VVPAT
- POLITY
News:
Ahead of Lok Sabha
elections, Supreme Court to take up VVPAT plea
What's
in the news?
●
The Supreme Court will next week take up a
batch of PILs seeking a direction to the Election Commission of India to ensure
mandatory cross-verification of the votes cast in EVMs with the Voter
Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT).
Voter
Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT):
●
VVPAT is an independent verification printer machine and is attached to electronic
voting machines.
●
It allows voters to verify if their vote
has gone to the intended candidate.
●
When a voter presses a button in the EVM,
a paper slip is printed through the VVPAT. The slip contains the poll symbol and name of the candidate.
●
It allows the voter to verify his/her
choice.
●
After being visible to the voter from a
glass case in the VVPAT for seven seconds, the ballot slip will be cut and
dropped into the drop-box in the VVPAT machine and a beep will be heard.
●
VVPAT machines can be accessed by polling officers only.
Backdrop
of EVMs:
●
In India, the voter-verifiable paper audit
trail (VVPAT) system was introduced in 8 of 543 parliamentary constituencies as
a pilot project in the 2014 Indian
general election.
●
Voter-verifiable paper audit trail was
first used in an election in India in September 2013 in Noksen (Assembly
Constituency) in Nagaland.
●
VVPAT along with EVMs was used on a
large-scale for the first time in India, in 10 assembly seats out of 40 in 2013
Mizoram Legislative Assembly election.
●
VVPAT-fitted EVMs were used in the entire Goa state in the 2017 assembly
elections, which was the first time that an entire state in India saw the
implementation of VVPAT.
Voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) system
which enables electronic voting machines to record each vote cast by generating
the EVM slip, was introduced in all 543
Lok sabha