Delhi Assembly Election 2020: Here's How Voters Can Exercise their Franchise Using EVM and VVPAT

Polling for the 70 seats of Delhi Assembly will be held on February 8. The counting of votes and results of Delhi Vidhan Sabha election 2020 will be declared on February 11. Three big parties - Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress are in the fray to form government in the national capital.

A total of 1.46 crore eligible people will exercise their voting rights. According to the Election Commission of India (ECI), voting will be held in 13,750 polling booths. To ensure that the polling is free and fair, the ECI has deployed around 90,000 officials.

The voting will be held using Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT). Election Commission started to use EVM back in 1982 in the Kerala Assembly elections. Before this, voting was held only by using ballot papers and ballot boxes.

There are some voters who will be voting for the first time in the Delhi Assembly election 2020. Here’s how voters can exercise your franchise using EVM and VVPAT.

Enter the booth: The Presiding Officer at polling booths will enable the ballot unit while the voters enter the polling compartment.

Cast your vote: The EVM machine will have the name of the candidate and party symbol. Voters will have to press the blue button on the ballot unit against the name/symbol of the candidate of their choice.

See the light: After the voter presses the blue button on the machine, the red light against the name/symbol of the candidate chosen by the voter will glow.

See the print: The printer will print a ballot slip that will contain serial number, name and party symbol of the candidate chosen by the voter. The voter can see the print through the glass, as the printout will not be given out to him/her. The slip will be visible for 7 seconds after which it will automatically get cut and drop in the sealed box below.

Voters who do not see the ballot slip and instead hear the loud beep should immediately contact the Presiding Officer at the polling booth.

The slip allows voters to verify and confirm that they have cast their vote to the candidate of their choice.

Through VVPAT, voters can double check that for whom they have voted.