Voters in seven constituencies in Bengaluru Central will become the first in the country to cast their votes using the latest M-3 electronic voting machines.
As many as 2,710 balloting units, 2,260 control units in the latest M-3 and 2,350 VVPATs will be deployed across Rajarajeshwarinagar, Shivajinagar, Shanthinagar, Gandhinagar, Rajajinagar, Chamarajpet and Chickpet constituencies. “The M-3 machines will be deployed across India for the 2019 general elections. Bengaluru constituencies will become the first to use it as part of a pilot [project],” Chief Electoral Officer Sanjiv Kumar told presspersons here on Wednesday. He said the M-3 EVMs have arrived and first-level checks have been conducted already.
When asked why Bengaluru was chosen for the pilot project, he said, “Bengaluru is the IT city and the latest EVMs are manufactured here [by BEL]. Also, it is easy to supervise since the machines are being used for the first time.” While most features between the currently used M-2 EVMs and the latest are similar, he said M-3 will be lighter and sleek. “In the M-2 machines, 4 ballotting units (to accommodate 64 candidates) could be connected whereas in M-3, 24 ballotting units (to accommodate 384 candidates) can be connected,” he added.
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Mr. Kumar said that the machine requires four persons to handle in comparison with five needed to handle M-2 EVMs.
Meanwhile, across the State 84,145 VVPATs, 82,580 control units, and 94,841 balloting units are being deployed.