COIMBATORE: From an Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) registering votes under the wrong symbol to polling staff mistakenly applying the wrong ink on voters’ fingers, a series of isolated but striking lapses briefly disrupted the otherwise smooth conduct of assembly polling across the western districts on Thursday.
At the Salem West Assembly constituency, voters alleged that pressing the “whistle” symbol of Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam, led by actor-turned-politician Vijay, resulted in votes being registered under a different party symbol at a polling booth in Railway East Colony.
Following complaints from party functionaries, polling at the booth was suspended around 10:30 a.m. Officials attributed the issue to a possible technical fault in the EVM. Voting resumed after about an hour once the machine was rectified.
In a separate incident in the Mettur Assembly constituency, polling was halted for nearly 90 minutes after an EVM displayed a higher number of votes than those actually cast at a polling booth in Komburan Kadu. The discrepancy triggered a brief commotion, prompting officials to suspend voting around 10.30 am.
Subsequent inspection revealed that mock poll data conducted before the start of voting had not been cleared from the machine, leading to the inflated count. Election authorities assured that such mock votes, recorded party-wise, would be deducted during the final counting process to ensure accuracy. Polling then resumed at around 12 noon.
Meanwhile, at a polling station in Anthiyur in Erode district, confusion arose after voters complained that the indelible ink applied to their fingers could be washed off. The issue came to light when two siblings noticed the ink had disappeared after washing their hands and returned to alert officials.
Further inquiries revealed that polling staff had mistakenly used stamp pad ink instead of the prescribed indelible ink. The error was promptly rectified, and the correct ink was reapplied to affected voters.
Tension flared at a polling booth in Rasipuram in Namakkal after a polling officer allegedly cast a vote against a differently-abled voter’s choice, prompting protests by AIADMK cadres, resulting in him being relieved from duty. In a separate incident near Elampillai in Salem, a poll worker was replaced for allegedly canvassing votes, while EVM glitches in parts of Erode and Coimbatore caused brief delays.