A claim is doing the rounds on social media platforms stating that over five lakh 'additional' votes were counted in the recently concluded 2024 Maharashtra assembly elections.
What do viral posts say?: Suggesting poll frauds in the elections, an X (formerly Twitter) premium user shared the post carrying text, "5,04,313 ‘Additional’ Votes counted in MH election. There is Data Mismatch Between Votes Polled and Count in the Maharashtra election."
The post had gained over a lakh views on the platform. More archives of similar claims can be found here, here, and here.
Are these claims true?: No. As per the official data published by the Election Commission of India (ECI), the total votes polled were around be 6,46,26,420.
The total votes that were counted on the results day (23 November) is 6,45,92,508, which is around 33,912 less.
How did we find that out?: We found a clarification posted on the official X handle of Chief Electoral Office (CEO) Maharashtra, which talked about The Wire's report on over five additional votes being counted during the Maharashtra assembly elections.
It said that the claim is misleading and inaccurate.
The clarification stated that the total votes polled in all the 288 constituencies in EVM were about 6,40,88,195. This figure did not include postal ballots that were around around 5,38,225.
The sum of both figures came up to 6,46,26,420.
Soon after the clarification was issued, the media outlet too updated the numbers in their report.
As per the ECI data, the total votes counted on the day of the results (included postal ballots) came up to be 6,45,92,508. This meant that the total votes counted were less than 33,912 votes that were polled.
What was the reason behind less counting?: The election body provided two justifications for counting less votes than what was polled, a mismatch of 34,000 approximately.
It said that the EVM counting is not "taken up if Mock Poll Data was not cleared from the Control Unit of the Polling Station before actual start of Poll or if there is non-display of result in the display panel of Control Unit or there was mismatch in data reported in Form 17C and votes recorded in EVM due to clerical or typing human error..."
Poll officers, who were voters of the same constituency, are issued Election Duty Certificates (EDC) but these numbers are included while entering data.
What did the voter turnout data show?: On going through the CEO Maharashtra's official website, we found that the voter turnout data of each assembly constituency.
The total number of electors were around 9,70,25,119. Out of which, 6,40,88,195 voters decided to exercise their franchise in the elections.
Towards the end, it said that the final data for each polling station is with polling agents.
Conclusion: It is clear that the claim of over five lakh additional votes being counted during Maharashtra elections is misleading.
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