Voters express confidence in VVPAT-backed EVMs

NASHIK

: The electors present during the demonstration on EVMs including

VVPAT

, during an awareness programme carried out by election machinery, are confident that there are less chances of someone fiddling with their votes during elections.

The electors are being given first hand demonstration about the electronic voting machines (EVMs) including Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) in all the assembly constituencies across the district.

They are being asked to cast their votes as part of a mock poll and the counting was also carried out through EVM and even through the VVPAT, in which the counters were collected in the box.

“The paper print of the party to whom people have cast the vote is visible to the elector for seven seconds and then it falls in the VVPAT-box. After the counting, we understood the fact that the counting on the EVM and on the papers in the VVPAT-box was the same,” Snehal Kale, a resident of Gangapur Road, said.

The elections in the year 2019 will be carried out through the VVPAT-EVMs. Hence, the Election Commission of India (ECI) is ensuring that every district gets the machines before the elections, inspections are conducted on time and the details are updated online. At the same time, the ECI is making people aware of the EVM and VVPAT machines.

“There have always been claims that the EVMs could be remotely controlled and manipulated. We didn’t believe them earlier, neither did we find any such thing now, especially after the induction of VVPATs,” said Rupesh Shah, a businessman.

The citizens, however, hope that the same EVMs would be used in the elections. “We hope that the same EVMs would be used during the elections and that no changes are made to them,” Rahul Nikam, another citizen, said.

The officials explained that these EVMs would be taken back to the Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC),

Ambad

after the demonstration.

“They will be kept in tight security, where the closed circuit television camera is keeping close watch over the machines 24x7. The CWC will be guarded by security persons armed with weapons to stop any unauthorised entry,” the official said.