Walk for Vote

I (a person born in India, currently living in India) have been taking a short walk daily (mostly, also Sunday holiday) demanding for paper ballots and protesting against voter list manipulation. First I will explain the current state of elections and then describe what changes are being sought to ensure the basic minimum integrity of elections.

Multitude of attempts by the Political parties and Civil society has failed to restore the basic minimum integrity of elections. I believe simultaneous and persistent efforts by Civil society – We The People and political parties is needed to restore the voting rights of the people of the most populous country in the world.

Each vote needs to be counted , Every voter’s voice/right needs to be heard/restored – else the four pillars of democracy will/has been reduced to devices of managing/fooling People.

Elections lacking basic minimum integrity

1. VVPAT was implemented following Supreme Court(SC) intervention after widespread complaints regarding EVM in 2017 UP elections . Election Commission(EC) was dutybound to bring a statistically significant VVPAT audit as part of the implementation. EC failed in this and currently there is provision for only an arbitrary and statistically insignificant VVPAT audit. It can’t even be called an audit as there is no provision to check other EVM-VVPAT of the constituency when a mismatch is detected in the so called audit. ECI has been brushing aside VVPAT mismatches as “mockpoll maynot have been cleared” issue since the start of VVPAT audit . So VVPAT is not performing any function except giving a false sense of security to the voter. Inspite of repeated demands for proper VVPAT audit from political parties and Civil society since 2018, EC has refused to implement even such a basic step. Even after several interventions including one by all opposition parties in 2019 demanding 50% VVPAT audit, SC continues to legalise the arbitrary meaningless “audit”. Whatever limited transparency that existed in elections is also being removed by Election Commission by changing election rules , by modifying details in election forms(form 20) and denying even essential documents like Form 17c and EVM-VVPAT tally form even on RTI requests.

2. The EC calculators – EVMs with no network connection, ie-standalone machines with EC technological and administrative safeguards, have been regularly giving wrong answers even on simple addition since at least 2018. The case regarding mismatch in votes polled and votes counted in at least 347 constituencies in 2019 general election is still pending in SC. While rejecting demand for 100% VVPAT audit / paper ballot in 2024, SC casually referred to a media report of mismatches in 2019 election and just brushed it aside citing, EC 2024 letter telling there was no mismatch. The EC 2024 letter carried the blatant lie that the media report used live voter turnout data to report the discrepancy while the report was clearly based on final voter poll data of phases 1, 2, 3 and 4. Also it seems SC didn’t remember the pending case where EC even rejected demands for form 17c s, which were the only immutable records of the vote polled data. The trend of EC calculators giving wrong answers on simple addition has continued through various elections including 2024 General election right up to Bihar 2025 elections.

3. Another alarming trend seen in elections is unexplained hike in final voter turnout. There is often long delay in announcing the final voter turnout. For example in the first phase of 2024 general election the final voter turnout was announced after 11 days of polling, that too in percentages only. In the same election, the voting percentages in Andhra pradesh and Odisha saw hikes of 12.54 and 11.83 percentages respectively from the turnout announced at 8pm on the polling day. This trend has been noted in many elections including recent Maharashtra and Haryana elections. For Bihar election the constituency wise final turnout was not announced even in percentages before the results.

4. Bihar Sir – came out of the blue with no indication of it till its announcement on June 24 2025 – The blatant anti-constitutional , illegal and arbitrary nature of the exercise is clearly evident to all. SC has been hearing the case since July 2025 , Bihar election happened, Govt formed with at least* 50 lakh adults not included in the voter rolls and several lakh duplicates still in the rolls , EC moved on with All India Sir , SC is continuing to hear the case regularly , seems the case will remain as a regular fixture for SC for the foreseeable future. So while SC is pressed on the matter, the question we must ask is why this out of the blue, Sir?

Shri Rahul Gandhi’s June 7, 2025 article on Maharashtra results raised the crucial issue of how election rules were changed within weeks to circumvent court order to provide CCTV footage of elections. He had explained how the voter list was inflated with fake voters in Maharashtra elections and how the turnout figures were later inflated after polling hours. With major path breaking and unexpected election results ,the opposition seemed poised to get serious about the machine(EVM) as voter list manipulation will not alone, explain the fake voting and inflated voting figures.

