First-level of checking of electronic voting machines (EVMs) and voter verifiable paper audit trails (VVPATs) that are to be used for the ensuing Assembly elections began here in the presence of representatives of recognized political parties.
Engineers from Bharat Electronics from Bengaluru were involved in the checking of the ballot units and control units of EVMs and the VVPATs, said Virudhunagar Collector, R. Kannan.
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam MLAs, K.K.S.S.R Ramachandran, Thangam Thennarasu and A.R.R. Seenivasan were among those who witnessed the exercise that would go on till January 8.
Besides those EVMs and VVPATs that were available in the district, a total of 2,730 control units, 370 ballot units and 3,000 VVPATs were recently brought from Mahashtra to the district.
All the 3,162 control units, 4,132 ballot units and 3,403 VVPATs that are to used for the election would undergo the mandatory checking.
Ballot papers and old tags from the ballot units would be removed. Similarly, the candidates and the polled votes from the control units would be erased and brought to zero.
The officials would also check the functioning of the units. The functioning of VVPATs would be checked by conducting mock polling.
The seven assembly constituencies in Virudhunagar district have 1881 polling booths. However, the number of polling booths is likely to go up with the Election Commission planning to restrict the total number of voters in each booth to 1,000.
This exercise would be taken up after the final electoral roll is published on January 2021.
District Revenue Officer, R. Mangalaramasubramanian, Sub-Collector (Sivakasi), C. Dinesh Kumar and Special Tahsildar (Elections), A. Ayyakutti, were present.