Indiscriminate disclosure of polling station-wise voter turnout data on website will cause chaos: EC to SC

New Delhi, The Election Commission on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that "indiscriminate disclosure" of polling station-wise voter turnout data and posting it on website will cause chaos in the election machinery which is already in motion for the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. Indiscriminate disclosure of polling station-wise voter turnout data on website will cause chaos: EC to SC The poll panel said that public posting of Form 17C - which gives the number of votes polled in a polling station - is not provided in the statutory framework and could lead to mischief and vitiation of the entire electoral space as it increases the possibility of the images being morphed. The poll panel said, "Further, it is submitted that the Petitioner has specifically relied on the voter turnout data published by the answering respondent with respect to the first two phases of the ongoing General Elections to the Lok Sabha, 2024 and has alleged that there was an increase of ~5-6% in the voter turnout data released on the day of polling and in the subsequent press releases for each of the two phases. "The voter turnout data for the first two phases of the ongoing 2024 Lok Sabha elections published by ECI on April 30 has been published after 11 days of the first phase of polling.