Elections in India are always a festive affair. It is the biggest proof of our democratic values and our Constitution's respect. People over 18 years of age are allowed to cast their votes and make their citizenships count. We are allowed to choose our representatives through these votes and uplift and develop our society. Let us know below the different odes of voting in India- postal ballot and electronic voting machines along with the difference between them.
Check out the difference between Postal Ballot and Electronic Voting Machines below.
A postal ballot is a kind of voting that happens when the voter is not present at the polling station for some unavoidable reason. Postal voting is done where ballot papers are distributed to electors and typically returned by post. It is done in contrast to electors by post in contrast to electors voting in person by going to the polling stations or through EVMs.
Anyone with the possibility of being unavailable due to some unavoidable reasons like health issues or duty issues can cast a postal ballot if they choose to.
In some areas of the world, it is called all-postal voting when postal voting is the only way allowed for casting a vote.
As the election commission of India says, when the voter can’t reach the polling station, the polling station reaches him/her. In India, Postal Voting is done through Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot Papers (ETPB) by the ECI. The Ballot papers are distributed to the registered eligible voters and they are then returned to them by post.
Once the counting starts these votes are counted first before the counting of the EVM takes place.
In India, only some categories of voters are allowed to cast the votes through postal ballot. These may be armed personnel, state police officers as well as their wives, employees transferred to other destinations working under the Government of India, employees working abroad, also known as service voters.
People in preventive detention can also cast postal ballots in our country, but prisoners cannot cast any vote.
EVM or electronic voting machines are the way the votes are cast in India nowadays. This is a machine that is used to electronically cast the votes of the voters, reducing the human effort that was involved in voting. The use of EVMs and electronic voting was developed and tested by the state-owned Electronics Corporation of India and Bharat Electronics in the 1990s. The voter has to be present in the voting centre to cast his vote in the case of EVMs, unlike postal ballots.
While using EVM, instead of a ballot paper being issued like old times to the voter, the polling officer just presses a button that enables the voters to cast their votes. Here the voters just press a button. Read about EVM in detail in the article listed below.
What Is EVM? How is Counting of Votes Done Through EVM?
What is the difference between an Opinion Poll and an Exit Poll?
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