Organisation : Election Commission of India (ECI)
Service Name : Election Counting Application
Website : https://www.eci.gov.in/
ECI Election Counting Application
Earlier, the returning officer would compile the report on paper, excel sheet or state-specific application. Thereafter the data used to be inputted into the ECI main website for display of results. This caused delays, errors in data entry and most importantly added up work of the returning officer.
Related / Similar Service : Election Permissions Portal
ENCORE Counting is the most vital and robust module that has been developed to run on the Counting day for counting of votes, monitoring of end to end process and declaration of Results by the Returning officer.
The ENCORE counting application is an end-to-end application for returning officers to digitize the votes polled, tabulate the data each round-wise and then take out various statutory reports of counting. The application was launched on 10 March 2019 and has now been evolved into a complete counting application wherein the returning officer can now enter the votes polled each table-wise.
Features
** Fast and Robust
** Secure with 2 step User Authentication
** Simple and Interactive Interface
** Facility to save data as draft till publishing
** Editing of data based on user role
** Download and Print option available for data verification
** Various Forms like FORM 21C, FORM 21E and FORM 20 generated directly from the system
** Audit and Transaction Logs are maintained.
Functionality & Process flow
Counting Application has been deployed for entry of counting data on the results day. This module uses the same data of Contesting candidates that are finalized by the Returning Officer after scrutiny of the candidates.
The Application is designed in a way that the series of work to be done by the Returning Officer in the System will automatically be popped up one after another. This actually helps the Officers to do the work in a systematic way and bounds them to follow the procedure.
Returning Officer is the key person for the counting software but for the help in the data entry part, additional Returning Officer- Computer Agents can be created. These additional users only help in data punching, all the decisive powers are with the Returning Officer Login only.
On the Counting day once the pre-check of data is completed, the Returning Officer starts the counting module by setting up of No. of Rounds scheduled and then as per the counting start time the entry of EVM Votes counted on each Table is entered for Polling station wise. After entering this data, it is mandatory to take the printout of TRV (Table-wise Recording of Votes) to verify and sign it.
Similarly, the data for all tables in that Round is entered and verified. Returning Officer then verifies the completed Round data through RDF (Round Declaration Form) and publishes it for public view. Returning Officer also enters Postal / ETPBS Votes for the respective Constituency which is also verified and signed before publishing.
To ensure faster dissemination of authentic information, the data is first entered in ENCORE before the round results are announced at the counting. The timely publication of the round-wise information is vital for establishing a single source of authentic data.
Outcome
Declaring results in Indian Elections with data of 8026 candidates and 61,36,56,298 voters is a herculean task. Nowhere in the world the results are displayed as fast and in as authentic a manner as has been done in India. The application is hardened for cyber safety so that the results published by the Election Commission of India are authentic and are always available.