What is called ’round’ in election vote counting system

By Japan K Pathak, Ahmedabad, 19 December 2012

On counting day, you hear the results in reference to a word ’round’. You hear ‘Mr. X leading in first round’, ‘Mr. Y trailing in second round’ etc.

But then what is called ‘a round’? What is the definition of ‘a round’?

Well, here is the explanation.

One round = completion of counting of 14 EVMs.

On Thursday, the Election Commission will put 14 tables for simultaneous counting of votes of each assembly seat at a time.

There will be one EVM on each table. So 14 EVMs at a time for one seat.

Each EVM represents one booth. So you can also say that one round = counting of votes of 14 booths.

So if Bapunagar assembly seat has total 168 booths, and therefore total 168 EVMs, then it will take 168/14 = 12 rounds for bringing the final result.

In simple words, when you hear ‘the result of first round’, you can take it like this ‘the result of first 14 booths.’