5.5 lakh votes polled in 2024 LS elections were not counted, claims ADR report

This was revealed by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), a special interest group working for electoral reforms, in their report released on July 29. These discrepancies in votes polled and counted, in some cases in excess, comes a day before the Supreme Court resumes hearing a petition by ADR, which seeks the release of all voter turnout numbers, including votes rejected for various reasons.

In its new report, the ADR has claimed that a significant 5,54,598 votes polled on EVM machines in 362 constituencies were not counted and another 35,093 votes in 176 seats have been counted in excess of the votes recorded on the EVMs.

The exceptions

According to a press release issued by ADR, votes polled and counted showed significant discrepancies in 538 constituencies.

The exceptions being in Amreli in Gujarat, a seat won by BJP's Bharatbhai Manubhai Sutariya; Kerala's Attingal, where Congress' Adoor Prakash romped home; and the Union Territories of Lakshadweep and Daman and Diu, won by the Congress' Muhammed Hamdullah Sayeed and an independent candidate respectively. It is only in these seats the votes polled totally matched the votes counted.

“Surat PC was uncontested. Hence the total discrepancies in 538 constituencies are 5,89,691,” the release said.

Additionally, the inordinate delay in releasing final voter turnout data, absence of polling station figures in absolute numbers and the question over whether elections results were declared based on final reconciled data, have raised concerns about the authenticity of the results, said the release.

According to the ADR's X page, the largest difference was noted in Aligarh. Next was Karimganj in Assam where there was a major discrepancy of more than 3,811 excess votes that were counted. Moreover, the ADR has not received any specific explanation from the EC for their queries on data discrepancy and especially on the case of excess votes.

No reaction from EC

The Election Commission has not reacted so far, said reports. The poll panel, however, has given unhappy candidates options to re-check vote-counts, including picking machines from any polling station in a seat. They can also ask for a mock poll and VVPAT slip count. Only eight candidates have approached the EC so far.

Where it matters

Interestingly, in the cases where more votes were counted than polled, the discrepancy was between one and 3,811 votes in each constituency. However, in each case the winning margin was significantly larger than that discrepancy. When it comes to the case of fewer votes counted than polled, the variance per seat was between one and 16,791. This means that there can be no change in the results.

However, significantly, in five constituencies the difference between the winning margin and 'uncounted' votes is less than 1,300. These are three won by the BJP (in Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Rajasthan), one by the Congress (in Punjab), and another seat in UP, which Samajwadi Party won.

Importance of Form 17C

On May 4 and 9, 2024, ADR filed petitions asking the court to direct the ECI to disclose voter turnout by uploading on its website scanned legible copies of Form 17C ( the record of votes cast at each polling station) after each phase of polling. They also asked EC to provide tabulated polling station-wise data in absolute figures of the number of votes polled after each phase of polling during the 2024 LS elections.

ADR wanted the scanned copies of Form 17C since voter turnout data in this form can be used to legally challenge an election result.

The court turned down their plea, noting that the EC will be "overburdened" during the election. Moreover, five of seven phases were already over, observed the court. However, the court said it would re-list the matter after the election and its vacation and has now resumed the hearing of the ADR petition seeking complete voter turnout numbers from the EC.