Old Video Showing Routine Process of Removing Voting Slips From VVPAT Machine Passed off as Voting Fraud

A video showing some people engaged in opening a sealed box and taking out the VVPAT machines and then removing all the slips and putting them back in a black envelop is passed off with a claim that tampering is being done with the VVPAT machines by replacing them with the rolls.

The X user (formerly Twitter) @/nandtara sharing the video wrote, “What is going on here ⁦@ECISVEEP⁩ Why are random boys opening machines and replacing rolls. Nothing looks right about this ⁦@rajivkumarec.” (Archived link)

Congress supporter Suhana INC wrote, “@BJP4India ‘s evil deeds? Rigging in elections continues.” (Archived link)

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Fact Check

In our fact check research, we found that the same video had earlier gone viral in 2022 during Gujarat assembly elections with a claim that the BJP was committing EVM fraud.

The video was shared on X by many users accusing BJP of tampering with the votes in Bhavnagar. Under one such tweet, we found a reply by the collector of Bhavnagar which said that it was the process of removing slips from the VVPAT machines after voting was concluded. The reply reads, “As per ECI instructions, after the counting is done, the VVPAT slips are removed from the VVPATs and are put in a black envelope and same is sealed. So that the VVPATs can be used for further elections. The entire process is video graphed. One copy of the same is kept in the strong room and one with the DEO concerned.

The process of removing VVPAT slips from VVPAT machines after the voting is over is called VVPAT counting. The process involves extracting machine-printed slips containing details of the votes cast by the voters. The slips removed from the VVPAT machine are then manually counted and matched with the electronic count recorded by the EVM. The paper slips are counted in a secure VVPAT counting booth, under camera surveillance.

In conclusion, the video of VVPAT counting going viral with the claim that unidentified people are tampering with the voting is misleading.

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