An Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) used to caste vote in the upcoming general election is no more a confusing gadget for the tech savvy young voters of the state capital. The young minds are acquainted with the machine features and are all set to cast their vote in the upcoming general election.
St. Xavier’s College Mass Communication and Video Production (MCVP) second year student Avika Singh when was enquired about the EVM machine she throwing a familiar expression over it commented, “I know this machine is being used during elections for locking the voters decision. A couple of week ago some of the government officials conducted a workshop too for our department students in which we were informed about its use.”
In a bid to make young and first time voters aware about the EVM ballots operation and importance of voting, the officials engaged in election duty on the order of District Election Officer (DEO) Vinay Kumar Choubey conducted workshops for the students in different education institutions.
“The glowing of red light followed by a beep near the symbol being pressed on EVM ballot will ensure that the vote has been casted correctly,” shared Jannet Khan who had participated in the workshop.In the workshop the students were informed about the use of EVM ballot, the area of glitches and the procedure to lodge complain in case of interruption while accessing the machine.
“I applaud the efforts of Election Commission (EC) officials who are leaving no stone unturned to increase the number of voters and also make the young voters friendly with the machines to make upcoming general election free from tech-operation glitches,” added MCVP Head Of the Department (HOD) Walter Bhengra.
Besides, operation of EVM machine the students were also informed about the use of newly introduced button ‘None of the Above’ (NOTA) placed at the bottom of the machine.He further added, “The officials not only informed about the EVM operation but also informed about the NOTA option and it’s significant.The students were asked to press this button only when none of the contesting candidates seems appealing to them for rendering the responsibility of running the country.”
Interestingly, EVM officer Pramood Singh who is responsible to make voters aware about this electronic machine is happy over the young voters’ response after the workshop. He applauds the young minds easy access to the machine and said, “I didn’t have to exert extra efforts on these young minds to make them EVM friendly. After one demonstration students were able to operate the machine effectively.”