EC approves black button on EVMs with 'NOTA' printed in white

No candidate worth your vote? The Election Commission (EC) feels your pain. After considering several suggestions, including that of a vacant chair, the country's supreme election body has approved the symbol for the ‘None of the above', or NOTA, option. The symbol is a circular depiction with black background and ‘NOTA' written in white in capital letters in English.

The button will be introduced for the first time, on electronic voting machines (EVMs), in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and the upcoming assembly elections in the five states. The district election department yesterday received the circular in which the EC has directed it to print the approved symbol on the ballot paper below the name of the last contesting candidate.

This ballot paper shall be fixed on the ballot unit of the EVMs. The commission has also directed to use the depiction, which would remain same in all ballot papers, whatever is the language of ballot paper."Considering the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, we have to print this symbol on 400 ballot papers, which would be used to display on the EVMs in polling booths across the district," said district deputy election officer Apurva Wankhede.u00a0