Kolhapur: The graduates’ and teachers’ legislative council elections are notorious for the high number of invalid votes, despite the expectation that these educated voters would take care while marking their ballot papers.
In the Pune division graduates’ constituency, 17,299 votes were declared invalid, while Nagpur graduates recorded 15,302 invalid votes and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar recorded 11,783. The teachers’ constituencies also recorded invalid votes, with 1,673 ballots rejected in Pune and 627 in Amravati. Election authorities, political parties and candidates repeatedly explain the dos and don’ts, yet a substantial number of ballots continue to be rejected. At the beginning of counting, officials first count the ballot papers and determine how many are valid and invalid. They then calculate the winning quota—the number of valid votes a candidate must secure to be elected.
Voters indicate their choices using the numerals 1, 2, 3 and so on. There always has been 8 to 10% such invalid votes in MLC elections not just in Maharashtra but in other states also.
These MLC elections follow a preferential voting system in which votes can be transferred according to voters’ marked preferences. To help voters avoid mistakes, parties stressed that the first preference could be marked with a simple vertical stroke representing the numeral “1”, without touching the borders of the designated box. One mistake or a simple overwriting can make the vote invalid and the candidates will hurt eventually,” Ravindra Bhanage, professor of political science at Shivaji University, Kolhapur, said. “Since these elections are held once in six years, all stakeholders should take efforts at least from months before so that the voters are trained to cast valid votes,” said Bhanage.
Despite these repeated instructions, large numbers of ballots were still declared invalid. “We observed that voters give repetitive same preference for different candidates, there is some overwriting, some give tick marks, some write numbers such that the numeral cannot be recognized as per the given patterns. “This system was brought in exclusively for the graduates and teachers who could understand the system properly. A wise voter can give preference to all candidates as at least one of his votes of any preference can bear some value in the results. Unfortunately neither the candidates nor the voters know about the system.