his vote, it is known that your vote has been cast.
This is how the VVPAT machine works
Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) was added in 2013 to bring transparency in elections. The VVPATs are kept linked with the EVM machines at the polling stations.
The VVPAT is completely covered by a glass pane. The glass is transparent. When voters cast their vote. Then it generates a slip that is visible for only 7 seconds. The name of the candidate and the election symbol of the party are printed on it.
After that, it falls in the box. The slip is not given to the voters.
It is only from this slip that you come to know whether the vote has gone to the candidate against whom you have pressed the button or not.
This arrangement is so that in case of any dispute, the slip can be matched with the vote in the EVM.
After the demand of the opposition parties, the matching of VVPAT slips with EVM started.
All the time before the elections, questions were raised on the matching of EVM VVPAT. During the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the opposition maintained that the EVM VVPAT slips should be matched so that if there is any discrepancy, then it can be detected.
The opposition parties also met the Election Commission for EVM and VVPAT matching. After this, the matter reached the Supreme Court.
21 opposition parties had moved the Supreme Court demanding that 50% of the votes of each constituency be clubbed with VVPAT. But the Election Commission said that it will take at least five days to match 50% of EVMs and VVPATs. This will delay the results.
After this, the Supreme Court in its decision said that the votes cast in 5 EVMs and VVPAT in each constituency should be checked.
The Election Commission decided that five VVPATs each from each constituency would be randomly selected and the results of EVMs and VVPATs would be matched.
For this purpose, VVPAT booths were set up in every counting hall. In case of any dispute or technical interruption, it is the responsibility of the Returning Officer to report the same to the Election Commission immediately.
Earlier, under the Election Commission's guideline 16.6, only one VVPAT machine slip was matched with one EVM in each constituency.
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