The Supreme Court on April 26 dismissed all petitions seeking 100 per cent verification of votes cast on Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) through the Verifiable Paper Audit Trials (VVPAT) method.
- The apex court also rejected a return to ballot paper system for voting, saying “blindly distrusting poll process can lead to unwarranted suspicion.
Key points
- The Supreme Court Bench also issued a series of directions to strengthen the existing system:
- It has ordered sealing of the Symbol Loading Units (SLUs) after the symbol loading process on or after May 1, 2024. The sealed SLUs will be kept in the strong room along with the EVMs for 45 days after polling.
- The burnt memory semicontroller in 5% of the EVMs that is the Control Unit, Ballot Unit, and the VVPAT per assembly constituency per parliamentary constituency shall be checked and verified by a team of engineers from the manufacturers of the EVM post the announcement of results on a written request by candidates 2 and 3. Such a request is to be made within 7 days after the declaration of results.
VVPAT machine
- The VVPAT machine is attached to the ballot unit of the EVM and prints out a slip of paper with the voter’s choice once the vote is cast.
- The slip is visible for seven seconds for the voter to verify if their vote was cast correctly before it falls into a compartment kept underneath.
- Polling officials use these slips to verify votes cast. However, not all votes are verified – the VVPAT slips are used to verify votes cast only in five randomly selected polling booths per constituency.
- In 2019, the Supreme Court had increased voter verified paper audit trial (VVPAT) verification to five random Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in each Assembly segment/constituency.
- In case of general elections, VVPAT slips of five EVMs in each Assembly segment of a Parliamentary Constituency would be subject to physical counting.
- In State Assembly elections, the VVPAT verification would extend to five random EVMs in each Assembly constituency.
