The Hindu : Blue button for registering vote on EVM

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 07, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Visakhapatnam

Blue button for registering vote on EVM

By Our Staff Reporter

VISAKHAPATNAM, MARCH 6. With the Election Commission of India making compulsory the use of electronic voting machines (EVMs), the voter has to press just the blue button to exercise franchise.

One has to press it twice albeit on separate machines---one for the Assembly and another for the Lok Sabha. Once the blue button is pressed, it can't be changed. As the voter steps into the voting compartment, a glowing green bulb at the top of the centre of the balloting unit in the EVM welcomes you, indicating that the machine is ready to register your vote. The ballot list in each EVM can carry the names of 16 candidates. Against all the candidates, blue button will be there. If there are five candidates in fray for a particular constituency, the polling personnel will fix only matching number of blue buttons.

Once the blue button is pressed against the name and symbol of a candidate, a red bulb glows, followed by a beep sound. This confirms completion of voting by an individual. EVM can be carried easily. The two-piece machine needs equal number of sleek suitcases. The introduction of EVM also makes the job of counting easy and the expenditure less.

The Electronic Corporation of India Limited (ECIL) has supplied over 5,000 machines to the district. According to the Joint Collector, Peeyush Kumar, the machines made in India were robust and better than the US-made EVMs. Price-wise, the Indian EVM costs $100 while the American one costs around $3000.

"We can finish counting so fast that we can go home to have lunch on the counting day---hitherto considered impossible for the counting personnel,'' the District Collector, Sunil Sharma, said after holding an all-party meeting to explain the EVM operation and arrangements for holding elections.

He later told reporters that they were also examining the possibility of counting of votes for all the constituencies at one place. "It all depends on the feasibility.''

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