Election Guide 2020: What if your EVM has a problem?

NEW DELHI: An Electronic Voting Machine or an EVM is an essential part of participatory democracy. The EVM allows the voter to cast their vote for the candidate of their choice or choose the NOTA option. To make an informed choice, every voter must know how an EVM works.

If by any chance, the EVM before you goes out of order or is unable to register your vote, then the EVM will be replaced by another one. The votes recorded until the stage when the EVM went out of order remain safe in the memory of the Control Unit. You can now continue with voting. On counting day, votes recorded in both Control Units are counted to give the aggregate result of that polling station.

On the day of polling, the Zonal/ Area/ Sector Magistrates keep strict vigil through patrolling. They also keep stock of reserve EVMs. They are responsible for quick replacement of a defective EVM with a new one.


An EVM machine demands basic knowledge of identifying the desired political party’s symbol and the local candidate representing it. Unlike the voting process of yesteryear, an EVM doesn’t require a ballot box, but rather offers an option to simply press a button.

An EVM machine can be assumed to be working normally if a tiny red light glows against the name and symbol of the candidate for whom the vote has been cast. At the same time a long beep should be heard, thus confirming the voting.

The chances of an EVM machine failing its intended purpose are quite low as the machines are checked quite comprehensively before commencement of elections. The First Level Checking (FLC) is done for each EVM by the engineers of the manufacturing firms, which are Bharat Electronics Limited, Bangalore and Electronics Corporation of India Limited, Hyderabad.