EC fixing VVPATs to avoid glitches during 2019 polls: Report

About 50% of the groundwork has been completed as the EC has begun work ahead of schedule.

The Election Commission has taken several measures to ensure glitch-free EVM-VVPAT (Voter-Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) machines in the run-up to the 2019 general elections. For a smooth electoral process, the EC had begun preparation 13 months in advance as opposed to 12, according to a report in The Times of India.

Even as 17 political parties want the Lok Sabha polls to be conducted on paper ballots and wish to discuss the issue the EC, the polling body has made improvements in VVPAT machine design to rule out any malfunctioning. About 50% of the groundwork has been completed as the EC has begun work ahead of schedule. 

Special care will be taken of VVPAT machines — anti-humidity thermal paper rolls have been procured, which will be used in high-humidity polling stations. These highly absorbent thermal paper rolls will ensure uninterrupted voting in humid areas. The heat-and-light problems will be addressed by way of special hoods that the new VVPATs will come with.

The EC had earlier submitted an affidavit to the Supreme Court, committing that they will introduce VVPAT  machines in all polling stations for the Lok Sabha elections, currently scheduled for May 2019.

All requisite EVMs will be with the EC by September-end and the VVPATs with hoods and new paper will come in between October and November, 2018, the report states.

For the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the polling staff will get trained on how to handle the new M3 EVM and the VVPAT machines correctly and as per protocol, so that malfunctions due to human error are minimised.

The EC is taking extra care this time to avoid any glitches in the EVM machines and the update comes after the embarrassing situation in Gondia and Kairana bypolls where many VVPAT design faltered on over exposure to heat and light. In other cases, the paper roll had absorbed humidity and failed to move smoothly in the VVPAT system.

What are VVPATs?

VVPATs are meant to be an independent verification system for the voting machines. They are designed to allow voters to verify that their votes were cast correctly, to detect possible election fraud or malfunction and to provide a means to audit the stored electronic results.

In the VVPAT system, when a voter presses a button for a candidate of his choice in the EVM, a paper ballot containing the serial number, name of the candidate and poll symbol will be printed and the voter can verify it.

source:-moneycontrol.com