A wrong claim of difference in the presented voter slip derived from Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trial (VVPAT) could lead a voter to imprisonment for six months or a fine of Rs 1,000 or both under Section 177 of the Indian Penal Code.
In this lok Sabha poll, Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trial (VVPAT) will be launched for the first time in Chhattisgarh’s Raipur lok Sabha constituency. Through this system, the voter can confirm his vote by seeing the vote cast through ‘Electronic Voting Machine’ (EVM).
According to an official press statement issued here on Tuesday, on the claim of difference in the presented voter slip and the vote cast, to prove his claim true and real, the voter can give check vote through Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trial (VVPAT). For that, the voter has to submit a declaration letter under Rule 49 D of the Election Conduct Rule 1961 to the Presiding Officer.
In the declaration letter, along with the consent of the voter to give check vote to confirm his claim true and real, the punishment thereof if the claim is found wrong should also be mentioned. After casting the check vote, on finding that such claim was wrong, a provision is there to jail the voter for six months or Rs 1000 fine or both under Section 177 of the Indian Penal Code.
After casting vote through EVM, one slip of the VVPAT comes out of the machine on which the voter could see the name and election symbol of the candidate to whom the voter cast his vote. After some seconds time, the slip will move to a sealed box attached to the machine, so that only the voter concerned could see it and the confidentiality of voting maintained.
Through VVPAT the voter can make sure that, the vote he cast reached the intended candidate or not. For the polling booths of Raipur lok Sabha constituency, 2785 units of VVPAT have been demanded from the Hyderabad located Electronics Corporation of India limited (ECIl), the release said.