In the age of smart one-punch Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), ballot papers may seem archaic and outdated. But mid-way through the mammoth one-month long elections, the Election Commission actually toyed with the idea of using ballot papers instead of EVMs.

The reason: an explosion in the number of independent candidates especially in states like Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh. An EVM can display only 16 names and a control unit, to which the EVMs are linked, can handle only four machines at a time thus limiting the total number of names it can display to 64.

“One thus faces practical problems if there are more than 64 candidates in the fray. Also, there’s very less time between the last day of withdrawal of names and actual day of polling, which can lead to logistical problems,” said an EC official.

And what if there were more than 64 candidates in any constituency? The EC decided to go back to the good old ballot papers. But it was spared the trouble as the number of contestants didn’t cross 64 in any constituency. Forty-three candidates, the highest in any constituency, fought it out in Chennai South parliamentary seat.

The EC used 11,83,543 ballot units (EVMs) in 9,08,643 control units (polling stations) all over the country—an average of 1.3 EVMs per polling station.