A post alleging that 5,04,313 additional votes were counted in the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly elections is being widely shared across social media platforms (here, here, here, and here). The post further claims that the Election Commission of India (ECI) reported 6,40,88,195 votes polled but 6,45,92,508 votes were counted. It also states that in 280 constituencies, more votes were counted than polled, with the largest discrepancies in Ashti (4,538 extra votes) and Osmanabad (4,155 extra votes). Additionally, eight constituencies showed fewer votes counted than polled. Through this article, let us fact-check the claims made in the post.
Claim:
The archived version of this post can be found here.
Investigation:
These posts quote an article published by The Wire as the source. On 26 November 2024, the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Maharashtra issued a clarification (archived link) regarding the viral claims through their official X (formerly Twitter) account.
According to the clarification (here), the total number of votes polled in the 288 Assembly constituencies using EVMs was 6,40,88,195. However, 5,38,225 valid postal ballots were not included in this figure. Adding the postal ballots to the EVM vote count brings the total number of votes polled to 6,46,26,420. The total votes counted on the day of the counting, including postal ballots, is 6,45,92,508. Hence, the total votes counted are not more than the total votes polled.
To verify this, we examined the data (archived link) published by the CEO of Maharashtra on 22 November 2024 on their website regarding the total votes polled in the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly elections. According to this data, the total number of votes polled in all 288 Assembly constituencies using EVMs in Maharashtra was 6,40,88,195, with a total polling percentage of 66.05%. This clarifies that the data published by the CEO of Maharashtra, which excluded postal ballots, was misrepresented as the total number of votes polled in the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly elections.
Regarding the claim that in Ashti and Osmanabad Assembly constituencies, 4,538 and 4,155 more votes were counted than polled, respectively, the CEO of Maharashtra clarified that in Ashti Assembly Constituency, the total votes polled in EVMs were 2,82,246, and the total postal ballot votes were 5,013, of which 475 were invalid/rejected. This brings the total number of valid postal votes counted to 4,538. The viral claim incorrectly described these postal votes as excess votes. In reality, these postal votes were not included in the data published by the EC regarding the total votes polled in the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly elections. Similarly, in Osmanabad Assembly Constituency, the total votes polled in EVMs were 2,38,840, and the total postal ballot votes were 4,330, of which 175 were invalid/rejected. This brings the total number of valid postal votes counted to 4,155 (here).
To verify this, we checked the results for 231 – Ashti and 242 – Osmanabad Assembly constituencies published on the ECI website, where the breakdown of EVM and postal votes counted is clearly mentioned. According to this data, in Ashti Assembly Constituency, 2,82,246 EVM votes and 4,538 postal votes were counted, respectively. In Osmanabad Assembly Constituency, 2,38,840 EVM votes and 4,155 postal votes were counted, respectively. The total number of EVM votes counted in these two constituencies, as mentioned in the results, matches the earlier data published by the CEO of Maharashtra regarding the total votes polled in the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly elections on 22 November 2024, which stated that 2,82,246 votes were polled in the Ashti Assembly Constituency and 2,38,840 votes in the Osmanabad Assembly Constituency, respectively. From this, it is clear that the postal ballot votes, which were counted but not included in the earlier data published by the CEO of Maharashtra regarding the total votes polled in the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly elections, were misrepresented as excess votes in these two constituencies.
Regarding the lesser number of votes counted in a few Assembly constituencies, the CEO of Maharashtra provided the following explanation (here):
The EVM counting is not taken up if Mock Poll Data was not cleared from the Control Unit of the Polling Station before actual start of Poll or if there is non-display of result in the display panel of Control Unit. or if there was a mismatch in data reported in Form 17C and votes recorded in EVM due to clerical or typing human error. In such cases, as the winning margin was higher than total votes polled in these Polling Stations, counting of VVPAT Slips of these Polling Stations was not done as per instructions contained in Para No.7(iv)(b) of ECIs letter dated 19.07.2023. Election Duty Certificates are issued to the Polling Officers on Poll Duty who are voters of the same Assembly Constituency but number of EDC (Election’ Duty Certificate) votes are not included while entering data. b. Election Duty Certificates (EDCs) are issued to polling officers who are voters in the same Assembly constituency. However, the number of EDC votes was not included when entering data.
The relevant letter of 19 July 2023 mentioned in the CEO, Maharashtra’s clarification can be read here.
The source of these viral posts, The Wire article, was later updated. The updated article included an editor’s note stating that the earlier report had not accounted for postal ballot data. The editor’s note reads: “An earlier version of this report did not account for the postal votes cast. The story was later updated with correct calculations. The initial error is regretted.”
Conclusion: CEO Maharashtra clarified that 6,40,88,195 votes were polled via EVMs and 5,38,225 via postal ballots, bringing the total to 6,46,26,420. The total votes counted, including postal ballots, is 6,45,92,508, which is less than the total polled. The valid postal ballot votes in Ashti and Osmanabad constituencies were misrepresented as excess votes.
(This fact-check article was originally published by Factly and has been republished by Lighthouse Journalism as a part of Shakti Collective.)
