Four phases, 20 days: 10 mins per EVM tally

The counting will take place across 1,200 centres spread across about 850 towns for 539 constituencies in 28 states and seven Union Territories.

But starting with the EVMs to the internal flow of data and the final dissemination of the results, all have been worked out and connected through a web of technology. By noon, sources say, 50 per cent of the results should be in and the remaining should take another three to four hours.

A bunch of 10-15 officials will be there in the EC right from 7 am, manning the rapid flow of information expected by around 9 am. Their only prayer is that the numerous hits on its website do not send the server crashing. In 1999, the website had around 1 million hits, but on Tuesday when the AP results were out, there were as many as 9 lakh hits.

The team has been busy the whole of today trying to remove additional links and programmes to create more space on the server. But more than 3 million hits could spell trouble.

For the EC, its web portal is a crucial element in its whole data-dissemination process. Once the results have been finalised, the Returning Officer is supposed to log on to the website through a special user name and password.

Each officer has been given a CD to be operated simultaenously. The RO will feed the result details that would automatically be posted on the website. In case it fails, the RO can fax it to the state chief electoral officer or the EC, who then will enter the details.

As for the EVMs, only the control units containing the data have been stored in strong rooms. They will be counted in batches of 14 for every Assembly segment of each Parliamentary constituency in the presence of counting agents of the candidate (See chart).

Obtaining the tally from each EVM doesn’t take more than 10 minutes. What delays the process is the arrangement for bringing in the control units from the strong room, availability of resources and the collation process. But with an average of 20 minutes per round, counting in each constituency is not expected to exceed four hours though exception are not being ruled out.