Key poll reforms like totaliser ready but need political consensus: CEC Kumar

Two key electoral reforms to enhance voters' participation and mask voting patterns are ready but would need a political consensus to implement, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said on Tuesday. Addressing a press conference here to announce the schedule for Delhi assembly polls, he said 'totaliser', the technology to link a number of EVMs and hide booth-wise voting patterns, is ready with the Election Commission but it can be used only after political consensus.

"The profiling of voters (who voted for whom) should end," he said, adding that it will also curb the practice of candidates seeking details of inducements provided to voters.

Votes in Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) are counted according to polling stations, leading to situations in which voting patterns in various localities or pockets become known.


To address the issue, government undertakings Electronics Corporation of India Ltd and Bharat Electronics Ltd -- the manufacturers of EVMs -- developed the totaliser technology, which can be used for taking out the results in a group of 14 EVMs without revealing the votes in individual machines.

The device was manufactured more than a decade ago but is yet to be used, pending approval from the government.

Before the introduction of EVMs, ballot papers were often mixed in a drum to prevent intimidation of voters by disclosure of voting patterns.

Kumar said the poll panel has also prepared a prototype to enable migrant workers to vote remotely and is working on blockchain technology to enable remote voting in the future.

But the use of this technological solution to help the migrant voters will also need political consensus, he said.