Election FAQs: What is a VVPAT and how does it work?

The Assembly elections in three northeastern states — Tripura, Nagaland, and Meghalaya — are fast approaching. While the Tripura elections are set to be held on February 16, the Meghalaya and Nagaland polls will be conducted on February 27. The counting of votes for all three states is scheduled for March 2.

A term often associated with elections is 'VVPAT', which stands for Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail. It is a ballotless system that prints a paper slip when a vote is cast with the name of the candidate, his/her serial number and the symbol of the party he/she is standing for.

The VVPAT machine also has a transparent window where a voter can see the printed slip that contains the name and symbol of the party they have voted for, for about 7 seconds. The VVPAT machine essentially acts as a verification machine for a voter to ensure whether their vote has indeed been taken into account for their intended candidate or not.
After one sees the printed slip in the window of the VVPAT machine, it goes inside a sealed compartment of the machine.

Also Read — Election FAQs: How do EVMs work?

So how is it put to use?

The slips stored in a VVPAT machine can be used to corroborate the results of the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM), but it can only happen in special cases, for example, if there are allegations of vote fraud or miscalculation, then the Election Commission (EC) can direct for the slips to be counted. In such a situation when the VVPAT slips are counted, the paper slips are considered to hold precedence over the EVM results.

The Supreme Court, in 2019, had directed the EC to increase the voter verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) verification to five random Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in each Assembly segment/constituency ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

However, the EVMs and VVPATs are separate entities and are not connected to any network. The EC has always maintained that both systems are fail-safe methods.

The VVPAT machine was first introduced in India in the 2014 general elections. The VVPAT machines are manufactured by the Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL) and Bharat Electronic Ltd (BEL).