After The Quint’s article, published on 31 May, pointed out discrepancies in the EVM votes polled and votes counted data in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the Election Commission of India (EC) issued a press release on their website on 1 June. The release was not a rebuttal to The Quint’s article, rather a generic statement explaining how the EC compiles EVM votes polled data during elections.

When we examined the EC’s press release, we found that some of the information was less than convincing.

No, EC Did Not Take 2-3 Months To Compile Vote Polled Data In LS Election 2014

“In 2014, it took between 2 to 3 months after the declaration of results to collect and collate such data in authenticated form,” said the EC’s press release. When we checked, we found that EVM votes polled data existed on the EC’s website by 25 May 2014, while the results were declared on 16 May 2014 – that’s a period of nine days, not two-three months.