Lok Sabha Election: EVM-VVPAT tallying could delay official result announcement

Bengaluru: The counting of votes for Karnataka’s 28 Lok Sabha constituencies will take place at 29 counting centers on Tuesday, with all necessary arrangements made by the Election Commission. While preliminary results indicating winners and losers will be known quickly, the official results will be delayed due to a Supreme Court order.

Although the counting process is expected to be completed by 1 PM, the official results will only be announced after verifying the VVPAT paper slips from five polling stations in each Assembly segment against the EVM counts. This process is expected to take an additional 3 to 4 hours, with official results likely being announced in the evening.

The counting will begin at 8 AM, with postal ballots being counted in a separate hall. Simultaneously, votes from the EVMs will be counted in other halls. Initial results from the first round of counting may be available by 9 AM.

After completing the count at the designated tables for each Lok Sabha constituency, the winners and losers will be clear by midday. However, the official results will only be declared in the evening after tallying the EVM votes with VVPAT slips from 40 polling stations per Lok Sabha constituency. This process requires an additional 5,000 personnel and at least three hours.

A total of 13,173 personnel have been trained for vote counting and deployed at the designated centers. An additional 3,000 trained personnel are on standby, according to the Election Commission.

The counting for the Tumakuru Lok Sabha constituency will take place at two centers (Tumakuru University Science College and Government Polytechnic College). For all other constituencies, counting will be conducted at a single center.

There will be a total of 3,500 counting tables, with each table having a counting assistant, a counting supervisor, and a micro observer.

Unlike previous elections where data was updated round by round, this time vote information will be updated table-wise for the first time. Each counting table will be monitored by a CCTV camera.

Additionally, the results of the by-election for the Shorapur Assembly constituency will also be announced on Tuesday.

EVM-VVPAT Tallying Process

In Karnataka’s 28 Lok Sabha constituencies, votes were cast at 58,834 polling stations across 224 Assembly segments. VVPAT slips from five polling stations in each Assembly segment, totaling 1,120 polling stations, need to be tallied with EVM counts. This process will require an additional 5,000 personnel and three extra hours. Tallying VVPAT slips with EVM votes for each Lok Sabha constituency will take at least 45 minutes per polling station, requiring 3 to 4 hours for all five polling stations.

“All necessary preparations for vote counting have been made. Personnel have been trained and deployed to counting centers, and security has been enhanced,” said Manoj Kumar Meena, Chief Electoral Officer of Karnataka.