Failure rate of VVPATs forces EC to hike demand, total order up to 17.4 lakh

Failure rate of VVPATs forces EC to hike demand, total order up to 17.4 lakh

Additional 1.3 million machines were ordered, reserved for reaching 35% for 2019 elections

Due to the increasing incidents of failure in recent elections, the Election Commission (EC) has decided to increase its reserve of Voter Verification Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines to 10 per cent for next Lok Sabha elections.

On June 20, the commission ordered an additional 1.3 million paper trail units worth Rs 250.16 crore, which will effectively increase their VVPAT reserve from 25 per cent to 35 per cent. It is in addition to the order of 16.15 lakh VVPAT with two manufacturing PSUs to cover all the polling stations during the general elections next year.

As it was first reported by the Indian Express on July 25, the Election Panel is already struggling to complete the deadline for September 2018 to purchase 16.15 lakh VVPAT machines for Lok Sabha elections. The commission is now expecting delivery of paper trail units by the end of November.

Of the additional 1.3 million units ordered on June 20, Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) in Bengaluru will produce approximately 79,000 VVPAT machines while the rest will be manufactured by Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL) in Hyderabad. Election Commission wants that this order is delivered to October 30.

On 28 May, VVPAT's flaws had eagerly reported from the polling booths of Karaana and Bhandara-Gondi Bipalans, which had given rise to strong political responses. The Election Commission had to take 20.8 per cent of VVPAT and 19.2 per cent in Bhandara-Gondiya in Maharashtra in Karaana in Uttar Pradesh. This resulted in 49 polling stations in Karaana and 49 voting in Bhandara-Gondia.

A performance review conducted by EC at the beginning of this year shows that last year VVPAT machines posted in all state elections had a total failure rate of about 11 per cent (see box). This is significantly higher than the average failure rates of electronic voting machines or EVMs, which have stabilized at 5 per cent - this includes only 1-2 per cent failure on voting day.

However, the commission has made design improvements in paper trail machines after Kairana and Bhandara Gondia Bipalans, VVPAT failures, sources said, mainly the machines are relatively new and the voting staff is not fully capable of handling them.

"Since VVPAT has been introduced recently and many states have managed to handle it for the first time, there is a possibility of a higher failure rate due to manual intervention. With intensive training and structured capacity building program, the percentage of VVPAT failure is only 1 - It is expected to be less than 2 per cent. Despite this shortage, the total failure rate of VVPAT is expected to be around 8-9 per cent, which is the EVM disaster 7-8 per cent more, "the EC noted VVPAT machines Justifying the proposal to assign high reserve, said election commission will make extensive use of VVPAT that hopefully stabilize the incidence of failure.

A VVPAT prepares a printout of vote cast using an EVM, which can be shown to help voters overcome their doubts. This printout is then deposited in a box and it can be used to resolve any dispute regarding voting results. Last year, the Election Commission has promised to present VVPAT in all polling stations for the 2019 general elections, filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court.

To maintain public confidence in EVMs in EVM, an introduction of Paper Trail System is important, whose accuracy has been questioned by opposition parties, especially after the results of Uttar Pradesh assembly elections. With the first use of VVPAT units in the Roxane (Nagaland) Assembly in 2013 in Fulpur and Gorakhpur Biol in Uttar Pradesh in March this year, VVPAT slips has been prolonged in 532 cases. In each case, EVM votes match with VVPAT slips.

VVPAT is replaced when either ballot unit (BU) or control unit (CU) fails. A BU and a CU make an EVM. VVPAT is also altered when the sensor gets spoiled or due to inadequate training of the polling staff and voting staff, which, in turn, leads to Michelle. Replacements are done by reservation allocated by EC.