Voter Helpline [Android]

Election Commission of India has developed a new Counting and Result Dissemination application for the Lok Sabha Elections 2019, which takes data from the source and directly connects the viewers to the Counting centre. During these elections, the results will be available on the Android mobile app ‘Voter Helpline’, ECI results website https://results.eci.gov.in and also innovatively on the auto-scrolling large display panels. For the first time, such large scale use of Information Technology will be used for aggregating, assimilating and disseminating information on a near real-time basis.

The Voter Helpline Mobile App allows each user to bookmark their candidates. This will display the result of their selected favourite candidates in a most intuitive manner. The user can bookmark as many contesting candidates as he may like. Similarly, a user can enter his EPIC number and it will display the trends and results of their constituency.

Another interesting feature is that a mobile app user can scan their EPIC Barcode and immediately the results/trends will display his or her constituency. Further, the mobile app will display national figures, each state wise drill down data, and even party wise information of all candidates. The Mobile app will also constantly send the notification of the interest of the user during the counting day.

Recently ‘Voter Turnout’ mobile application paved the way for bigger and better discipline. The information about voter turnout was fed directly by Assistant Returning Officers and Returning Officers at a specified time interval. For example, the 9 AM slot will get closed by 9.30 AM and no data entry was allowed at the level of ARO thereafter. Only with minor training and hand-holding, nearly all ARO had entered the Voter Turnout data within the time frame allotted and made the data highly reliable and consistent. The same razor-edge discipline of Voter Turnout will be enforced during the Counting day.

The Auto-scrolling panels can be customised by each CEO and RO to display customised results in their Counting Centres and other public places. Effectively, the data available on website and mobile will be available on the display panels too on a near real-time basis. Thus, there will be no difference in information at counting centres or at the mobile app.

On the other hand, ECI has architected a single integrated application for candidate management way back in 2017. All applications of candidates have been not only digitized in the software, but CEOs and ROs have relied heavily upon their decision support system. And once, the candidate profile was made public via Voter Helpline Mobile app, it created an environment of social audit. This made sure that the information was 100% correct. All candidate affidavits were made accessible to the common man through a normal Android smartphone.

The Counting and Result Dissemination is also part of the bigger Suite of Application called ‘New Suvidha’. This not only brings familiarity for each ARO and RO but also ensure that there is no hassle of multiple applications.

New Suvidha Application has been deployed for entry of counting data on the results day which will be entered by ARO’s for EVM Votes and RO’s for Postal / ETPBS Votes as per the instructions of ECI. To ensure faster dissemination of information, the round-wise data will be entered into the New Suvidha Application before the round results are announced at the counting centres after taking the print out of ‘Round Declaration Form’ and after verification and validation from manual records. Immediately on finalisation of the round by ARO, the data will be live on the Mobile App and website.

The results will be declared by Returning Officer only after all rounds have been finalised by ARO and once the results are declared in the system, the same shall be available on the Mobile app. Various reports like Form 21C, Form 21E can be generated from the Suvidha Portal, greatly facilitating ROs in the declaration of results.

The timely publication of the round-wise information is vital for establishing a single source of truth and to ensure this, extensive training is being imparted to all AROs and ROs by ECI through Video Conferencing. This unique combination of capturing data from a source and a multitude of channels like web, mobile and auto-scrolling panels, will ensure that there is a single authentic source of Trends and Result across the globe.

Live Results of Lok Sabha on official ECI App: Voter Helpline