Glitches discovered during poll data input

Mysore/Mysuru: Even as the Supreme Court reserved its judgement on Apr. 18 regarding a plea seeking cross-verification of votes cast in Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT), complaints of malfunctioning EVMs, VVPAT machines, and Control Units have been reported from various Assembly Constituencies in Mysuru Lok Sabha segment this morning.

These malfunctioning machines are being returned to the headquarters in Mysuru to be deposited back for rectification.

Officials, seeking anonymity told Star of Mysore, an average of 40 to 60 machines were found malfunctioning during the process of inputting candidate names and symbols into the EVMs and checking them in VVPATs and Control Units. Glitches were discovered in machines delivered to all the 11 Assembly segments.

However, officers assured that there was no need to panic as they had an adequate number of reserve machines. Additionally, apart from the reserved machines, 10 machines each have been provided as backup in case of any confusion on voting day.

While senior officers were not available for comments, lower-ranking officers noted that it was the first time such a large number of EVMs, VVPATs, and Control Units had malfunctioned in Mysuru. The machines were supplied to the respective Taluk Centres of the constituencies, and the process of checking and inputting data was underway there when the glitches were discovered.

A total of 886 Control Units, 427 Ballot Units (EVMs) and 292 VVPATs have been allocated for 11 Assembly Constituencies in Mysuru District.

As soon as glitches were discovered in some machines, they were replaced with reserve machines. Officials were taken aback by the discovery of an average of 40 to 60 malfunctioning machines. They immediately alerted higher authorities in Mysuru, who dispatched batches of extra machines for each Constituency to be kept as reserve, along with 10 machines as backup.

Sources said that engineers from Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL), Hyderabad, manufacturers of the equipment, will examine the machines that had problems.