EC experiments with paper trail EVMs

With some political parties suggesting a provision for paper trail of voting through Electronic Voting Machines EVMs,the Election Commission EC on Tuesday unveiled prototypes of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail VVPAT based EVMs and announced the trials of these prototypes in simulated election at five different locations across the country to assess their feasibility for future use.

Unveiling the prototypes of VVPAT system,developed separately by the Bharat Electronics Limited BEL and Electronics Corporation of India Ltd ECIL,Deputy Election Commissioner Alok Shukla informed the media on Tuesday that these will be tested at 35 polling stations each in five different locations across the country in the third week of July. These locations include Ladakh,Thiruvananthapuram,Cherrapunjee,East Delhi district and Jaisalmer.

Currently,a VVPAT-like system is used in Venezuela and some states of the US.

The VVPAT comprises a printer trail unit linked to the EVMs using a EVM-printer interface. There are two different models one,with closed printer unit where the voter can see the printed ballot that will automatically slip into a ballot box attached to the printer. The other model has an open printer from which the voter can get the ballot print-out and will tender that to a ballot box.