Petition for counting all VVPAT slips during elections: What the Election Commission, activists argue

Source: The post is based on the article “Petition for counting all VVPAT slips during elections: What the Election Commission, activists argue”  published in Indian Express on 13th September 2023

What is the News?

A petition has been filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) in the Supreme Court.It has sought 100% counting of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips.

What is Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail(VVPAT)?

VVPAT is a ballotless system connected with the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM). It prints a paper slip when a voter casts his/her vote on the EVM against the candidate’s name and the symbol of the party he/she is standing for.

As soon as the voter presses the button on the EVM, the VVPAT machine prints the slip that contains the name and symbol of the party they have voted for, for around 7 seconds. 

The machine also has a transparent window where a voter can see the printed slip.After this, the slip goes inside a sealed box of the machine.

Hence, VVPAT essentially acts as a verification machine for a voter to ensure that the vote has been taken into account for which he or she has voted.

When was VVPAT first introduced?

The VVPAT was used for the first time in all 21 polling stations of the Noksen Assembly constituency of Nagaland in 2013, after which the EC decided to introduce VVPATs in a phased manner. 

From June 2017, 100% of VVPATs began to be used in polls, and the 2019 Lok Sabha elections became the first general election to have 100% of EVMs being attached to VVPATs.

What percentage of VVPAT slips are counted as of now?

In 2018, the EC mandated the counting of VVPAT slips of one randomly selected polling station per Assembly constituency. 

This was increased to five polling stations per Assembly seat, following a Supreme Court judgment in 2019.

What is the present petition demanding?

The present petition by ADR has asked the court to declare every voter has the fundamental right to ensure that their vote has been accurately recorded. 

They argue that the current practice of displaying the VVPAT slip for seven seconds does not guarantee this and they are seeking a 100% counting of VVPAT slips to fulfill the Supreme Court’s 2013 judgment in Subramanian Swamy vs. Election Commission of India, where it held the VVPAT is an indispensable requirement of free and fair elections.

What did the EC say about this?

EC said the VVPAT was “essentially an audit trail” so the voter could verify the vote at that instant but following Supreme Court orders, the slips were being tallied on a “statistically robust basis”.

Hence, going for 100% counting of VVPAT slips in every election would mean we are going back to the time of manual polling.This would be tantamount to the re-introduction of paper ballots by indirect means.

Moreover, preparations for the upcoming General Election to the Lok Sabha had already begun, and any last-minute changes to the verification process would pose significant technical and logistical challenges.