Hold your school election on a practice EVM

The MaruShala Voting Station is a free voting console for schools. Students vote one at a time on an on-screen EVM with a VVPAT slip, the count follows the same rules as a real count, and the result prints as a certificate. It also runs mock polls of real Indian elections, for the lesson that comes before the vote.

Open the Voting Station Simple Election, one device हिंदी में परिचय

Opens on MaruShala.com, the site that hosts the app. Free, no sign-in.

Two ways in

Most schools need only the first. Both count the same way, because they share one counting module.

A class election in five steps

1. Set the postsType each post and its candidates. NOTA is on the ballot.
2. Load the rollPaste the class list, or skip it and just count votes.
3. VoteEach student presses one button on the on-screen EVM and sees the VVPAT slip.
4. CountNOTA is counted but never wins. A tie is decided by lot.
5. DeclareThe votes are checked against the roll before the result is shown, then printed.

Mock polls of real elections

Guest mode needs no voter list and saves nothing. Each poll is run the way that election is really run.

• Lok Sabha, Vidhan SabhaEVM with VVPATOne vote, the most votes wins (first past the post).
• Rajya SabhaRanked ballotProportional representation by single transferable vote, with the counting rounds worked out on screen.
• President of IndiaRanked ballotA weighted count that drops the last candidate round by round until one has a majority.
• Gram PanchayatBallot paper and boxSarpanch and ward Panch on paper: stamp, fold, the sealed box, and a count that rejects papers on the six grounds in rule 50 of the Rajasthan Panchayati Raj (Election) Rules, 1994.
• Panchayat Samiti, Zila Parishad, ward memberMPSV machineThe multi-post single-vote machine that State Election Commissions use.
• Classroom methodsSeven pollsApproval, ranked choice, two-round runoff and cumulative voting, each shown beside the winner a plain one-tick count would give.

For an Electoral Literacy Club

The Election Commission's Electoral Literacy Clubs run in schools for students of classes IX to XII (ages 14 to 17), in colleges, and in villages as Chunav Pathshala. Their resource guides carry around 25 activities and 6 games, free to download from ecisveep.nic.in.

The Voting Station is a companion for the activities in which students hold an election and count it. It does not replace the guides. Its ELC page adds a term of activities built from the app, a printable activity register, the Voter's Pledge, and a letter for proposing it to another school.

Open the ELC page

Questions teachers ask