When CEOs do not follow ECI guideline of maximum 1,200 voters per booth, it  certainly reduces the voter turnout, by design and not due to voter apathy as pronounced by armchair experts and authorities

At 5 past 7 O’ clock on 17th April, I was the third person in queue in front of my polling booth. One voter was inside the booth, arguing that his name was in the voter list while the polling booth officer was unable to find the name in the list. After about five minutes, which felt like 50, he cast his vote and allowed the queue to move. With the rate at which the queue moved, I hope that the 1,359 voters in my booth could cast their votes by 6pm, the deadline for voting.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has taken exemplary steps to set up polling booths in remote areas even to cater for a single voter. A Times of India story states, “Mahant Bharatdas Darshandas is the lone voter in the midst of Gujarat’s Gir forest, home to the Asiatic lion, for whom an entire election team sets up a polling booth every election — and will do so again on 30th April. … a polling team [of 4 to 5 people] travels around 35km to reach the hamlet of Banej inside the Gir forest, located in Junagadh district.” We salute the spirit and efforts of ECI to include every eligible citizen in the democratic process of elections.

However, this exemplary step is only an example. We have many booths with voter population much higher than what ECI has stipulated, making it impossible for people to vote within the time available, even with the usage of electronic voting machines (EVMs).

Technical features of EVM:

“Operationally an Indian EVM is a set of two units – the ballot unit and the control unit. A vote can be recorded only after the presiding officer enables the ballot unit through the control unit. However, even the presiding officer cannot enable the ballot for twelve seconds after every ballot is cast. Thus, a maximum of five votes can be cast in one minute.” – Dr SY Quraishi, page 192, “An Undocumented wonder; The Making of the Great Indian Election”, Rainlight/ Rupa.

For each voter to move out of the polling box and the next person to enter, we can consider about 18 seconds. Thus, practically, we expect maximum two votes cast in one minute if (a) the voters are enthusiastic and clear about the voting process; (b) the polling staff is efficient and ensure smooth uninterrupted flow of voters; (c) electoral rolls are clean and unambiguous …

Remember that the officials search voter names in paper rolls – not on a computer terminal. People on polling duty take time to find a name in the rolls if the voter does not carry a voter slip with correct details. Though required, chief electoral officers (CEOs) do not give voter slips in some areas. Queues stagnate when a name is not found in the rolls.
Polling booths remain open for 11 hours as directed by ECI. With uninterrupted flow of voters and super efficient polling booth staff, 120 votes cast per hour, 1,320 votes may be cast per booth in a day. If a booth has more voters, then the administration is at fault. Even with voter enthusiasm and efficient staff, we cannot expect good voter participation.

Paragraph 37 of Handbook for Electoral Registration Officers (EROs), published by ECI in 2012 states, “… Registration of Electors Rules, 1960 indicates that the number of names to be included in any part should not ordinarily exceed 2000. The commission has however, with voter’s convenience in mind, has desired that a part should not have more than 1200 electors in urban area and 1000 electors in rural area.”

ECI guidelines are not only for voter convenience, but are necessary to allow the system to work even in ideal conditions. If the voters in a booth exceed 1,200, many voters may not get their turn to vote. Serpentine queues would form demoralising the voters. Many could return without voting.

In sample booths of some cities, we find the following:

The features of the EVM technically put a limit of five votes per minute. This could be achieved in a simulation, without any gap between two voters and achieve 3,300 votes in the 11 hours duration of voting. Thus even in a simulated run, not all the voters in a booth can vote. Being illogically optimistic, if we consider a gap of 3 seconds between two voters through the day, then we have 4 voters per minute, which allows 2,640 voters to cast votes during the day.

However, the ECI guideline of maximum 1,200 voters per booth is pragmatic. In the sets of samples, 36% of booths in Delhi, 32% in Chennai, 26% in Bangalore, 16% in Mumbai and 1.4% in Kolkata have more than 1,200 voters. This will certainly reduce the voter turnout, by design and not due to voter apathy as pronounced by armchair experts and authorities. We should be alarmed if we find a high voter turnout in large booths.

When ECI cares much for the lone voter in a forest, provisions in several populated areas are grossly inadequate to allow citizens to vote.

Bad electoral management can turn voters out and complain about poor voter turnout.

(Commander (Retd) PG Bhat is a retired naval officer, an educationist and a social worker.)