The Electoral Process in India in User Stories

And bringing down the fake voting percentage.

I have been taking part in the electoral process for last 3 elections as a public representative (poll booth agent of a political party). My poll both is located in an urban village in New Delhi. Elections are very important for people of the village — one of the prime candidates in the elections belongs from the village.

The village has a voting population of about 18000 and is divided into 15–16 polling booths. Our poll booth has around 850 votes now. Last time it had 1650 votes and was split into two in 2015 Delhi elections.

As I witnessed the electoral process from the viewpoint of a public representative, my first impression was of awe. I took keen interests in various checks and balances that are in place to make the election free and fair. Presiding in a rural poll-booth and on behalf of a new fledgling political party, one of my initial concerns was also about my own safety during and after the elections. Those concerns were unfounded in my case.

Our poll booth has 4 officers from election commission and 3 poll booth agents from main contending political parties. The smaller parties did not send any representatives or there could be more agents. The village had 15–16 such poll booths, all in different rooms of the same building premises (a school in our case). The school or polling area was well cordoned off and secured by police personals, as per their protocols. They were strict regarding the rules and were probably at their best.

Inside a poll booth, of the four officials, three of them (P1, P2, P3) are arranged in a pipeline to process each and every vote and one of them oversees the process (M1). M1 is supposed to coordinate between the polling booth agents and the officials from election commission also, and is partially responsible towards the polling booth agents.

The polling booth agents (Tx — T1, T2, T3, etc) are representatives of political parties and are at the same time from the same polling booth area (ie. one of the voters of the area). They have an advantage of knowing people directly (or friends of friends) to identify genuine or fake votes.

As a poll booth agent, my main intention was to ensure that the entire process of elections — from checking the EVMs, to stopping fake votes and ending of electoral process — is followed in a fair manner.

How does election start?

Poll-booth agent arrives at the designated polling location early in the morning between 6am and 6:30am. They should not be carrying a mobile phone.

Poll-booth agent fills up various forms at the poll-booth. Next she or he tests the EVM (electronic voting machine) to their satisfaction — casts multiple votes and verifies the total counts. Once the EVM is tested to be working properly, its sealed with some special papers and poll-booth agents and presiding officials sign on the paper seals at various places (so around 7 signs protect each 800–1600 votes, is one of the cross-checks).

How are votes cast?

A voter has a voting slip which is distributed to them before the elections by the election commission. They are not allowed to cast a vote if the voting slip is missing. The voting slip has a booth number on it, which directs voters living in a locality to the same poll booth to cast their votes.

A queue forms outside the poll-booth area and few voters are allowed at a time inside the room to cast their votes. First officer P1, checks if they are genuine (has a genuine slip, can product identification in case of a doubt, matches the photograph on the slip). The poll-booth agents (Tx) can contest, if they have a reason to believe it is a fake vote. If P1 and Tx okay the voter, P2 registers the voter. Next P3, inks a finger (a quick check once a person has cast their votes) and operates the electronic voting machine.

How are fake votes cast?

Fake votes are cast by a political party which has stronghold in the area. The poll booth agent of the party helps in casting the fake votes.

Fake — 1

1. The political party having a stronghold has a number of fake voters and fake id cards with them.
2. On the election day, they send similar looking people to cast votes with fake IDs.
3. Poll booth agents cannot contest because a lot of voter cards have — (1) fuzzy and outdated pictures, (2) incorrect names and age, etc. Its difficult to contest, when we cannot say with certainity that the mistake was not made during data entry.

Fake — 2

1. A lot of voters in village are not permanent and shift their home addresses between elections.
2. They don’t change their voting addresses and as a result their voting slips end up with some strongmen in the village.
3. The strongmen send in people with similar looks. When other poll both agents try to contest the fake vote, their representative in the booth area feeds the answers to the fake voter in a louder voice. For example, T1 — “what is your fathers name?” or “What is your neighbour name?”. The answers would be prompted by the poll booth agent sitting next from the stronger political party.

Fake — 3

1. People who are casting fake votes, cast them in different rooms (poll booths) during the day. So in a day, a person can cast between 4–8 votes by going to different booths and producing fake voting slips.
2. Fake voting is done by women, who cover their heads with pallo (traditional cloth cover used by women to hide their face).
3. Many fake voters (men and women) are not confident and are escorted by strongmen. Poll booth agent of from the stronger political party can also act as a strongman.
4. Fake voters would start rubbing off the ink from fingers as soon as they cast their votes. I was keeping a check on who is rubbing the ink and if they do, then make them put the ink again.

Overall conclusion

The fake voting percentage was between 5–10 percent in our poll booth — which had strong influence from one of the local leaders. I think fake voting is less than 0.5% in Delhi elections. I also think we should and can bring it down to 0 percent.

Suggestions

These suggestions are most relevant in sensitive polling stations (like mine).

1. Establish a feedback mechanism between poll booth agents and election commission — about two simple items such as (1) these voters seemed dicey, (2) these pictures are hazy. Hazy pictures are a strong indicator of fake voters.
2. Improve data collection and use better quality pictures.
3. Provide poll both agents and presiding officers with digital tablets; instead of a paper based voter list running into 30–60 pages.
4. Use biometrics to identify voters.
5. Use face recognition to check if the voter is not casting multiple votes by going to different poll booths in the same polling area. I think, many fake voters step out to rub off the ink, and come back and cast votes again.

Do add your suggestions and links. I would love to hear them.