Maharashtra CEO Dismisses Allegations of Vote Discrepancies in 2024 Elections

Mumbai, November 11 (Daily Kiran) : The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Maharashtra has firmly rejected allegations regarding discrepancies in voting data for the upcoming 2024 elections. On Wednesday, the CEO responded to claims made by the Reporters Collective, which asserted that there were inconsistencies between the votes cast and counted across 51 assembly seats in Maharashtra, Haryana, and Jammu & Kashmir. The CEO labeled these assertions as “misleading.”

In a post on social media platform X, the CEO explained that the actual voting figures from election day are shared with polling agents of candidates via “Form 17.” During the counting process, these figures are matched against the data recorded in the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs).

The CEO clarified that no complaints regarding discrepancies in the data had been received. The Reporters Collective was encouraged to reach out to the Election Commission for any clarifications.

These claims emerged after the Reporters Collective cited internal records from the Election Commission of India (ECI), indicating mismatches in the votes cast and counted for the 51 assembly seats. The CEO referred to the index card available on the Election Commission’s website for the Beed assembly constituency, which showed a total of 384,885 voters. Of these, 238,845 votes were cast via EVM, while including postal ballots, the total reached 242,084.

The post on X stated, “The report claims that 145,256 votes were not counted, which is entirely incorrect and misleading. This figure actually represents the difference between total voters and votes cast. The Election Commission has provided accurate figures on its index card.”

In the Dahanu assembly constituency, there were 301,257 registered voters. From this number, 220,919 votes were cast through EVMs, while the total votes, including postal ballots, amounted to 221,818.

The CEO reiterated that the report attempted to mislead by suggesting that the ECI counted 80,320 votes less than cast, when in fact, this was the difference between total voters and total counted votes.

Additionally, according to the index card for the Mumbai North parliamentary constituency, there were 1,812,115 voters, with 1,033,267 votes cast via EVMs and a total of 1,036,496 votes when postal ballots were included.

The Election Commission once again emphasized that the Reporters Collective’s reports were attempts to mislead, stating that the total votes cast were reported as 1.81 million, while the actual figure represents the total number of voters.

Meanwhile, in a significant move under the Special Intensive Review (SIR), the Election Commission has provided another opportunity for voters in Maharashtra who were not included in the draft electoral rolls. This situation arose because they were categorized as absent, transferred, deceased, or duplicates, despite having filled out forms during door-to-door surveys.