As India gears up for the Lok Sabha elections, a viral WhatsApp forward claiming to spread awareness about “voter’s rights,” by detailing “challenge vote,” and “tender vote” is being widely shared on social media platforms.
The viral post claims:
- “When you reach the polling booth and find that your name is not on the voter list, just show your Aadhar card or voter ID and ask for ”challenge vote” under section 49P and cast your vote.
- If you find that someone has already cast your vote, then ask for “tender vote” and cast your vote.
- If any polling booth records more than 14 per cent tender votes, re-polling will be conducted in such polling booths.
We received it on our tipline (+91-9999499044) requesting to be fact-checked.
Multiple X users shared the post.
Such posts can be seen here and here.
The 2024 Lok Sabha elections will be conducted in seven phases starting from 19 April. The counting of votes will be done on 4 June.
Fact check
A Google keyword search for “Challenge Vote, ECI” did not yield any credible results on any such provision allowing people to cast their vote even if their name is not mentioned in the voter list.
However, we did come across “challenged vote.” A report by Deccan Herald, dated 9 May 2019, stated, “A challenged vote is a process where a political agent working at the polling booth, called a polling agent, challenges the identity of any elector they think is falsifying their identity.”
We then looked it up in the Election Commission of India’s Handbook for presiding officer 2023 uploaded on the official website of the Chief Electoral Officer, Tripura. It stated, “The identity of a person claiming to be a particular elector may be challenged by a polling agent, by depositing Rs 2 in cash. You must determine the challenge through a summary inquiry. If the challenge is not sustained, you must allow the challenged person to cast his vote. If the challenge is sustained, you must not only refuse the challenged person from voting, but also hand him over to the police along with a complaint in writing.”
”Unless there arise compelling grounds to indicate that an elector is a bogus voter, he is to be deemed to be a genuine elector. You must determine any such case through a summary inquiry,” the handbook added.
We didn’t find any mention of “Challenge vote” in the Conduct of Election Rules 1961.
What is section 49P?
Section 49P of the Conduct of Election Rules 1961 deals with the ‘tendered vote.’ It states, “If a person representing himself to be a particular elector seeks to vote after another person has already voted as such elector, he shall, on satisfactorily answering such questions relating to his identity as the presiding officer may ask, be, instead of being allowed to vote through the balloting unit, supplied with a tendered ballot paper which shall be of such design, and the particulars of which shall be in such language or languages as the Election Commission may specify.”
We could thus conclude that the claim regarding ‘tender vote’ is true.
Repolling in case of over 14 per cent tendered votes?
We skimmed through the 1961 Rules, and the handbook of the presiding officer, however did not find any provision stating a repolling in case tendered votes breach the 14 per cent threshold. A keyword search did not yield any official notification from the Election Commission, nor did we find any credible news reports on repolling owing to tendered votes.
Reportedly, tendered votes are not included in the main vote count, and “as per judiciary, tendered votes are to be considered only when they are likely to affect the outcome of the election, that is, when the margin of victory is less than the number of tendered vote.”
Conclusion
The viral post is misleading as there is no provision any “challenge vote.” Additionally, though “tendered vote” can be cast, there is no mention of any repolling if it exceeds 14 per cent.
Result: Partly false.
This story was originally published by Newchecker, as part of the Shakti Collective. Except for the headline, excerpt and introduction para, this story has not been edited by ThePrint staff.