An electronic voting machine selected Republican nominee Mitt Romney even when a voter choose incumbent Barack Obama in the just concluded United States presidential poll.
In a bid to increase participation of disabled voters in the Gujarat assembly polls next month, the Election Commission has introduced Braille numbers and ballot papers besides setting up ramps at polling booths for their convenience.
Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal on Tuesday demanded a probe into the charges made by the self-proclaimed US-based cyber expert, terming them as "very serious" as they concern the survival of democracy in India.
The Major Ports Authority Bill, 2020 was passed through ballot votes in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday with 84 votes in its favour and 44 against it. The Lok Sabha had passed the bill on September 23 last year.
The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to take up for hearing on priority basis Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy's plea to incorporate paper printouts in electronic voting machines or restore paper balloting system allegedly because EVMs "are not tamper proof."
Rediff.com's Bikash Mohapatra, who is in the US to cover the presidential election, finds out that the American voter does not really trust the electronic voting machine.
The action was taken upon a plea filed by Congress Vikasnagar runner-up candidate Navprabhat on alleged tampering of electronic voting machines.
Guidelines have been issued by the Commission for safe conduct of the electoral exercise in the midst of the raging COVID-19 pandemic. These guidelines include lowering the maximum number of voters for a polling booth from 1,600 to 1,000, staggering the polling hours and extending postal ballot facility to those above 80.
The Election Commission is working on a new design of Electronic Voting Machines, which will accommodate more than the present maximum limit of 64 candidates.
This is for the first time in a Lok Sabha election that results of voting machines will be matched with slips generated by paper trail machines.
Delhiites on Sunday turned out in large numbers for the Municipal Corporation polls, the first for the trifurcated civic body, with an estimated 55 to 58 per cent exercising their franchise in a peaceful exercise. The fate of 2,423 candidates, vying for 272 wards of the three civic bodies -- East, South and North -- carved out of the existing Municipal Corporation of Delhi, was sealed in Electronic Voting Machines.
The poll watchdog also said that as per laws related to elections, after the declaration of results, the only option available to verify the data of votes cast was filing an election petition before the high court concerned.
The SC agreed to hear next week a review plea filed by 21 Opposition leaders seeking further increase in random matching of VVPAT
All eyes in Uttar Pradesh were focused on Saturday when the seventh and final round of the seven-phased state assembly election would be accomplished with 1.82 crore voters deciding the political destiny of 962 candidates in 60 constituencies spread across 10 districts , largely bordering Uttarakhand and Nepal.
The Election Commission has finally cleared the confusion over suspected damage to Electronic Voting Machines on account of seepage of water from an overhead water tank in a strong-room where the machines were kept after the voting on February 19.
Anna Hazare and his team on Thursday met the Election Commission in a bid to raise the pitch for electoral reforms and demanded that the 'right to reject' option be included in electronic voting machines.Hazare, along with his close associates Santosh Hegde, Prashant Bhushan, Arvind Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi, discussed the matter for about an hour with Chief Election Commissioner S Y Qureshi. According to Team Anna, the meeting was "very useful".
Amid sporadic violence that left a 16-year-old boy dead and around 10 injured, nearly 77 per cent of 1.76 crore voters on Monday exercised their franchise under tight security to elect 117 members to the Punjab assembly.
The country has got its first firm order to export these machines to Namibia, while it is in talks with others, including Egypt and Saarc nations.
Rabi Ranjan Chattopadhyay, Trinamool Congress candidate from Burdwan South Assembly seat alleged that four Electronic Voting Machines of the constituency are missing on Wednesday.
Reacting to the ED's summons to Raj, his estranged cousin and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, in an intriguing comment, said he did not expect any 'solid outcome'.
As round one of the seven-phase Lok Sabha election began in 91 constituencies across the length and breadth of India, from the hills of Kashmir to the islands of Andaman and Nicobar, reports of unrest and irregularities cast shadows over the world's biggest poll process.
The AAP has announced that it will hold a parallel hackathon of its own.
Among other things, the code bars the government from announcing policy decisions.
Around seventy seven per cent voting was recorded in the third phase of West Bengal assembly polls in 75 seats covering Kolkata, North and South 24 Parganas districts on Wednesday.
"We had not contemplated that the alliance will fare so badly. People are not able to digest the poll results. It is against their sentiment and aspirations," Mayawati said on Thursday.
Mukherjee had lost the Lok Sabha elections twice earlier and it was third time lucky for him, much to the delight of the Congress leader's supporters.
Responding to allegations that victory certificates were not been handed over to candidates from the opposition grand alliance by returning officers on 119 seats, the Commission said the latest figures on its website state that while 146 results have been declared and trends of 97 other seats were available.
"It is very unfortunate that a party which was formed on a promise of alternative politics, on the promise of practising transparency, accountability, internal democracy and not resorting to power politics broke all promises. It became like an ordinary conventional political party," said Bhushan.
Nationalist Congress Party legislator Shahshikant Shinde said he was witness to such a thing happening when he visited the polling booth in Navlewadi village of Koregaon tehsil in Satara district.
The MNS has convened a meeting of party office-bearers on Tuesday in Mumbai to discuss the issue.
She also said that the BJP will not be able to maintain law and order in Uttar Pradesh.
Four persons, including two rag-pickers, were arrested in connection with theft of six Electronic Voting Machines in Vijayawada, which were recovered, police said on Monday.
The Commission has decided to refer to the Technical Expert Committee for detailed examination of 'voter verifiable paper trail' in EVMs in all its aspects through a process of wide consultation, the EC said in a press note on Friday.
"For the Lok Sabha elections, we are making meticulous planning on all fronts including electronic voting machines (EVMs) and the voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT)," he said.
Twelve constituencies in the Telangana belt of Andhra Pradesh will go to polls on Tuesday.
Shah rubbished Delhi CM's contention that it may have something to do with alleged manipulation of EVMs.
Electronic Voting Machines have become 'Electronic Victory Machines' for the Congress in the elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party alleged on Thursday, as it trailed in the Maharashtra and Haryana polls. "The EVMs have become 'Electronic Victory Machines' for the Congress in the elections," rued BJP vice president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi. Naqvi said these elections were conducted with EVMs despite many political parties expressing their concerns.
The Mumbai police on Wednesday arrested Maharashtra Navnirman Sena candidate from Ghatkopar (west) Ram Kadam for allegedly assaulting policemen and election officials during polling. The police also cane-charged MNS activists who protested against Kadam's arrest. Hundreds of activists gathered when police reached Kadam's residence to arrest him on Wednesday, Vatkar said, adding that the crowd broke the windowpanes of police vans.
The tallying of VVPAT slips with the votes cast and stored in the EVMs will be done to demonstrate that the voting system has been working perfectly.
In percentage terms, 1.8 per cent voters in Gujarat pressed the NOTA button on electronic voting machines in Gujarat, as against 0.9 per cent in the hill state (over 33,000 voters).
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