Google Doodle Celebrates Beginning Of World's Largest Elections

NEW DELHI: Google today marked the beginning of General Elections in India with a doodle. The Google doodle has an inked finger, when clicked on, leads users to a page that explains the voting procedure. The page also contains information which can be increasingly helpful for first-time voters in the country.
People with their names in the voter list (also known as Electoral Roll) can only vote. Voters can also find information on polling booths, contesting candidates, election dates and timings, identity cards and EVM.

Voting for 543 Lok Sabha seats will be held in seven phases: April 11, April 18, April 23, April 29, May 6, May 12 and May 19. Counting will be done on May 23.

Ninety-one Lok Sabha constituencies spread across 18 states and two Union Territories will go to polls today in the first-phase.

The states of Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Uttarakhand, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Lakshadweep, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Telangana will vote today in a single phase. Voting will also be held in parts of Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jammu and Kashmir, Maharashtra, Manipur, Odisha, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

Voting Process at Polling Booth:

• First polling official will check your name on the voter list and check your ID proof
• Second polling official will ink your finger, give you a slip and take your signature on a register (Form 17A)
• You will have to deposit the slip at the third polling official and show your inked finger and then proceed to the polling booth
• Record your vote by pressing the ballot button opposite the symbol of the candidate of your choice on the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM); You will hear a beep sound
• Check the slip that appears in the transparent window of the VVPAT machine. The slip with the Candidate serial No., Name and Symbol shall be visible for 7 seconds before it drops in the sealed VVPAT box
• You can press NOTA, None of the Above if you don't like any candidate; it's the last button on the EVM
• For more information, please see the Voter Guide on http://ecisveep.nic.in/
• Mobile phones, cameras or any other gadget is not allowed inside a polling booth.