CANACONA
It was a Model Polling Booth in Canacona equipped with all facilities, but a major glitch with the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machine which led to a disruption in the voting process for about 30 minutes became the talking point in Canacona on Tuesday.
The incident took place at Polling Booth 7 in Chaudi-Canacona, which was one of three Model Polling Stations of Canacona.
After exercising his franchise, a voter informed the presiding officer that after he had cast his vote, the screen on the VVPAT lit up partially and then turned black, with no display of the VVPAT inside.
The polling officer then halted the polling process and after checking with dummy votes, found the voter’s concern to be genuine.
The VVPAT machine was then opened to verify the presence of voter slips inside the machine.
“We saw the slips inside when the machine was opened, but we don’t know whether those slips were in an equal number of votes cast at the time. After the VVPAT machine was rectified, I noticed that the slip does appear, but the screen turns black before it gets cut and falls inside. With that I don’t know if it is the slip with the same vote symbol,” said the unsatisfied voter.
The officer immediately stopped further issuance of voter slips, and informed the sector officer, and the AERO/Canacona Mamlatdar Jeetendra Bugde.
Officers rushed to verify the malfunctioning of the machine.
Technical experts were then summoned to the polling booth and after clearing the technical glitch, polling officers resumed the voting process after a halt of about 35 minutes.
There was a long queue of voters on account of the delay and many were heard demanding immediate rectification of the problem.
The sector officer who supervised the rectification later confirmed that the VVPAT machine had been rectified and that, the slips were being displayed properly.
There was another brief incident of a VVPAT machine at one polling station in Agonda.
A voter claimed that the voter slip which is correctly displayed after a prolonged time of voting on the EVM, remained on the screen for about 7-8 seconds, before suddenly turning dark.
“I informed the presiding officer about the disappearing the screen on the VVPAT, but the officer informed me it is functioning the same way since morning and there is nothing wrong in it,” said the voter.
“When I asked him how would I know if the slip, which had fallen inside, was the slip with the same symbol that I had voted, the officer pleaded with me not to create a scene as the voting had already crossed halfway.”
“After arguing for a few minutes I had to finally come out to allow other voters in line to exercise their franchisee,” informed the voter.
Incidentally, many voters who had voted in four of the six polling booths in Agonda voiced similar concerns that though the VVPAT displayed the slip with the symbol and name of candidate for a prolonged time, no voter slip is seen cutting and falling inside the VVPAT machine.
