EC tests ‘Totalizer’ for total EVM vote secrecy

The Bhadohi Assembly bypoll in UP,where voting took place today,is being used by the Election Commission to test a new machine called Totalizer to ensure secrecy of votes. Since electronic voting machines provide no scope for mixing of votes,candidates gets to know the number of votes polled at a particular booth — this at times leads to victimization of voters. But the Totalizer,developed by the Bharat Electronics Ltd and Electronics Corporation of India Ltd,is connected to EVMs through a cable and votes registered in all machines are counted together.