Lok Sabha Polls 2019: How to use electronic voting machine to cast your vote

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The EC has announced the full schedule of the Lok Sabha elections and political campaigning has picked pace. As the seven-phased general elections nears, thousands of the country’s youth wait to cast their votes in favour of their preferred candidate. And for those whom this whole process is alien and terrifying, here's a primer on how exactly Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) work to help you effortlessly cast your vote on D-Day.

Electronic Voting Machines operate on the "press a button" mode; there are no papers involved. An EVM typically comprises a ‘Control Unit’ and a ‘Ballot Unit’. These are connected by a 5-metre wire.

Each balloting unit accommodates up to 16 candidates. If it exceeds that, additional balloting units can be connected to increase the limit, the cap being 64. The machines run on six-volt batteries to do away with the need for any external source of power.

The polling officer operates the Control Unit, while the electorate cast their votes on the Balloting Unit. The latter is placed inside an enclosed polling area. After the election official presses the ballot button on the control unit, the balloting unit gets activated.

Once this is done, the voter is allowed to enter the voting enclosure. Beside every candidate’s name on the machine, there’s a blue button. The voter needs to press the button adjacent to the name of their favoured candidate and the respective party’s symbol. The machine then records the vote.

After the voter has pressed one button on the unit, it gets locked for further voting. Therefore, one must think hard before casting their vote, because in case of a change of mind, nothing can be done. Any button pressed after the first attempt, will not be counted as a vote.

Notably, the machines were crafted in such a way that casting votes became less cumbersome and time taking alongside ensuring that no miscreant gets away with mass voting.

This was guaranteed by allowing EVMs to record only maximum of five votes per minute.

One machine can record a maximum of 3,840 votes. The votes cast get stored in the memory for a period of at least 10 years.

There are two Indian PSUs that make EVM machines — Bharat Electronic Limited (BEL) and Electronics Corporation of Indian Limited (ECIL).