So how are the fake voters voting in elections? Are there long unending queues during the close of polling in elections? CCTV would have given the answers. If it was actual humans voting even as fake voters, the regime would have had no problem proudly defending it. But if the CCTV showed the fake votes had no humans in action behind them or only few human fake voters, the machine would have been in trouble. So to protect the machine(EVM) – the perpetual winning formula – the regime decided to use their usual way to manage issues – make a bigger issue - So Voter list manipulation was proudly announced as the modus operandi of election manipulation of the regime with the announcement of Sir. Sir by its ability to overtly delete 5-20% of adult population “legally” while still retaining duplicates replaced the need for covert voter list manipulation. The leaders of the regime promptly showed eagerness to vote in multiple places and put their picture doing so on social media in the later election advertising , yes we are winning by voter list manipulation.

5. Voter list manipulation in Indian elections have been happening on a mass scale since atleast 2018. In 2018 Telangana elections at least 20 lakh voters were deleted from voter rolls after aadhaar-voter ID linking . This may be considered a targeted deletion as the state had 360 database of citizen data powered by Aadhaar. This report from 2018 showed how muslims were being systematically excluded from voter rolls. This memorandum to EC from congress in 2018 claims 60 lakh fake voters were found in Madhya Pradesh electoral rolls, Following this Shri KamalNath went to SC demanding Machine readable voter lists but SC refused to intervene. Shri Rahul Gandhi’s press conferences on the Vote dacoity have fully exposed the mass voter list manipulation and brought the issue into full public view.

6. All India Sir – So the Bihar election happened . After at least* 50 lakh adult population was missing in the voter lists, everything went on as usual after elections - The psephologists (after shedding some tears over Sir deletions) put out calculations showing how caste equations explained the results, the media celebrated the results and interviewed eminent people to show how weak the opposition was , EC announced victory – zero complaints. So this further supported the regime’s decision to proudly carry Sir as a badge of voter list manipulation and Sir also became an important tool in election “result” perception management.

Beyond protecting the perpetual winning formula-EVM , using the entire state machinery in broad daylight to delete 5-20% of population “legally” , especially the poor and most vulnerable groups was also a dream come true for the regime.

7. A point to be stressed about voter list manipulation is the last minute addition of people to voter lists, which essentially makes it impossible for anyone to look into them and get the fake entries removed. For example in Bihar elections 3,34,501 voters were added in just 10 days’ post poll notification.

I last voted in 2019 General elections and decided to participate only in elections with paper ballot after seeing the “results”. I decided not to submit the form in Sir exercise due to its obvious illegal, anticonstitutional and arbitrary nature. I filled the form for my mother and wife as they preferred to submit the form. I plan to register myself as a new voter/returning voter when voter lists are restored and situation returns to- no voter is left behind.

Getting my vote correctly recorded and counted is my basic right and I must have it.

Changes Sought

1. Paper Ballots – The voter must be able to ensure his/her vote is counted correctly without any additional technological knowledge . In these days of heightened security and CCTVs the scope of manipulation/rigging through paper ballots is very limited – and above that the rigging will be visible and can happen only in a localised manner. Paper Ballots also remove a technological barrier where the machines fail on election day , leading to long queues and voters returning without voting.

2. 100% VVPAT till paper ballots are implemented – If EC has difficulty in implementing Paper Ballots immediately, it can easily count the unused VVPAT as vote till then.

3. Voter lists as proper legible PDFs and also in English Language – Election is about the people - Any person in India must be able to scrutinize the voter list – also any election in India has effects on any person in India , so they must be able to scrutinize voter list without language barrier.

4. Freeze voter lists – Voter list needs to be freezed at least 2 weeks prior to poll notification. The newly added voters after the last list needs to be provided in a separate list.

5. Form 17c should be made available in public domain- ECI website immediately after voting . Part I of form 17c – Account of votes recorded, needs to be uploaded shortly after close of poll and Part II of form 17c – Result of counting, needs to be uploaded immediately after vote counting is finished.

Please follow the linked articles/PDF reports and read them. This is important to educate oneself on the matter. Please feel free to raise any questions/corrections/criticism/feedback on the matter at wtpeople.in.