Karnataka - Mysore   

Mysore students opt for hi-tech voting

Staff Correspondent

A student of the institution developed the software for the election process

MYSORE: Despite the advancement in information technology (IT), most educational institutions across the country continue with the long-drawn process of printing ballot papers during students' council elections.

Ramakrishna Vidyashala in Mysore is perhaps among the first few institutes in India to have an electronic voting system. The institute has not only done away with the laborious process of holding elections to the students' council through ballot papers, but has also come out with an exclusive software for the electronic voting system, being used in the Vidyashala for the last two years.

During the recent elections to the students' council, about 250 students of High School and Pre-University Course exercised their franchise through the electronic mode.

Paperless polling

Unlike in the past when the students lined up outside the voting booth and stamped the ballot paper with a swastik seal, the students now walk into the voting booth and indicate their choice with cursor and mouse.

"The entire process is over in 20 minutes. Earlier, the election process took more than three hours. One-and-a-half hour for casting the ballots and another hour-and-a-half for counting of votes", said returning officer and Mathematics teacher of Ramakrishna Vidyashala, S. P. Suresh.

The Vidyashala installed a total of five computers for holding the elections to the students' council recently.

Students took turns at the five computer terminals to indicate their choice for the posts of president, vice-president, general secretary and joint secretary.

"All the 250 students had finished casting their votes in twenty minutes. It barely took five minutes to collect the data from the five computers and announce the results," Mr. Suresh said.

The software for the election process was developed by a student of the institute last year.

"A II PUC student Sreenidhi developed the software for us. The software displays the names of the candidates on the computer and the student only has to indicate his choice with the cursor and the mouse," Mr Suresh said.

Earlier, the teachers in charge of counting of votes would come across several invalid votes. "Under the electronic system of voting, there is no possibility of an invalid vote", he said.

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