THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The district administration has appealed voters of three-tier panchayat elections to read the instructions and accustom themselves to the operations of new multi-post electronic voting machines before casting votes.
These new type of machines consists of one control unit and three ballot units where voters can cast the vote for village, block and district panchayats.
“The second voting machine will be activated only once you cast the vote in first village level machine. Then you can cast the vote for block panchayat and finally the district panchayat,” district collector Biju Prabhakar said.
“If voters want to skip voting on a particular post, they have to press ‘end’ button to activate the next machine. In case a voter fails to do so for a long time and hinder the voting process, the polling officials have the right to override and end the process,” he added.
All of these machines will be kept in the same booth. The detailed instructions on casting votes will be displayed on a notice board at the polling station and even inside the booth. Machines have been verified multiple times and mock polls held.
“If a particular machine develops a fault, a second one will be delivered within 10 to 15 minutes. If that also fails, the machine will have to be sourced from another sector, and that may take time. However, chances of such an event happening are less than one per cent as per our calculations,” he said.
