EVM was first used in the year 1982 in Parur assembly constituency of Kerala.
Voting will be held today on 121 seats in 18 districts of Bihar. The credibility of many veterans will be at stake in the first phase of voting. It includes many veteran candidates including Tejashwi Yadav, Samrat Chaudhary, Vijay Sinha, Tej Pratap. With the voting, the fate of 1314 candidates will be sealed in EVMs. That EVM remains in the news whether it is voting or counting. Even on the day of voting, everyone’s eyes will be on EVMs.
In such a situation, there are many questions related to EVM whose answers are important to know. For example, what will happen if the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) gets damaged? If there is a power outage, will your vote count? How do we know that voting has taken place? Know the answers to such questions.
What will happen if EVM gets damaged during voting?
Now the question is that if the EVM gets damaged during voting then how will the voting take place? To avoid such a situation, the Election Commission has made arrangements for its backup. If for some reason the EVM gets damaged and your vote is not recorded, then it is replaced with another EVM. EVMs are kept at the polling station as backup. The recorded votes remain safe in the memory of the control unit until the EVM fails. You can continue voting.
Who monitors EVMs?
On the day of polling, Zonal/Area/Sector Magistrates maintain strict vigil through patrolling. They also keep stock of reserved EVMs. It is their responsibility to immediately replace the faulty EVM with a new EVM. EVM machine requires basic knowledge of identifying the election symbol of a political party and its representative local candidate.
What are the chances of it getting spoiled?
Generally, there are very less chances of EVMs getting damaged, because before voting they are checked whether they are working properly or not. First level checking (FLC) of each EVM is carried out by engineers from the manufacturing companies, Bharat Electronics Limited, Bangalore and Electronics Corporation of India Limited, Hyderabad. Therefore, the possibility of damage remains negligible.
What will happen if power goes out during voting?
If there is a power failure during voting, your vote will not be affected. This is because batteries have been used in EVMs. Therefore, power failure does not affect the voting process.
How many votes does EVM record?
An EVM records maximum 2000 votes. It has two parts. The first is the control unit and the second is the voting unit. It is connected to a five meter cable. The control unit is kept with the presiding officer or polling officer. Whereas, the voting unit is kept inside the polling compartment.
How do we know that voting has taken place?
Before EVM, ballot box was used, but now there is an option to press only one button in voting through EVM. Whichever candidate you want to vote for, you just have to press the button next to his name and election symbol. When this is done a small red light flashes. If this happens then it can be assumed that the EVM is working properly. When you vote, a long beep sounds. This confirms that voting has taken place. Not only this, you can see the details of whoever you voted for in the slip issued from the VVPT machine. You can match the slip to see that it contains the name of the same candidate for whom you have voted.
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