Explained: How polling booths work

Last minute staff appointment

Each polling booth, which sees not more than 1,100 votes cast, is manned by 4 to 6 staff people, including the BLO. A polling station can contain multiple polling booths in the same building.

While BLOs were appointed weeks ago, the rest of the staff were assigned their duty through a randomisation technique as late as on Friday. “We get to know who all are a part of the polling party in the evening [prior to polling],” Gaurav, a BLO at the Muhar Jamsher village in Fazilka, told The Indian Express. This tiny border village has 618 registered voters.

Composition of polling party

A standard polling party is made up of a team of 4 people. This party reaches the polling booth a day before the polls, and spends the night there, with security forces guarding both the poll officials and EVMs.

Since polling booths are set up in schools, bedding is arranged for the staff. For female members of the polling party, sleeping arrangements are made either in someone’s house in the village, or some nearby place. Women are also allowed to go home, but they must report to their polling booth at 5 am on the morning of the poll day.

Role of BLOs

BLOs distribute voter slips to the voters of that booth. They are also in charge of making arrangements for the stay, food etc. of the polling party. BLOs are also supposed to provide information about the queue at the polling booth on the polling area management system (PAMS) — this allows voters to check for crowding at their polling station, and come accordingly. They also coordinate with the polling staff to provide poll percentage on hourly basis to the District Election Officer (DEO).

Normally meals in Punjab’s polling booths are cooked within the school campus by the school’s mid-day meal staff. Including security personnel, each polling booth comprises 20-25 persons for whom arrangements are made.

On the day of the polls

On the day of polling, mock polls are held at 5 am to check whether the EVMs are functioning correctly. Normally, mock polling sees 5 votes polled for each candidate, the results of which are later checked.

“It takes around 20-30 minutes to hold the mock polls and check the results. After which, the machines are reset. The polling booth must be ready for the voters latest by 6.30 am,” Gurdeep Singh, BLO at the Ghonewal village in the Amritsar Lok Sabha constituency, told The Indian Express.

Polling goes on from 7 am to 6 pm, after which EVMs are sealed and deposited to designated counting centres under tight security. While the process of running an election is complex, the polling staff undergoes multiple rehearsals to ensure that everything goes on smoothly.