Mock polling exercise to test check EVMs, VVPATs begin in Virudhunagar district

Mock polling exercise began in the electronic voting machines that are to be used for the ensuing Assembly election at Virudhunagar Collectorate on Wednesday. The exercise will continue on Thursday also.

Engineer of Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) carried out the mocking polling using the ballot units, control units and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPATs) in the presence of Virudhunagar Collector N. O. Sukhaputra and representatives of recognised political parties.

Already the engineers have completed the first-level checking of the EVMs and VVPATs on Tuesday to checking the working of the EVMs.

As per the guidelines of the Election Commission, 1,200 votes would be recorded in 1% of the total EVMs and 1,000 votes each in 2% of the EVMs and 500 votes each in 2% of the EVMs.

The statement said that the officials would verify the number of votes registered in the control units with the number of slips printed by the VVPATs.

The representatives of the political parties would randomly select the EVMs for the mock poll.

After completing the mock poll, all the EVMs and the VVPATs would be kept in the strong room and it would be sealed.

The list of the EVMs would be provided to the political parties.

Those EVMs that malfunction during the mock poll would be sent to BEL in Bengaluru within a week.