Officials hold mock polling to test EVMs and VVPATs in Thoothukudi

Mock polling was conducted at the District Collectorate on Tuesday to test the electronic voting machines, control units, and the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) to be used in the forthcoming Assembly elections after these machines underwent first-level checking.

As the first level checking of the EVMs and the VVPATs commenced on December 11, the service engineers from Bharat Electronics Ltd., which supplied the poll gadgets, were checking 4,575 EVMs, 2,423 control units, and 2,648 VVPATs to be used in the upcoming Assembly election this year. Of this, 15 EVMs, 25 control units, and 59 VVPATs were found to be faulty during the first level checking and hence remaining 9,548 polling gadgets have been kept ready for the polling.

After the first level checking was completed, mock polling was conducted at the Collectorate on Tuesday. District Collector K. Elambahavath and the representatives of recognised political parties were present to validate the smooth functioning of the EVMs, control units and the VVPATs.