If there is a group most happy about the transition our elections have made to the Electronic Voting Machine from ballot papers, it has to be the election agents of candidates.
The “gruesome work” of sitting through the counting process has become an integral part of political tales these days. While agents reminisce the “old times” when counting centres witnessed great dramas over voting slips, not many want to go back.
A.R. Krishnadas, agent for Congress candidate for Arani M.K Vishnu Prasad, recalls how the process was so cumbersome a few elections ago. Once the counting began, all the ballot papers of a particular booth would be put into a huge container. “They would use a huge stick to shuffle the papers, just like stirring a pot of buttermilk,” he points out.
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Then the papers would be put together in bundles of 50 each before the counting began. “They will then sort it out according to parties and again make small bundles. These bundles, either each with 25 slips or 50, would then be placed in the box dedicated to a particular party,” he says.
A high-level of concentration was required to watch every move of the person counting the slips as the process would continue for hours, and sometimes days together. Mostly, such agents relied on ‘Sukku (dry ginger) Kapi’ to keep themselves awake. The breaks in counting witnessed a rush to the nearest restroom, given the huge number of agents.
A.G. Kasinathan of the CPI(M) says “malpractices” usually took place when the slips were bundled. “At the end, votes are tallied according to the number of bundles in each party box. Sometimes, the bundle of one party would be dropped in another,” he recalls. The other thing which the agents used to keep a close watch on was invalid votes. “If the official was favourable to a party, he may declare it a vote to the party. Usually, this is when quarrels cropped up,” he says. On many occasions, counting was halted to resolve such issues.
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However, the agents say the advent of EVMs has helped them get rid of the strain and pressure they faced with ballot papers. “Now, the numbers are displayed on the digital board. Only issue is when we sit at a difficult angle from the board and are not able to properly see the numbers. But this is not a big issue,” says Mr. Krishnadas. In fact, such issues may be resolved this time as the Election Commission will hand out printed receipts after every round of counting to the agents.