The Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) would not be used in the ensuing panchayat elections in the State as one voter casts four votes in these polls and the existing EVMs are not suitable for the purpose.

The State Election Commission (SEC) would be using the old and tested method of paper ballots for these elections. The polling for these elections in all the districts of State barring Haridwar would be held in three stages on June 18, 21 and 24. The State Election Commissioner Subardhan said that the counting of votes  would start at 8 am on June 27 and as the process involves physical counting of ballots the process may take two to three days to complete.

The STC was in poll mode in the month of February itself when it declared the schedule of polls; its plans however were shuttled when the matter was taken to High Court which ordered a stay on the elections. The preparation which the SEC made earlier is handy now as the ballot papers are already printed and they are in possession of District Election Officers.

In the three tier Panchayat election the positions of Member Village Panchayat, Pradhan Village Panchayat, Member Block Panchayat and Member District Panchayat are elected directly by the electorate.  For the benefit of rural electorate the election commission has made provisions of coloured ballot papers. The colour of ballot paper for member Village Panchayat would be white, for Pradhan village Panchayat Green, Member Block Panchayat Blue and for Member District Panchayat the colour of ballot paper would be Pink. Every polling booth would have two ballot boxes, in the first box the ballot papers of Member Village Panchayat and Pradhan would be collected while in the second box the ballots of member block panchayat and member district Panchayat would be collected.

The absence of EVMs not only means that the process is time consuming but also cumbersome. In counting of votes the poll officials will have to mix all the ballot papers after which they will make bundle of hundred. The counting takes time as every ballot is shown to the representatives of the contestants for their satisfaction.

The elections in 12 districts, 89 blocks and 7,657 Village Panchayats would be held in three stages and an electorate of 46,94,689 (23,13,900 female voters and 23,77,103 male voters ) would exercise their franchise to elect 49,337 members of village Panchayats, 7,657 Village Pradhans, 3,054 members of Block Panchayats and 389 members of District Panchayat.