Remote voting for migrants: What's remote electronic voting machine, how RVM works

The Election Commission (EC) is working on a plan to introduce remote voting machine for migrant workers. If implemented, the move can lead to a "social transformation" for migrants, the EC had said last month.
The initiative will allow migrant voters to vote from remote location through the remote electronic voting machines or RVMs. They won't have to travel to their home districts to exercise their franchise.

How remote electronic voting machine or RVM works?
Separate polling booths for remote voting will be set up and as per Election Commission, each single remote polling booth will cover 72 constituencies. To cast the vote remotely, the voter will have to register online or offline for a remote voting facility before the polling day. This has to be done within a pre-notified time with the concerned Returning Officer of their home constituency.


Once the voter is verified and declared eligible for casting his or her vote remotly, a multi-constituency remote polling station will be set up in the area where they are currently staying. The RVMs will have the same security system and voting experience as the Electronic Voting Machine.

These RVMs will have a different electronic ballot display system with candidates and symbols instead of a fixed ballot paper sheet.

When the voter scans his/her constituency card in the presence of the Presiding Officer at the polling station, their respective constituency and candidate list will appear on the RVM display. As for counting the votes, the electronic system will also count and store the votes for each candidate in a constituency.

What's remote electronic voting machines RVMs
The remote e-voting machine will be a standalone device which doesn’t need connectivity to operate.

The machine is developed by public sector undertaking Electronics Corporation of India and can handle up to 72 constituencies from a single remote polling booth.

ECIL and Bharat Electronics are the two PSUs manufacturing the EVMs.

The RVM is a modified version of the M3 (Mark 3) EVMs.