What is a totalizer machine in elections and why SC wants a reply on its overuse

On Monday, the Supreme Court ordered the Election Commission of India to file a response to a petition that sought a probe into the overuse of totalizer and a possible data leak.

The EC and the Centre have been given two weeks time to respond to the petition. It may be recalled that in 2017, a team comprising Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, former defence minister Manohar Parrikar among others were asked to give their recommendations regarding the use of totalizer machines.

What is a totalizer and why is it used in elections?

A totalizer is a machine that is used in addition to the Electronic Voting Machine to facilitate the counting of votes. The machine is used to collate the votes of 14 EVMs simultaneously.

The totalizer was proposed in 2017 to prevent the disclosure of voting patterns across polling stations during the process of counting which may lead to any pre-poll intimation or post-poll victimisation by any candidate.

While the petitioners claimed in the SC that there are apprehensions regarding the use of this machine, the Centre had on an earlier date said that it was willing to agree with measures to strengthen elections.

OneIndia News