Mumbai: In response to queries about how the voter turnout in Maharashtra rose by almost 8% after 5 pm, the state’s chief electoral officer, S Chockalingam, clarified that this was totally normal, given the surge in voting in the evening in urban and semi-urban areas.
The approximate voting percentage at 5 pm on polling day was 58.2%. However, the final voter turnout was 66%, a rise of 7.8%. “This is normal since voting continues even after 6 pm until the last person who stood in the queue at 6 pm votes. Even in 2019, the percentages were 54.4% (approximately) at 5 pm, and the final voting percentage was 61.1%,” the chief electoral officer said on X. “In urban and semi-urban areas, which constitute a large chunk in Maharashtra, a large number of voters come in the evening,” he said.
He also pointed out that the two-hourly voter turnout information on the day of the poll up to 5 pm was based on oral telephone communication only. On the other hand, Form 17-C, which is given at the “close of poll” to polling agents, matches the final percentage of votes counted.
Explaining the lower discrepancies with the Jharkhand polling data, the chief electoral officer said on X, “In Jharkhand, the poll is up to 5 pm, while in Maharashtra, it is up to 6 pm.” “In Jharkhand, due to the general trend of early voting, there were no voters waiting in the queue at the time of the close of poll at 5 pm in most of the polling stations. In Maharashtra, voters were in the queue at 6 pm at many of the polling stations,” Chockalingam said on X. He also pointed out that while Jharkhand had fewer than 30,000 polling booths, Maharashtra had more than 1 lakh polling booths.
Earlier, Chockalingam also clarified why the number of votes counted was higher than the number of votes polled. He pointed out that postal ballots are also added to the number of votes counted.
