- The Election Commission of India has set up a panel to examine VVPAT mismatch in Lok sabha election 2019.
- This comes in the backdrop of reports of mismatches between the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips and the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) count in eight cases during the Lok Sabha election
- Under the electoral rules, if there is any discrepancy in the match, the VVPAT count prevails.
- Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) is an independent system attached to an EVM that allows the voters to verify that their votes are cast as intended. It helps to detect any possible election fraud or malfunction of EVMs
- Before the 2019 Loka Sabha election, the Supreme Court had order the EC to counter-check the VVPAT and EVM tallies in five randomly selected polling stations in an Assembly segment.
- Previously, under the ECI guideline 16.6, only the VVPAT slips from one EVM in every Assembly segment/constituency was subjected to physical verification.
