A comprehensive training for 267 Regional Electoral Officers and Assistant Regional Electoral Officers on Voter Verifiable Paper Auditor Trail (VVPAT) was held here on Friday as these units were going to be used in Tirunelveli Assembly segment on a ‘pilot basis’ during the May 16 Assembly polls.
P. Fermi Vidhya, Tirunelveli Revenue Divisional Officer, trained the personnel on VVPAT in the special session organised at the Collectorate.
The VVPAT will be attached to the Electronic Voting Machine. It will generate slips like the receipts being generated at the ATMs. Once the voter presses the button of his or her choice, a slip will be generated to indicate the vote that has been actually cast by the EVM.
The slip, which cannot be touched by the voter, will be displayed behind a glass case for seven seconds, during which the voter will be able to confirm if the vote has been cast in support of the candidate of his or her choice. After seven seconds, the slip will automatically fall into a sealed chamber.
In case, the voter alleges that the vote had not been cast in favour of his candidate, he or she can register a complaint to the presiding officer, who in the presence of others in the particular booth, will cast three trial votes of a particular choice to verify the allegation. If the complaint is genuine, the EVM concerned will be sealed and seized immediately. If the complaint is found to be false, criminal complaint will be registered immediately against the complainant. Inaugurating the training session for the REOs and the AREOs, M.G. Kulandaivel, District Revenue Officer, said those who were undergoing training in VVPAT functioning should in turn train the teachers or government employees, who would be working along with them on the day of polling.
Hence, those who had to undergo training here should clarify their doubts and equip themselves with adequate knowledge about the VVPAT.
It was informed in the meeting that over 15,000 teachers and government employees would be selected and trained before being deployed in the 2,929 polling booths across the district.
