Jaipur: For the first time, Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail ( VVPAT ) was used in assembly elections at all polling booths in the state for ensuring more transparency, but the use of it has made the election process more time consuming. Polling in different parts of the state continued till 9pm to accommodate those voters who entered the polling booths at 5pm.On condition of anonymity, booth level officers have demanded that the number of voters allowed at a polling booth should be decreased. “At each one of the polling booth, arrangements were made for up to 1,400 voters. Each voter takes time of at least 1 minute. So, in an hour, if a maximum of 100 voters cast their votes, 14 hours are needed to accommodate all the voters,” said a booth level officer.One BLO said that VVPAT machine was used for the first time. It was taking 7 seconds for displaying the slip related to the vote polled by a voter. If 1,000 voters cast their votes at a polling booth, a VVPAT machine takes two hours in displaying the slip, which means that this time, polling took more than two hours on the voting day on December 7.There were complaints from different polling booths from across the state that the polling process was slow. However, in a press conference organised by election commission held at 7pm on December 7 (polling day), the officials had pointed out that there were more than 3 lakh voters in queues at that point of time (at 7pm), who were waiting for their turn to cast their votes across the state. However, the EC claimed that they accommodated all the voters and voting was over by 9pm.It was a hectic and tiring day for polling parties, who worked throughout the day and managed to reach their homes after midnight travelling long distances. Officials are of the view that there should not be more than 1,000 voters per polling booth for avoiding long queues for making the process less time taking.

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