Ballot Boxes Opening Today - Step-by-Step Process

Election Update # 16

ICAI Elections 2021 - Ballot Counting Process - Step-by-Step

Step 1: Opening the ballot boxes which is safely kept in counting venue transported from 171 polling booths across Southern Region

Step 2: Reconcile the count of ballot papers after opening the ballot boxes with the polled count and then verifying the valid ballots

Step 3: This election year other Regional constituency polling were allowed in Southern Region Polling Booths. Such Ballot papers will be first tallied with polled count and sent today to respective counting venue of regional offices of ICAI

Step 4: Opening the Postal ballot from the postal covers received till 10th December 2021 and verifying validity

The above steps probably be completed by the end of the day (16th December 2021)

Step 5: The valid ballots (after excluding the invalid votes) from Polling and valid ballots (after excluding the invalid votes) from Postal will be added together along with tendered votes if any to arrive at Total Valid Votes cast (for Central Council and Regional Council Separately)

Step 6: Before going to next step; polling officer will give an opportunity to the candidates present / representatives of the candidates present to go-through the invalid votes (of-course without touching it)

Step 7: After getting the valid votes cast; the next important step is fixing Quota as given in the below mentioned droop quota formula

The above steps probably be completed by the end of the day 2 (17th December 2021)

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What is Tendered Ballot?

Election Update # 9

Tendered Ballot 

If the polling officer is not satisfied as to the identity of the person claiming to be a voter, he may issue a ballot paper to such person but instead of getting the ballot paper inserted in the ballot box, he shall place the same in a separate sealed cover superscribed as "Tendered ballot" and send it to the Returning Officer along with a letter, from the person concerned together with his own observations thereon, for the Returning Officer's decision which shall be final and conclusive.

According to Section 49P of the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961, if a voter realises that someone has already voted in his/her name, he/she can approach the presiding officer at the polling booth and flag the issue. 

Upon answering the presiding officer’s questions about his/her identity satisfactorily, the voter will be allowed to cast a tender vote. 

Tender votes are cast on ballot papers and sealed and locked away. These votes are useful when the margin between the winning candidate and the runner-up is slim. However, if the difference is large, tender votes are not counted. 

In the Rajasthan Assembly Elections in 2008, when the Congress’s C.P. Joshi (He was one of the Chief Ministerial candidates. The senior leader had a great chance of becoming the Chief Minister of the state if he had won the elections. Not only did he lose by just one vote but surprisingly, it was his own mother, wife, and the driver who reportedly didn’t turn up to vote on the polling day) lost to the BJP’s Kalyan Singh Chouhan by one vote, he moved the Rajasthan High Court in 2009 claiming that some of the votes cast were tendered. The court ordered a recount and found a tie. After a draw, Mr. Chouhan was declared the winner.

(Source: https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/tendered-vote/article26925328.ece) 

Grounds for declaring ballot papers invalid

Election update # 4

A ballot paper shall be invalid:-

(a) if a voter signs his name or writes any word or figure upon it or makes any mark including a tick (✓) / cross (x), not being a mark of `X’ put under clause (c) of sub-rule (2) of rule 20, upon it by which the ballot paper becomes recognisable or by which the voter can be identified; or

(b)  if it is not printed by or under the authority of the Council or it is different in any manner from the ballot papers printed under rule 25; or

(c)  if number 1 (in Arabic numerals) is not marked on it; or

(d)  if number 1 (in Arabic numerals) is set opposite the name of more than one candidate; or

(e)  if number 1 (in Arabic numerals) and some other numbers are put opposite the name of the same candidate; or

(f)  if it is unmarked or the marks made are void or cannot be unambiguously determined; or

(g)  if it is so damaged or mutilated that its identity as a genuine ballot paper cannot be established. 

[Arabic numerals are the ten digits: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9. These are by far the most commonly used symbols to write decimal numbers. The term often implies a decimal number, in particular when contrasted with Roman numerals. Decimal however was developed long before the Arabic numerals, using other symbols]

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The Chartered Accountants (Election to the Council) Rules, 2006 

Rules 20: Admissible number of votes to a voter. 

(1) A voter shall have one vote only, and he shall have as many preferences as there are candidates.

(2) The voter in order to cast his vote: − 

1. (a)  shall place on his ballot paper the number 1 (in Arabic numerals) in the square opposite the name of the candidate for whom he desires to vote; and

2. (b)  may, in addition, place on his ballot paper the number 2, or the numbers 2 and 3 or the numbers 2, 3 and 4 (in Arabic numerals) and so on in the squares opposite the names of other candidates in the order of his preference, upto the maximum number of preferences available to him under sub-rule (1).

3. (c)  may put `X’ against whom he has not mentioned any preference. 

ICAI Election 2021 - Counting Venue - Southern Region

Election Update # 3

Address of the Counting Venue:

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India 

“ICAI Bhawan” 

122, Mahatma Gandhi Road 

Nungambakkam 

Chennai - 600034 

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Quota - Demystified

Election Update # 2

Single Transferable Vote (STV) systems primarily differ in how they transfer surplus votes and in the size of the quota. For this reason some have suggested that STV can be considered as a family of voting systems rather than a single system.

The quota, if used, must be set at a level where no more candidates can reach quota than there are seats to be filled. The quota is the minimum number of votes that ensures a candidate is elected. Any candidate that takes the quota is declared elected. It cannot be so small that more candidates can be elected than the number of open seats, but the smaller it is, the more fair is the result.

If fair results are to be produced and the number of candidates are pre-set, a quota must be set whereby any candidate that receives it is declared elected.

There are different quotas to choose from.

The Droop quota is the most commonly used quota. It is generally considered to be the absolute lowest number that elects the correct number of candidates to fill the available seats, at least based on the original number of votes cast.

The Droop quota is given by the floor function formula:

${\displaystyle {\text{votes needed to win}}=\operatorname {floor} \left({\frac {\text{valid votes cast}}{{\text{seats to fill}}+1}}\right)+1}$

The Droop quota is an extension of the majoritarian principle of requiring a 50% + 1 majority in single-winner elections under Instant-runoff Voting. 

Using Droop means 25% plus 1 is quota in a three-seat contest because no more than three people can each have 25% of the vote + 1; using Droop means 10% of the vote + 1 is quota in a nine-seat district because no more than nine people can each have 10% of the vote + 1, and so on.

Droop being relatively low means that the candidate with widest support, if he/she has majority of voters support, is likely to win the election.

Example: 

Total Votes Polled for the Regional and Central Council elections at Southern Region: 26,032 (42.64% of Total Votes - Other than Postal)

Postal Votes in Southern: 1,012

Considering the same %, net would be 431

Postal Votes from Abroad: 2,991

Generally Abroad Turnout may be around 25%, net would be 748

Assume all votes are valid, total votes for quota is 27,211

Quota for the Regional Council: (27,211/(13+1)) + 1 = 1,945

Quota for the Central Council: (27,211/(6+1)) + 1 = 3,888

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