Paper ballot
Topic: Era of One-Party Dominance: First Elections and the Congress System · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 2 "Era of One-Party Dominance"
Meaning
A paper ballot is a vote cast on paper instead of on a machine. India used paper ballots from its first general election until electronic voting machines (EVMs) took over. In 1952 and 1957, each candidate had a separate box marked with their party symbol. The voter dropped a blank ballot paper into the box of the candidate they chose. From 1962, a single ballot paper listed every candidate, and the voter stamped one name. This method lasted about 40 years.
Example
In the first general election (1951-52), about 20 lakh steel boxes were used, one for each candidate at every polling booth. Only about 15% of the 17 crore voters could read, so symbols on the boxes let people vote without reading names.
Don't confuse with
- Electronic voting machine (EVM): the voter presses a button instead of using paper. EVMs were first tried at Paravur, Kerala, in 1982 and were used across the whole country by 2004.