If you are not living under a rock, you have probably heard that there will be elections in 2024. India is one of the many countries which is going to polls. The election commission of India had declared that the Indian General Election would be conducted from April 19, 2024, in 7 phases. The last phase is scheduled to take place on June 1, 2024. The results are to be declared on 4 June 2024. Elections everywhere have digitalisation as an omnipresent feature. From the United States where money spent on digital ads touched a record breaking $3.5 billion, to Brazil's EVM's to India's EVM-VVPAT systems. The next phase of elections is scheduled on 25th.
Digital Advertisements
The digital advertisements campaign has been ever-increasing since the digital
revolution. Digital ads spending has increased by large margins since the year
2014. In India, major political parties like BJP, Congress, AAP, TMC
have altogether spent about 117 crore Rupees since January 2024.
Video advertisements have been the most common type of advertisements on
Google. 82% of the ads were video ads, run by political parties. In
other countries such as USA, political ad spending is expected to
increase by about 30%.
EVM-VVPAT systems
The EVM-VVPAT system stands for Electronic Voting Machine and Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail respectively.
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The EVM and VVPAT systems are together placed in a box which is covered, to
protect privacy of votes.
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The EVM contains of the serial number, the
name of the candidate, and the symbol of the party, beside which
there is a button, after pressing which, the vote for the candidate is
secured.
- Once the voter presses the button, the vote is recorded. Now no further pressing can change it or record a double vote. Any attempt for a double vote is illegal and can be punished with criminal punishment.
- The control unit is set with the presiding officer in the polling station. The control unit has a button called "ballot", which upon pressing will start the EVM and VVPATs. After a red light glows, the EVM is ready to accept the votes and it glows a light too.
- Once the voter presses the button, a light glows, which is placed parallel to the button. This indicates that the vote has been cast.
- Now, the Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail or VVPAT, prints a particular slip, to verify the voter that the vote has been cast to the candidate of his/her choice. This slip shows the candidate symbol, the serial number and the name of the candidate for the voter to verify. The slip generated is visible for 7 seconds across a transparent window. The slip then falls into the ballet slip compartment. These can be accessed only under some circumstances such as a candidate or party requests for a recount, under section 56 of the Conduct of Election Rules 1961.
- A parallel beep sounds shows that the vote has been finally recorded. After this no changing will work and the EVM gets blocked.
- Under 56D of the Conduct of Election Rules 1961, 5 randomly selected polling booths are checked for EVM-VVPAT counts, to verify the match between them, for every bypoll, or state assembly election or national elections. No case of mismatch has ever been found till date.
- The EVMs and VVPAT are completely non-networked, without any kind of wi-fi or bluetooth or any sort of network connection and are tamper proof.
- It is impossible to do any sort of mischief with the VVPAT and they are stored in a particular storage which is sealed from any sort of foreign intervention. They can only be opened under the orders of the honourable court. The position of the VVPAT has to be also certified in the court order.
- Election Commission of India (content)
- Economic Times (content+pic)
- Youtube (content)
- The current (Ad spending figures)
- Reuters (Ad figures)
- Drishti IAS (pic)
- FAQ for VVPAT (content)
- Live Law (content)
- Counting of VVPAT (content)
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