Lok Sabha elections 2019| Ghaziabad: ECI orders recount of VVPAT slips in five polling booths
The mock poll drive is taken up an hour before the start of actual polling to ensure that the three parts of the voting system — EVM, control unit and VVPAT — are functioning properly. Dummy votes are also polled to check the functioning of the three parts.
lok sabha elections Updated: May 14, 2019 02:09 ISTThe Election Commission of India (ECI) has ordered that only the voter verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) slips in five polling booths — three in Modinagar and two in Loni — will be counted and not the votes recorded in the electronic voting machines (EVMs).
The directive was issued after it came to light that the polling staff forgot to reset the control unit (CU) of the EVMs at these polling booths during the mock poll drive on April 11, the polling day. However, they did reset the VVPAT machines before allowing voters to cast their vote, officials of the Ghaziabad district administration said.
The mock poll drive is taken up an hour before the start of actual polling to ensure that the three parts of the voting system — EVM, control unit and VVPAT — are functioning properly. Dummy votes are also polled to check the functioning of the three parts.
Officials said they had written to the ECI and received reply that the votes in the VVPATs at these polling booths will be counted on May 23, the counting day.
According to the officials, the five polling booths were identified after the polling staff said that they forgot to reset the CU of the EVMs after the mock poll drive.
“The VVPATs were reset during the mock poll drive, but the polling staff forgot to reset the CU. The officials did reset the VVPATs and sealed the voting slips as per procedure. But the polling continued without resetting the control unit. After the issue came to light, we sent a communication to the ECI and sought instructions,” Sunil Kumar, additional district magistrate (finance and revenue), said.
“The ECI has directed that the votes in the VVPAT for the five polling booths will be taken into account during the counting. Since the votes in the electronic voting machines are on higher side, because they include the mock poll votes, their counting will not be taken up,” he said.
According to the officials, the five booths have been identified as booth numbers 4, 5 and 247 in Modinagar, and booth numbers 171 and 478 in Loni.
First Published: May 14, 2019 02:08 IST