EVMs can help a 'scorned winner' take revenge

MUMBAI: Call it revenge of the winning horse. Electronic voting machines (EVMs) offer the distinct possibility of making life miserable for localities that haven''t voted for a victorious candidate.
If a locality ends up with a vengeful Lok Sabha representative, he might neglect or, worse, target the area that didn''t vote for him.
To know the score, all the candidate has to do is call his polling agent and ask him to check the serial numbers and address tags on EVMs at the time of counting.
Unlike in the past three parliamentary elections of 1996, 1998 and 1999, it will be possible this time for a candidate to find out how many votes he polled at a particular booth.
The address tag on an EVM gives the name of the polling centre, along with the serial number, and these can be made available to him if his agent demands them.
"It''s a matter of right. We can''t deny him or her this information," says deputy chief electoral officer K Suryakrishnamurty.
In the last three LS elections, ballot papers were ''mixed'' at the counting centre. However, with votes being punched into the EVMs this time, it is impossible to ''mix'' them.
AGNI media coordinator Sharad Kumar says that in the 1999 polls, EVMs were used to a limited extent and so it was possible to ''mix'' them-that is, the EVMs were not counted in the order of their serial numbers.
"But if a candidate wants to find out his poll percentage in an area, it is certainly not difficult," he agrees.
EC officials say the practice of mixing ballot papers had been adopted nationwide after it was found that some candidates used to target areas from where they got fewer votes.