Name of the Organization : Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer Office (ceouttarpradesh.nic.in)
Type of Facility : Watch Online Uttar Pradesh Lok Sabha Elections 2014 Polling Process in Booth Live
Location : Lucknow
Website : http://ceouttarpradesh.nic.in/
Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer Related Content :
Know Your Booth Level Officer: https://www.indianjobtalks.in/29646.html
Apply Voter ID Card Online : https://www.indianjobtalks.in/13694.html
Check Voter ID Card Status : https://www.indianjobtalks.in/13703.html
Know Your Voter Quotient: https://www.indianjobtalks.in/27176.html
Print Voter Slip Online: https://www.indianjobtalks.in/28594.html
Lok Sabha Election 2014 Updates :
National Electoral Search 2014 : https://www.indianjobtalks.in/28455.html
Polling Booth on Google Map: https://www.indianjobtalks.in/28784.html
Photo Voter Slip 2014: https://www.indianjobtalks.in/28611.html
Webcasting Lok Sabha General Election 2014 :
Watch Live Here : http://ceouttarpradesh.nic.in/webcast.aspx
Electronic Voting Machines:
Q1 : What is an Electronic Voting machine- In what way its functioning is different from the conventional system of voting-
Ans : An Electronic Voting Machine consists of two Units – a Control Unit and a Balloting Unit – joined by a five-meter cable. The Control Unit is with the Presiding Officer or a Polling Officer and the Balloting Unit is placed inside the voting compartment. Instead of issuing a ballot paper, the Polling Officer in-charge of the Control Unit will press the Ballot Button. This will enable the voter to cast his vote by pressing the blue button on the Balloting Unit against the candidate and symbol of his choice.
Q2 : When was the EVM first introduced in elections-
Ans : EVMs manufactured in 1989-90 were used on experimental basis for the first time in 16 Assembly Constituencies in the States of Madhya Pradesh (5), Rajasthan (5) and NCT of Delhi (6) at the General Elections to the respective Legislative Assemblies held in November, 1998.
Q3 : How can EVMs be used in areas where there is no electricity-
Ans : EVMs run on an ordinary 6 volt alkaline battery manufactured by Bharat Electronics Ltd., Bangalore and Electronic Corporation of India Ltd., Hyderabad. Therefore, even in areas with no power connections, EVMs can be used.
Q4 : What is the maximum number of votes which can be cast in EVMs-
Ans : EVMs can record a maximum of 3840 votes. As normally the total number of electors in a polling station will not exceed 1500, the capacity of EVMs is more than sufficient.
Q5 : What is the maximum number of candidates which EVMs can cater to-
Ans : EVMs can cater to a maximum of 64 candidates. There is provision for 16 candidates in a Balloting Unit. If the total number of candidates exceeds 16, a second Balloting Unit can be linked parallel to the first Balloting Unit. Similarly, if the total number of candidates exceeds 32, a third Balloting Unit can be attached and if the total number of candidates exceeds 48, a fourth Balloting Unit can be attached to cater to a maximum of 64 candidates.
Q6 : What will happen if the number of contesting candidates in a constituency goes beyond 64-
Ans : In case the number of contesting candidates goes beyond 64 in any constituency, EVMs cannot be used in such a constituency. The conventional method of voting by means of ballot box and ballot paper will have to be adopted in such a constituency.
Q7 : What will happen if the EVM in a particular polling station goes out of order-
Ans : An Officer is put on duty to cover about 10 polling stations on the day of poll. He will be carrying spare EVMs and the out-of-order EVM can be replaced with a new one. The votes recorded until the stage when the EVM went out of order will be safe in the memory of the Control Unit and it will be sufficient to proceed with the polling after the EVM went out of order. It is not necessary to start the poll from the beginning.
Q8 : Who has the devised the EVMs-
Ans : The EVMs have been devised and designed by Election Commission in collaboration with two Public Sector undertakings viz., Bharat Electronics Ltd., Bangalore and Electronic Corporation of India Ltd., Hyderabad after a series of meetings, test-checking of the prototypes and extensive field trials. The EVMs are now manufactured by the above two undertakings.
