After making its office paperless, the State Election Commission has now started the process of making the voting process paperless as well. Under the direction of State Election Commissioner Basant Pratap Singh, a paperless voting process was carried out as a pilot project in polling station-295 in the voting for the post of Sarpanch in Gram Panchayat Ratua Ratanpur of Berasia block of Bhopal district under the Panchayat by-election on Wednesday. This use of paperless booth is being used for the first time in the country by the Madhya Pradesh State Election Commission.

Secretary State Election Commission Abhishek Singh has said that a plan for paperless booths has been made to conduct simple, easy, and transparent voting processes in Panchayats and urban bodies. In Panchayat elections, 26 forms are filled out to complete all the processes and reporting at the polling station. When mistakes are made in these, disputes arise and court cases are also filed. These forms are being digitalized by making booths paperless. Its first experiment was successfully done in Ratua Ratanpur.

In the paperless process, the identity of the voters and their signature and thumb impression were recorded electronically to record their voting. Voting percentage and ballot accounting are being done online. The voting percentage is being received every 2 hours on all online platforms. After the end of voting, ballot paper accounts will also be made available to the candidates and polling agents on their e-mail ID. To give shape to the concept of this paperless booth, work is being done at both the hardware and software level, so that this system can be implemented in the polling stations of the entire state in the future. 

Secretary of State Election Commission Singh along with officials also visited the polling station on Wednesday to view the process.