False Claims About 'Challenge Vote' and 'Tender Vote' Revived

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A misleading video is going viral on social media making claims of raising awareness while explaining concepts of 'challenge vote' and 'tender vote' to citizens. In the viral video, a woman can be seen elaborating on how one can cast a 'challenge vote' under section 49A by showing their Aadhar card if they do not have their name enrolled on the electoral list. She also says incase a citizen finds their vote already cast, they can cast a 'tendered vote'. She further states, if a polling station registered more than 14% of 'tender votes' then there will be repolling. She also claims if someone does not have a voter card then they can fill Form 8 at the polling station and cast their votes.

FactCheck

BOOM had fact-checked a similar claim about challenge votes and tender votes earlier when it went viral around the Lok Sabha Elections in 2024 and 2019.

On April 19, 2024, the official X handle of the Chief Election Officer of Maharashtra clarified that it is mandatory for a person's name to be included in the voters' list in order to cast a vote.

In order to verify the claim of tender votes, BOOM referred to the 'Tendered Votes' section in ECI's Handbook. It stated if a person claims to be a voter after another person has already voted using their identity, the Presiding Officer can permit the voter to cast their vote using a tendered ballot paper, but not through the voting machine. There is however no mention of repolling incase of more than 14% tender votes. Additionally, the CEO of Maharashtra had confirmed the same to BOOM in 2019.

Finally, we looked up for Form 8 in the ECI website and found that particular form is allotted for "shifting of Residence/Correction of Entries in Existing Electoral Roll/Replacement of EPIC/Marking of PwD."

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False Claims About 'Challenge Vote' and 'Tender Vote' Revived

BOOM found while tendered votes can be cast, one must have their name enrolled on the electoral list to cast their vote.

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