Q9 : What is the cost of the machines- Is it not too expensive to use EVMs-
Ans : The cost per EVM (One Control Unit, one Balloting Unit and one battery) was Rs.5,500/- at the time the machines were purchased in 1989-90. Even though the initial investment is somewhat heavy, this is more than neutralised by the savings in the matter of printing of ballot papers in lakhs, their transportation, storage etc., and the substantial reduction in the counting staff and the remuneration paid to them.
Q10 : In our country a sizeable section of the population being illiterate will it not cause problems for the illiterate voters-
Ans : In fact, voting by EVMs is simpler compared to the conventional system, where one has to put the voting mark on or near the symbol of the candidate of his choice, fold it first vertically and then horizontally and thereafter put it into the ballot box. In EVMs, the voter has to simply press the blue button against the candidate and symbol of his choice and the vote is recorded. Rural and illiterate people had no difficulty in recording their votes and, in fact they have welcomed the use of EVMs.
Q11 : Can booth – capturing be prevented by the use of EVMs-
Ans : By booth-capturing, if one means, taking away or damaging of ballot boxes or ballot papers, this evil cannot be prevented by the use of EVMs as EVMs can also be forcibly taken away or damaged by miscreants. But if one looks at booth capturing as a case of miscreants intimidating the polling personnel and stamping the ballot papers on the symbol and escaping in a matter of minutes, this can be prevented by the use of EVMs. The EVMs are programmed in such a way that the machines will record only five votes in a minute. As recording of votes has necessarily to be through Control Unit and Balloting Unit, whatever be the number of miscreants they can record vote only at the rate of 5 per minute. In the case of ballot papers, the miscreants can distribute all the 1000 odd ballot papers assigned to a polling station, among themselves, stamp them, stuff them into the ballot boxes and run away before the police reinforcements reach. In half- an –hour, the miscreants can record only a maximum of 150 votes by which time, chances are the police reinforcement would have arrived. Further, the presiding Officer or one of the Polling Officers can always press the “close” button as soon as they see some intruders inside the polling station. It will not be possible to record any vote when once the ‘close’ button is pressed and this will frustrate the efforts of the booth-capturers.
Q12 : Is it possible to use EVMs for simultaneous elections for Parliament and State Legislative Assembly-
Ans : Yes, It is possible to use EVMs for simultaneous elections for Parliament and State Legislative Assembly and the existing EVMs have been designed keeping this requirement in view.
Q13 : What are the advantages in using EVMs-
Ans : The most important advantage is that the printing of millions of ballot papers can be dispensed with, as only one ballot paper is required for fixing on the Balloting Unit at each polling station instead of one ballot paper for each individual elector. This results in huge savings by way of cost of paper, printing, transportation, storage and distribution. Secondly, counting is very quick and the result can be declared within 2 to 3 hours as compared to 30-40 hours, on an average, under the conventional system. Thirdly, there are no invalid votes under the system of voting under EVMs. The importance of this will be better appreciated, if it is remembered that in every General Election, the number of invalid votes is more than the winning margin between the winning candidate and the second candidate, in a number of constituencies. To this extent, the choice of the electorate will be more correctly reflected when EVMs are used.
Q14 : Does the use of EVMs slow down the pace of poll-
Ans : No, In fact the pace of poll is quickened by the use of EVMs as it is not necessary for the voter to first unfold the ballot paper, mark his preference, fold it again, go to the place where the ballot box is kept and drop it in the box. What he has to do under the system of EVMs is simply to press the button near the candidate and symbol of his choice.
Q15 : With ballot boxes counting is done after mixing the ballot papers. Is it possible to adopt this system when EVMs are used-
Ans : The normal rule is to count the votes polling station-wise and this is what is being done when EVM is used in each polling station. The mixing system of counting is done only in those constituencies specially notified by the Election Commission. Even in such cases, the result from each EVM can be fed into a Master Counting Machine in which case, only the total result of an Assembly Constituency will be known and not the result in each individual polling station.
Q16 : How long the Control Unit stores the result in its memory-
Ans : The Control Unit can store the result in its memory for 10 years and even more.