handbook for presiding officers - Chief Electoral Officer, Govt. of Sikkim

etc. On arrival at the dispersal centre you should also ensure whether
your polling station has CPF or police arrangement. Also whether there
is Micro-Observer and Video Camera deployment at the polling station.
(viii) Before the commencement of poll, the voting machine has to be
demonstrated to the polling agents, who are present at the polling
station at the time of commencement of the poll, to satisfy them that no
votes are already recorded therein and that the machine is in perfect
working condition. For these purposes, a mock poll shall be
compulsorily held by letting the polling agents record a few votes at
random for each of the contesting candidates and tallying the result
thereafter.
(ix)
(x)
(xi)
(xii)
You should be clear that according to the Commission’s instructions, if
there is no mock poll at a polling station, there shall be no poll at that
polling station
After holding the mock poll, the votes recorded at such mock poll
must be cleared from the control unit of the voting machine so
that no data relating to the mock poll remains in the memory of
the machine. The control unit of the voting machine then must be
sealed and secured by fixing the green paper seal(s) and special tag in
the space provided therefor and the strip seal. The procedure for this
sealing is explained in detail in Chapters XIII and XIV.
The poll must commence at the hour fixed for such commencement by
the Election Commission. Before commencing the poll, the candidates
or their agents, who are present at the polling station and the polling
officers should be briefed about the maintenance of secrecy of vote.
The provisions of section 128 of the Representation of the people Act,
1951 should be read out and brought to their notice.
At the commencement of poll, you have to make a declaration in a
prescribed form about the demonstration of the voting machine,
marked copy of the electoral roll and the Register of Voters to
candidates or their polling agents present and get it signed by them.
(xiii) According to the directions of the Commission all electors who have
been issued with Electors Photo Identity Cards (EPICs) should produce
those cards to exercise their franchise at all general and bye-elections.
Those who fail to bring EPICs or who have not been issued with or who
have not obtained their EPICs, can be identified by means of the
photographs on the electoral rolls, where Photo Electoral Rolls have
been supplied at the polling station. In the case of those electors whose
identity cannot be established by means of the photograph on the
electoral rolls, the identity shall be established by means of any of the
alternative documents prescribed by the Commission. Further, if an
elector produces an Electoral Identity Card which has been issued by
the Electoral Registration Officer of another Assembly Constituency,
such cards shall also be taken into account provided the name of that
elector finds place in the electoral roll pertaining to the polling station,
where the elector has turned up for voting.