New Delhi, August 6: Don't fall prey to a warning message that tells you to vote for a particular candidate, and states 'you have taken the money and can't fool us as the paper trail machine clicks your picture casting vote'. The message is a hoax, and dismissing such rumours, Chief Election Commissioner OP Rawat said, ""They tell the voters to cast vote in their favour in return of cash and if they do not wish to vote for it, they should not accept cash as the picture clicked by paper trail machine would expose them."

He urged the voters to not fall for the message.  The message is  reportedly being spread by some using the money to buy votes. Rawat further explained, " The Election Commission would soon launch a campaign to educate the electorate and to dispel the rumour that the EVMs and  Voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) doesn't reveal their secrecy at the polling booth, and doesn't click pictures."

VVPAT is a machine which releases a slip with the symbol of the party for which a person has voted for. The slip appears on a small window for seven seconds and then drops in a box. But the voter cannot take it home. The VVPAT are used in all polling stations. But as of now, results of EVMs and VVPATs are matched in one polling station per constituency.

There have been demands to increase the number of polling stations where EVM and VVPAT results are matched to remove fears about electronic voting machines being 'hacked' to favour a particular political party.

(With inputs from PTI)

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 06, 2018 03:38 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).