In order to meet the requirement of 100 per cent EVM-VVPATs across approximately 10.6 lakh polling stations for the upcoming Lok Sabha Election in 2019, the Election Commission is making mandatory first level checks and training to district officers for the proper conduct of elections and to bring transparency.
Around 22.3 lakh Ballot Units, 16.3 lakh Control Units and nearly 17.3 lakh VVPATs will be used for the forthcoming elections in 2019, which are being manufactured by the two PSUs — Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL) and Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL).
The commission said that EVM management Software will be pilot tested in the forthcoming Assembly elections in select Districts namely Ajmer, Indore, Durg, Aizawl and Mehboobnagar.
According to EC, the EVM VVPAT inventory is securely managed through a robust tracking system to track all operations on machine movement, First Level Checks, randomisation, poll day defects.
Use of EVMs ended the days of booth capturing and the delays and errors in counting of ballot papers. Even during the use of ballot paper, large number of votes in each Assembly constituency ended up being invalid. The specially designed thermal paper to be used in the VVPAT is capable of retaining the printout for more than five years so that the printout is available for manual verification by the Court,if required in need of a dispute for cross checking the counting of votes cast.
"This time, to bring more transparency in elections, EC has decided to use VVPATs which allows the voters to verify that their votes are cast as intended, as the VVPAT slips will be visible to the voter for seven seconds behind the transparent screen of VVPAT, before falling into the sealed compartment at the base of the machine. So far, VVPATs have been used in 933 State Assembly Constituencies and 18 Parliamentary Constituencies", the EC said.