The US presidential elections are over. Donald Trump has also been elected the new President of America. But despite this, in many parts of America, especially California, the counting of votes has not been completed yet. This is surprising in itself. Voting was held in America on November 5 and even after 20 days, the counting of votes has not been completed in the country. Amidst all this, counting of by-elections took place in many states in India on Saturday, including Jharkhand and Maharashtra assembly elections. The counting of votes started on Saturday morning and the results of all the elections came by evening.
While praising India’s vote counting process, Elon Musk criticized the slow vote counting in California. Retweeting a post on X on Sunday morning, he wrote, ‘India counted 640 million votes in 1 day. California is still counting votes. The post Musk retweeted was a screenshot of a news headline on how India counted 640 million votes in a day.
India counted 640 million votes in 1 day.
California is still counting votes ЁЯджтАНтЩВя╕П https://t.co/ai8JmWxas6
тАФ Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 24, 2024
Ahead of the assembly vote counting on Saturday, India held its Lok Sabha elections earlier this year, involving more than 900 million eligible voters. Of these, a record breaking 642 million people cast their votes. Despite the huge scale, the results were declared within a single day of counting.
How does India count votes?
In India, voting is done through Electronic Voting Machine (EVM). In use since 2000, these machines ensure fast and accurate counting. Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) is used with EVMs. VVPAT system was introduced to increase transparency. It creates a paper slip for each vote so that the votes can be verified if necessary.
Why is there a delay in counting of votes in California?
In America, counting of votes lasts for several weeks because here most of the voting takes place through mail. Processing these ballot papers involves several steps such as verification of signatures on ballot envelopes, opening of ballot papers and sorting them before they are counted, etc. Let us tell you, even weeks after the presidential election, more than 300,000 ballots could not be counted. This is the reason why Musk has criticized it.
