The political fate of four states — West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, and Kerala — along with Puducherry will be decided today as counting of votes began. These states saw high-stakes elections across many constituencies last month, with strong competition between major parties. Votes will also be counted in bypolls for eight assembly seats across five states.
Counting centres are set up for each constituency. On the day of counting, only authorised officials and counting agents of the Election Commission are allowed inside the station.
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The counting process begins at the same time for all seats. Every few hours, the results are announced phase-wise as rounds are completed. While the trends may start coming in early for some seats, the final results are only announced after the completion of all rounds of voting.
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How Are Votes Counted?
Under Rule 54A of the Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961, counting of postal ballots begins first at the Returning Officer's (RO) table. The Returning Officer provides the total number of postal ballots received to the Observer at the beginning of the process. All rejected ballots, especially those with issues in Form 13A, need to be rechecked carefully.
The Observer closely monitors the entire process, including scrutiny of declarations. Postal ballots typically include votes from service voters such as armed forces, government officials on duty and senior citizens where allowed. They may shape early trends, but tend to usually make up only a small share of total votes.
After 30 minutes of starting postal ballot counting, counting of votes from Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) begins. Each EVM contains votes from a specific polling station. During the process, the
EVMs are opened one by one in rounds. Each round may cover votes from several polling stations. The results are shown on the control unit, after which the officials record the numbers carefully.
During this process, political party agents are also present to ensure verification of every round. To ensure trust and transparency, VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) slips are also checked.
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These slips show each vote as a paper record and are considered the second line of verification. For this process, the polling stations are selected randomly, usually five in each constituency. Here, the slips are matched with EVM results.
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