Hi Prashanth and others with vision disabilities,
1. An Electronic Voting Machine consists of two Units - a Control Unit and a Balloting Unit - joined by a five-meter cable. The Control Unit is placed with the Presiding Officer or a Polling Officer and the Balloting Unit is placed inside the voting compartment. Instead of issuing a ballot paper, the Polling Officer in-charge of the Control Unit will release a ballot by pressing the Ballot Button on the Control Unit. This will enable the voter to cast his vote by pressing the blue button on the Balloting Unit against the candidate name, photo and symbol of his choice. 2. Each EVM balloting unit has 16 slots for candidates (including the last item on the candidate list which is always marked NOTA or none of the above). 3. Candidates are listed vertically following a particular categorisation and a language-specific alphabetical order - (i) candidates of recognised National parties and State political parties in the State concerned, (ii) candidates of registered unrecognized political parties and (iii) other (independent) candidates. Once the order is fixed, the numbers are sequential, irrespective of the category, i.e numbering doesn't resume from 1 at every new category. 4. The order in which the candidate details appear is as follows : a) Serial Number b) Name of candidate with photo c) : Address of candidate 4 : Party affiliation 5 : Symbol allotted – picture and description 5. Alongside the candidate list are the red LED lamp, blue button and embossed Braille numbering at the extreme right. Because Braille numbering is the same across all languages there are no language barriers at the machine level. 6. Availability of the Braille version of the candidate list is supposed to be at the booth level and in English as default. Requests have been made for regional language versions as well (with document heading preceded by language declaration) and a few booths have both, but very often there are no Braille candidate lists of any language available at booths.Whenever the number of candidate slots is greater than 16 in a constituency another EVM balloting unit is linked. 7. The older models of EVMs allow for only 4 balloting units to be linked (that is 64 candidates maximum in total) , the new model M3 (post 2013) allows for totally 24 balloting units to be linked. (that is 384 candidates maximum in total) 8. The order in which the EVM balloting units are linked, going by yesterday's feedback is right to left. That is when voter is behind the compartment and facing the machine on the table, the left to right order is Balloting Unit 4 , Balloting Unit 3, Balloting Unit 2, Balloting Unit 1, VVPAT machine. 9. Because the Braille numbering is now part of the EVM mould, all ballot units are numbered 1 to 16. In RK Nagar elections, stickers were supplied for numbers 17 onwards, but on random testing of Braille stickers and candidate lists with blind voters it was discovered that voters could feel the embossed Braille underneath the Braille sticker, rather than the sticker number itself. As ECI claimed that standards did not permit putting stickers anywhere else on the machine it was decided to do away with sticker numbering in favour of the pre-existing moulded Braille. So while serial number 2 on the candidate's list would translate to EVM Number 1, Button 2; the candidate list number 22 would translate to EVM 2, Button 6. thumbwheel switch of 2 digit length on the top right hand side can instead be manually set (with leading zero in case of numbers below ten) to indicate the linked balloting unit order in series 01 to 04 or 01 to 32. 10. Yesterday we discovered that the Braille equivalent of the thumbwheel switch number was pasted at the top centre position of the ballot unit. It was big and broad and I couldn't make out what was written on it, nor the language. We had recommended Pictobraille for the text "EVM Number" followed by the sticker number, to make it language agnostic, but that doesn't seem to have been done. 11. The ECI finally implemented a text PDF version of Form 7A, it's not exactly compliant on the screen reader accessibility front, but definitely readable. DRA has bookmarked it for your convenience at http://bit.ly/form-7a , thus enabling you to read the candidate list in the same order as the EVM! ECI subsequently has offered the same via its PWD and voter helpline where by clicking candidates box, one can filter entire candidates list by state district, constituency and finally by contesting candidates. Hope this helps clarify the current situation! Vaishnavi --------------------------------------- *VAISHNAVI JAYAKUMAR* http://about.me/vjayakumar On Fri, 19 Apr 2019 at 09:43, Prashanth MN <[email protected]> wrote: > Dear list, > if anyone of you had more than 1 EVMS in your constituency, kindly > tell whether braille signs in the 2nd EVM were matching the sighted > serial numbers? > As it is noticed here in Mysore and Mandya > where more than one EVMS were used, > the Braille numbers in the 2nd machine was once again started from > one instead of from 17. > In other words, The braille numbers in the 2nd machines are not in par > with the sighted numbers. > When my friends raised this issue with the R.O.s and A.R.O.s, they > simply try to tought them basic mathematics like 16 plus 16 and so on. > Dear list, > I strongly feel that, it is clear violation of the principle of > "informed Voating" as the improper information is causing misled > voating. > Lets consider the sighted voters scenario: > A sighted voter can ensure to whom he/she is voating through multiple > ways as the EVMs contain sighted serial numbers, symbles and by the > candidate's photos as well. > But for a visually impaired voter, probably, > the only way of knowing to whom he/she is voating is through braille signs. > If the braille serial numbers are not matching the actual serial > numbers of the candidates, > how it can be called an accessible and informed voating? > One of the official said and it is also observed that, > there is a Braille lable for the aditional machine. > If the Numbers of EVMs can be put in Braille, why cant the ECI go > farward and put the candidates serial number in aditional EVMs in > accordance with standard serial numbers? > > > With regards: > Prashanth MN > Panchayat Development Officer, > Rural Development & Panchayat Raj Department > > > Search for old postings at: > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > > To unsubscribe send a message to > [email protected] > with the subject unsubscribe. > > To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, > please visit the list home page at > http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in > > > Disclaimer: > 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of > the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; > > 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails > sent through this mailing list.. > > Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ To unsubscribe send a message to [email protected] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list..
