Lok Sabha elections 2024: All you need to know about EVMs and VVPAT; how they work

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Voting for the first phase of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in India was held across 102 seats on Friday, April 19, amid a legal battle in the Supreme Court wherein a batch of petitioners have sought complete cross-verification of votes polled on Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips.

While reserving its order, the top court on Thursday noted that the rising voter turnout during polls was an indicator of the people’s faith in the electoral process.

There were 834 million registered voters during the 2014 elections, wherein the country managed to register a voter turnout of 66.44%, according to reports. In 2019, the number of registered voters jumped to 912 million, while the total turnout inched up to 67.40%.

In the first phase of the 2024 general elections, the voter turnout neared 64%, as per the Election Commission.

During the hearing, suggestions to revert to the old ballot voting system also came up. However, the two-judge bench of Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Sanjiv Khanna rejected the argument that “far more technologically advanced countries” had abandoned EVMs for ballot papers.

“We have our system. It’s working well… Why should we disparage? Knowing what has happened in the past, you know the ballot box,” Justice Khanna noted.

Voting in the country has witnessed many significant changes since the first general elections in 1951-52. Voters in India today cast their votes on EVMs, which have been the subject of controversy ever since they were introduced in the country.

The new-age voting system replaced the old ballot papers fully in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections across all the 543 parliamentary constituencies.

EVM: How does it work?

An Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) majorly has two components — control unit and balloting unit — connected by a cable. While the control unit is taken care of by the polling officer, the balloting unit is kept in the voting compartment, where those eligible go one by one to cast their votes. At the polling stations, the balloting unit is mostly covered from all sides to respect the voter’s privacy.

So, how does the EVM work? When a voter reaches the poll booth, the polling officer verifies the individual’s identity and then presses the ballot button which enables the person to cast his/her vote. Once the voter reaches the ballot unit, he can see the candidates’ names and their party symbols on the machine, with ‘blue buttons’ placed next to them. Later on, the voter must press the button next to the candidate’s name of his/her choice.

The control unit has multiple buttons, with one of them being the ‘ballot’ option. As the polling officer presses this button, a red light with a ‘busy’ sign turns on. That indicates that the machine is ready to record a single vote.

Similarly, there is a green light on the ballot unit, where the voter stands. When it turns on, the voter is ready to cast his/her vote. Once the voter presses the blue button, a beep sound comes, indicating the voting process is complete.

Once all the votes are completed, the polling officer is required to press a button present on the side of the control unit, which seals the machine. Later, on the counting day, another button, named ‘result’, is used to see which candidates got how many votes. Further, the unit also has a ‘clear’ button which is used to erase all data from it.

VVPAT: Understanding its use

The Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) allows the voter to cross-check whether his/her vote was cast properly and went to the right candidate or not. Once a voter presses the blue button on the balloting unit, the VVPAT connected to the EVM generates a paper slip showcasing the name of the candidate. The slip is visible to the voter for a few seconds before it falls into the drop box in the machine.

According to reports, votes recorded on five VVPAT machines are cross-checked with the EVMs in all the Assembly segments in the present scenario. However, the petitioners in the top court have demanded 100% cross-checking of VVPAT slips with the votes recorded on EVMs.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow