Indelible ink
Topic: Elections and the Electoral System · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Indelible ink is ink that cannot be washed off quickly. A polling officer puts it on the voter's left forefinger, so anyone who has already voted is easy to spot. This stops double voting, which means voting twice. Mysore Paints and Varnish Ltd, a Karnataka government company, makes and supplies it. It has been used in Indian elections since 1962.
Example
At a polling station in the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the second polling officer inked each voter's left forefinger. The third polling officer checked the ink before letting the voter go to the EVM.
Related concepts
- Tendered vote
- Booth capturing
- Electronic voting machine
- Voter verifiable paper audit trail
- NOTA
- NOTA case