Blaming excessive exposure of light at polling stations, Election Commission submits report on VVPAT snag in by-polls

New Delhi, June 9: The Kairana and the Bhandara-Gondia Lok Sabha by-polls created much news with the need to re-poll the elections. Citing Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail machines snag in the voting process, the Election Commission intervened in the matter and submit the preliminary reports it blamed on excessive exposure of the machines to light at polling stations.

 

The teams constituted by the Election Commission submitted their preliminary fact-finding reports in the malfunctioning of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail machines during recent by-elections to Kairana and Bhandara-Gondiya Parliamentary Constituencies.

Claiming that the malfunctioning of the machines was due to the failure of contrast sensor and length sensor, the reports suggested that these errors are mainly caused by excessive exposure to illumination in the polling station.

The Commission has asked the manufacturers and the Technical Expert Committee (TEC), to suggest additional design improvements to prevent any excessive exposure to illumination in future. It has also accepted the hardware improvement as recommended by the TEC to prevent the auto shutdown of VVPATs due to excessive light.

The manufacturers have also been asked to do a detailed technical analysis once the VVPATs are free from election petition [as these cannot be currently accessed in strong rooms till the 45-day election petition period is over.

The Commission has decided to reiterate its Standard Operating Procedure (SoP) regarding the dos and don’ts, and has also formed a committee to examine ways to further strengthen the SoP. The EC has also decided to make the first-level checking process stringent. Besides, measures are being taken to minimize human errors.