How your votes are counted

An entire machinery comes into place for the mammoth exercise of counting of votes. This time Assembly polls were held in seven phases between February 10 and March 7 in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa, Manipur and Punjab and 18.34 crore electors were expected to participate in the exercise. To count their votes, more than 50,000 officials have been deployed across the five states along with 650 counting observers who will monitor the process.

Nearly 1,200 counting halls have been set up where results will be recorded from electronic voting machines (EVMs). Uttar Pradesh, which has a maximum of 403 assembly constituencies, will have more than 750 counting halls, followed by Punjab over 200. All halls will follow special guidelines in view of the pandemic.

UP will also see some serious fortification around the counting halls. 70,000 civil police workers, 245 company - paramilitary forces and 69 company PSE commanders have been deployed across the state.

Here's more on what happens behind the scenes when the counting for votes begins...

Text: Lisa Monteiro, Illustration: Sharmila Coutinho

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