No Mismatch Between Votes Polled & Votes Counted In 2019 Lok Sabha Elections : ECI Tells Supreme Court

As per the report, there was a mismatch between the votes polled and counted votes in 373 constituencies. In the EVM-VVPAT case in the Supreme Court, the petitioners had cited the report to question the credibility of EVMs.

Responding to the argument, the ECI filed a statement in the EVM-VVPAT case, stating that the discrepancy was with the live voter turnout data, which was uploaded on its website, and not with the EVM. It further explained that the data was published on the website on a real-time basis based on input from the presiding officers of polling stations.

The Commission also asserted that there was no inconsistency between the votes polled as per Form 17C under the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961, and the declared results as per Form 20.

Form 17 of the Conduct of Election Rules 1951 is an account of the number of votes recorded in a voting machine. Form 20 is the final result sheet for recording the result of voting at polling stations. Essentially, the ECI is saying that there is no mismatch between the number of votes polled and votes counted.

The exact response, as penned by the commission, reads as follows:

“Quint has not disclosed that discrepancy is with respect to live voter turnout data uploaded on ECI website during 2019 General Election. The discrepancy in voter turnout data has nothing to do with the EVM. During 2019 General Elections, a mechanism was adopted to give a real time approximation of voter turnout. Voter turnout data was published on ECI website on real-time basis by taking inputs from Presiding Officers of polling stations.

ii. There was no mismatch between the data of votes polled as per EVMs which is recorded in Form 17C and the data of results which is declared as per Form 20.”

This response has been filed in the backdrop of the queries asked by the Supreme Court on April 16 while hearing petitions seeking complete verification of EVM against VVPAT records. Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta are hearing the matter.

During the hearing, Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, who was representing one of the petitioners, referred to this report and submitted that the Election Commission is "resolutely silent" on this.

Replying to this contention, Justice Khanna had asked, "If this is true, the candidate would have immediately challenged it. If you have the number of the machine, you know where it was and what number of votes were cast. Why will the candidate not object?,"

Pursuant to this, when Justice Khanna pointed out that the rules allow a candidate to seek a counting of the slips, Sankaranarayanan replied that allowing such counting was the Election Commission's discretion.

The Day 2 hearing in the EVM-VVPAT case is on going. Live updates can be tracked here.

In 2019, the Association for Democratic Reforms had filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court seeking action on the reports regarding the alleged discrepancies in the voter turnout data in the 2019 General Elections. The said writ petition is pending.

Case Title: Association of Democratic Reforms v. Election Commission of India & Anr. | Writ Petition (Civil) No. 434 of 2023