Ahead of Gujarat Elections 2017, the Election Commission of India to use VVPAT system. The EC of India has announced the assembly election dates of the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh states. And this year the officials have announced to use new VVPAT machines along with the EVM’s in Gujarat. The VVPAT system is the voter-verifiable paper audit trail facility. And Gujarat will be the second state after Goa to use VVPAT system for the Gujarat Assembly elections.
However, the Gujarat voters are not familiar with the voter-verifiable paper audit trail system. So, the election commission will conduct the awareness drive for the voters that will show them how to use VVPAT machines. As per the reports approximately 50, 128 booths have been installed VVPAT machines system. And for the officials will prepare mock polling booth in a van to demonstrate the use of VVPAT at the public places and educational institutes.
The SC has asked the election commission to introduce VVPAt in electronic voting machines in a phased manner to ensure the accuracy of the voting system. So, the election commission equipped about 1.5 million voter verifies paper audit trail for every Electronic voting machines. And now this year EC has installed VVPAT system with EVM machines at across fifty thousand polling booths in Gujarat. In Gujarat, the total number of voters is around 4.33 crore including ten lakh new voters.
How VVPAT works?
VVPAT is a system that has fixed with the electronic voting machines. It is a Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail that provides a feedback to the voters using ballotless voting machines. It is fixed with EVM’s, so when the voter press a button on EVM a paper slip printed through the VVPAT that contains the poll symbol and the name of the candidate. This system allows candidates to verify their choice.
