Mumbai: Even as the Opposition alleged EVM manipulation in Maharashtra, the state’s chief electoral office revealed that the VVPAT slips counted in 1,440 machines tallied exactly with the EVM count.
“This is a very solid cross-checking exercise which shows the accuracy in the counting of the EVM machines. Can there be a stronger cross-checking than this?” asked deputy chief electoral officer Kiran Kulkarni.
The count is conducted according to the directives of the Election Commission of India (ECI) under the jurisdiction of the district collector. Five EVMs are selected at random in each assembly constituency. The VVPAT slips are counted candidate-wise after the counting of the EVMs and postal ballots was over. The counting of the VVPAT slips took place in the presence of counting agents of the political parties.
The VVPAT or Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail is an independent system attached to the Electronic Voting Machines that allows the voters to verify that their votes are cast as intended. When a vote is cast, a slip is printed containing the serial number, name, and symbol of the candidate and remains exposed through a transparent window for 7 seconds. This printed slip automatically gets cut and falls into the sealed drop box of the VVPAT.
The state electoral office also dismissed concerns raised by the Opposition regarding the discrepancies trend in the count of the postal ballots and the EVM result. Shiv Sena (UBT) MLA Varun Sardesai raised this issue. He claimed that in the Lok Sabha polls, the trend in the postal ballot count and EVM result was the same, but in the state assembly polls, there were discrepancies.
Officials said that the number of postal ballots was far lower than the number of votes cast in the EVM, and comparing the trends was a futile exercise. “Around 5.5 lakh postal ballots were cast in the state polls compared to 6 crore EVM votes. It’s not possible to compare trends,” said a senior official.
He also pointed out that postal ballots were mainly used by voters in govt services, which represents a narrow cross-section compared to the wider variety of voters who cast their vote in EVMs.
