Two devices sit in an Indian polling booth. The EVM records your vote. The VVPAT prints a slip so you can see it was recorded the way you intended.
The EVM has two parts
- The ballot unit: what you use. Candidate names, party symbols, and a button beside each. NOTA is the last option, below the final candidate.
- The control unit: held by the polling officer, out of the voting compartment. It stores the votes and keeps the running total.
The separation is deliberate. The officer must release a ballot on the control unit before your ballot unit will accept a press. That is what makes one-person-one-vote enforceable: the machine will not take a second press until the officer authorises the next voter.
What the VVPAT adds
VVPAT stands for Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail. It sits between the ballot unit and the control unit, with a small glass window.
When you press your button, it prints a slip showing the serial number, name and symbol of the candidate you chose. The slip is visible through the window for about seven seconds, then drops into a sealed box.
You cannot take it, and you should not try. Its purpose is twofold: it lets you confirm the machine recorded what you intended, and it creates a paper record that can be counted independently of the electronics.
Look at the window. It is the only moment you get direct confirmation, and a large share of voters never glance at it.
Are the slips actually counted?
Yes: on a mandatory sample, not for every machine.
Following a Supreme Court order of 8 April 2019, VVPAT slips are hand-counted and matched against the electronic count for five randomly selected polling stations in every Assembly constituency, or Assembly segment, in a Lok Sabha election. The stations are drawn by lot by the Returning Officer in front of the candidates, and this happens before the result is declared.
Before 2019 the requirement was one station. Separately, Rule 56(D) of the Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961 lets a candidate or their agent apply in writing for the slips of a particular station to be counted, which the Returning Officer decides by written order.
See how votes are counted for where this sits in the sequence.
Why the machines are not networked
Indian EVMs are standalone devices. They are not connected to the internet, to a network, or to each other, and they are battery-powered. There is no channel over which results could be transmitted or instructions received.
Around that sit procedural controls: randomised allocation of machines to constituencies and then to booths, so nobody knows in advance which machine goes where; mock polls before voting begins, conducted in front of polling agents; sealing with signatures of candidates’ representatives; and storage in guarded strongrooms that agents may observe.
The safeguards are as much procedural as technical; the machine is sealed and witnessed at every handover.
What to do at the booth
- Wait for the officer to release the ballot; the ballot unit will not respond before that.
- Press the button beside your choice, once.
- Look at the VVPAT window and check the printed slip shows the candidate you chose.
- Listen for the beep confirming the vote was recorded.
If the slip does not match your choice, say so immediately to the presiding officer. There is a formal procedure for that complaint, and it only works while you are still at the booth.
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