You reach the booth, give your name, and are told you have already voted. This is rarer than social media suggests, but it happens, and there is a defined procedure. It only works if you raise it there and then.
Ask for a tendered ballot
Under Rule 42 of the Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961, an elector who finds another person has already voted in their name may apply to the presiding officer for a tendered ballot paper.
You satisfy the presiding officer of your identity, your name is recorded in a separate list of tendered votes, and you are given a paper ballot rather than the machine. You mark it, and it is kept separately in a sealed packet rather than counted with the rest.
What a tendered vote does and does not do
It records that you attended and that you claim the earlier vote was not yours. It is not counted in the ordinary result.
Tendered votes are counted only if a court directs it, typically in an election petition where the number of disputed votes could have affected who won. In a seat decided by thousands, a handful of tendered ballots will change nothing.
That is a limitation worth understanding rather than resenting. The tendered ballot exists to create a record, not to overturn a result on its own.
Do it properly
- Ask for the presiding officer, not a polling official at the desk and not a party agent sitting in the booth.
- Ask explicitly for a tendered ballot by name. Staff deal with this rarely.
- Carry your identity document; establishing who you are is the whole basis of the claim.
- Note the time and the polling station number.
Also report it
Impersonation at an election is an offence, not merely an administrative mix-up. You can report it to the Returning Officer for the constituency, and through the Election Commission’s complaint channels.
Be accurate about what you observed. You know that someone voted against your entry. You usually do not know who, or whether it was deliberate rather than a clerical error against a similar name.
How to make it less likely
Most of these turn out to be entry errors rather than fraud: a near-identical name in the same part, marked in the wrong row. Check your entry before polling day and note your part and serial number, so staff can work from the number rather than the name.
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