Her tense facial muscles relaxed a bit apparently on seeing the same symbol on the ‘new’ machine, which she had pressed on the electronic voting machine (EVM). A moment later Thodasam Rajamani was all smiles as she realised that the machine works exactly as Project Officer of Utnoor Integrated Tribal Development Agency S. Krishna Aditya had explained.
The degree student belonging to the poor Adivasi community of Patnapur village in Boath mandal of Boath (ST) Assembly constituency was in great doubt on the working of the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) as she had seen it for the first time during the awareness programme in her village on Sunday.
Indeed this was the reaction of a majority of voters who tested it during the several awareness campaigns that election authorities ran in Adilabad and Boath constituencies in the recent weeks. “You can actually see the symbol you have voted for in this machine for a brief instant, which will assure you doubly that it is the same symbol which you had intended to press,” revealed the ITDA Project Officer of the transparency related aspect of the VVPAT to a gathering of about 200 voters from this far flung village. He in fact started the demonstration to individual voters right from finding out their names in the voters list and going about the rest of the process of voting.
Detailed explanation
Sectoral officer Athram Bhaskar and village ‘Devari’ or priest Madavi Laldev, both Raj Gond tribals, explained the process in Gondi so that the voters understood even the minutest of the details. After the three hour exercise ended it did seem that the electors had neither doubt nor fear of the VVPAT as the thousands of others who had undergone a similar introduction to the machines and process.
As the Election Commission put great thrust on awareness on enrolment and voting, Authorities in Adilabad district actually started the awareness campaign as early as September and went about it in a scientific manner under the Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP.
Special campaign
The six polling stations which had recorded low voter turnout during the last election in Adilabad and Boath constituencies were subjected to special awareness campaigns.
“The programmes on awareness about EVMs and VVPATs comprised a diverse a section of society — officials related with conduct of election, fair price shop owners, senior citizens and the disabled people. There were messages which were relayed on radio and rallies of bullock carts to spread awareness,” disclosed SVEEP Nodal Officer Venkateswarlu.