2024 Lok Sabha Elections: What is VVPAT? How does it work?

2024 Lok Sabha Elections: Ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections, VVPaper audit trial (VVPAT) hogged the limelight when the Supreme Court issued a notice to the Election Commission of India (ECI) about a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by activist Arun Kumar Agarwal on EVMs, and called for a comprehensive VVPAT verification. VVPAT machines provides voters a paper trial to verify their vote alongside EVMs.

In this write-up, know what is a VVPAT and how does it work?

What is VVPAT? 

When you purchase a thing from a departmental store or make a transaction in a bank, how do you verify that you have completed the task.

The best way is through an electronic or paper receipt, which bears testimony to the activity you have completed.

This is a simple process going on in India for decades.

But despite being the largest democracy in the world, no such facility was available to the Indian voter, who, after casting their vote, could verify if their vote had been recorded.

In the ballot era, many votes used to be declared invalid and the voters had no knowledge of that.

The VVPAT machine changed that in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

For the first time, voters had a machine at polling booths which was telling them through a paper slip that their vote was cast.

A VVPAT machine is linked to the EVM. So, when a person cast their vote through an EVM, the VVPAT machine produces a slip visible to the voter.

The slip has the name and the symbol of the party the voter has voted for. The VVPAT slip is a proof that their vote has been recorded. 

What makes it more transparent for the voters, the machine has a transport window providing voters the opportunity to observe the printed slip.

Once the slip comes out and the voter checks it, it is securely placed inside a sealed compartment of the machine.

VVPAT will also be used for the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections, which are set to take place in seven phases beginning April 19. The voting will end on June 1 and the counting will be done on June 4.